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| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Short Cuts | ||||
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Author: Joshua Lowenstein |
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The Avalanche Rock Race wins the hearts of all who attended with thrills, spills, SPEED, and most of all sportsmanship.
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| Pat Gremillion in his straight tubed independent suspension buggy tackling “Aliens”. Photo by: Joshua Lowenstein |
These few competitors have made their mark on the dawning of a new era for motorsports. Rock Racing is a new revision of competitive 4-wheeling that may well replace the boring outmoded rock crawling contests of the last four years. In Rock Racing ™ there are no cones, no judges counting 1-1000 –2-1000, no back up penalties, no winch penalties and no vehicle restrictions (other than basic safety). If you want to run 59” tall tires and 4 engines powering hydraulic drive motors, no problem. The only boundary rule is to stay on the trail as marked by banner tape, crossing the boundary leads to a time penalty. Otherwise it is speed to get to the finish line in the best time. Sounds like extreme trail riding with speed thrown in for fun.
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| Mike Palmer getting wedged into the boulders of “Whippersnapper. Photo by: Joshua Lowenstein |
Showman Mike Palmer and Steve Googans won first place in the 2nd event of the two-race series, but Rich and Ryan Schmaus took the series victory, with hard driving and boundless determination.
Pat Gremillion, who teamed with spotter Harold Off and later Eric Bills, took third place in Pat’s hum-v/tube buggy with full independent suspension. The first event featured only 4 rigs, only one of which finished to take the victory, this event had six entrants with only three finishing all four trails ("Emigma", "Whipper Snapper", "Sidewinder", and "Aliens").
On the first Trail “Enigma”, the Schmaus brothers had their only breakdown in the first minute of the first days trail. After spitting a driveshaft, they had a choice: run back to their tow wagon to get a shaft (10 minutes plus install time), or try and winch through 5 uphill sections to try and beat the thirty-minute max time limit.
They chose to winch. After running the winch line like seasoned pros, they finished with only 3 minutes and 30 seconds to spare! But this put them nearly 20 minutes behind leader Mike Palmer.
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| Rich and Ryan coming through one of the many squeezes of “Sidewinder” Photo by: Joshua Lowenstein |
On the next trail “Whipper Snapper”, Pat Gremillion was first and after breaking a ½ shaft on the first obstacle, Pat and Eric Bills managed to winch through. Mike Palmer and the Schmaus’s both had rough times finding lines that would allow clean runs through this trail, but after some spectacular teamwork, they both finished “Whipper Snapper” with the Schmaus’s gaining just a few minutes on Palmer's lead.
The last trail of day one, “Sidewinder” found Pat and Eric starting with a super clean run, finding great lines and using the cutting brakes to make the ultra sharp switchbacks. They roared through the end gates in just over 10 minutes. Then it was time for team Palmer/Googans. Their run was pure Mikey flight school, holding nothing back, Mike Palmer skied the Campbell chassis to an 8 minute run.
Trying desperately to gain time on team Palmer, Rich and Ryan Schmaus did what seemed to be impossible, with even smoother lines, they beat team Palmer by nearly a full minute.
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| Rich hoisting his series 1st place trophy and Ryan holding the event 2nd place Photo by: Joshua Lowenstein |
With the starting order reversed on Day 2, team Schmaus, started the day with a run on "Aliens" that looked impossible to beat: 8 minutes. Mike’s chance to win the series and the event all coming down to one run. The first obstacle Mike encountered, he launched his rig to give this team a 3-4 second advantage. As Mike approached the second obstacle, the line he picked proved disastrous. Mike got too sideways on a ledge, leading to a gentle roll onto his side. Mike jammed it into reverse and hammered the throttle and nearly got the rig to pop back onto all four, however, this maneuver ended up putting him on his lid! After about six minutes and the series slipping away, Mike had it back on all four. Mike finished the 2nd contest with team Schmaus only 7 minutes behind. This finish was good enough for the event win but team Schmaus took the series.
Congrats from 4x4wire.com on the great victories to teams Palmer and Schmaus and to rest of the competitors who helped create a new type of 4-wheeling competition. This type of sport is brand new, and by the crowd of several hundred’s reactions they will be back to see more and more. Thanks to the sponsors, this event will have a second season of 3 events starting in the spring of 2004.
Avalanche Ranch has camping, as well as space for RVs of all sizes, and there are hotel/casino accommodations available in nearby Ignacio. Go to www.AvalancheOHVRanch.com for more info.
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