Outdoor Recreation Network - Off-Road, Jeep & 4x4 Fun

Goodyear Extreme Rock Crawling Championship

Farmington, NM - September 2000

Short Cuts

by: Steve Smith, edited by: Randy Burleson

Notes from a Spectator

ARCA. The American Rock Crawling Association. Sounds pretty innocent, huh? I was keeping an eye on the fifth and final event of the 1999 ARCA series that was to be held in Farmington, New Mexico. I live in Denver, so Farmington isn't too far - only about seven hours away. Monday, September the fourth rolled around and I saw a note from Bart Jacobs (a contestant that runs an 88 Jeep Cherokee XJ in the series) about getting ready to leave for the event. Huh? Already? I didn't have any plans made! A made a couple of e-mails and I has a place to shower. Cool!! I could borrow a shower or two and sleep in my Cherokee ZJ.

I received assurance from my wife that I wouldn't be in trouble for going, then I loaded up the ZJ on Thursday afternoon and headed out. I rolled into Farmington Best Western at about 10 p.m. -- the staging area for everyone. I've never seen so many built vehicles in one place before. Amazing. I parked in the Best Western parking lot (my 'motel room' for the next 3 nights) and wandered around. There was electricity in the air. Contestants have become good friends through the series and there was the usual ribbing, as well as words of encouragement. I walked around looking at the trucks, getting 'ideas' for my CJ. I ended up getting to sleep about midnight with pictures of crawling trucks dancing in my head.


Early-morning driver meeting.. you can feel the electricity. Kent Vaughn

Friday morning, I woke up at 7 a.m. to the sound of motors starting and people talking. The drivers headed out at about 7:30 a.m. to the trail system in Chokecherry Creek Canyon with me following. The trucks separated into two groups of 30 vehicles. There were two courses: Course A and Course B. One group of 30 ran Course A and the second group ran Course B. Each group of 30 was divided into two groups of 15 - one started on obstacle 1 and the other started on obstacle 5 of each course. On Saturday the two main groups of 30 switched courses.

Let me say now - if you have never taken the time to go to one of these events, you should. I won't say that every section is almost impossible -- because they aren't. Many of the sections in Farmington were run with almost every competitor earning an almost perfect score. Other obstacles were very hard with very few low scores and quite a few contestants not able to complete the course in the allotted time.


Take a hydraulically-steered Dana 60 front axle and put it in the rear, then add fully-independent hydraulic suspension at every corner. Kammy Caruss Burleson

Some of the vehicles were similar to the 'built' trucks that you may have seen on the harder trails in Colorado, Utah, Arizona, or California. Other vehicles are 4x4s like you have never seen before. There were Jeep CJ5s, CJ7s, 2 XJs, 2 Toyota pickups, a couple of Toyota FJ40s, a couple of Suzuki Samurais, and ... well some of the rest resist explanation. They were special built trucks that were designed specifically for these types of trails and this type of event. Hydraulic steering was not uncommon, nor was four wheel steering. A few vehicles even sported hydraulically-assisted suspensions -- and I saw one rig with an air-assisted suspension. I saw coils where leafs used to be, and leafs where coils used to be... Tube frames... Four-cylinder, six-cylinder, and eight-cylinder motors, powered by gas, diesel, and even propane... Trucks had between 80 and 750 horsepower. Tires ranged from 35 to 44 inches. Wheelbase ranged from about 80 inches to about 110 inches. Spotters ranged from 130 lbs. to 320 lbs. Some of these trucks were built in garages on shoestring budgets; other trucks had major commercial sponsorship and money. Each team had their own ideas on what it would take to win.


Broken u-joint on one obstacle, easily ready by the next. Randy Burleson

Joe Shaff's driveshaft separated during an obstacle, and he had it repaired in time to try that obstacle again before timing out. Randy Burleson

I spent the two days up close and personal with the trucks as they ran the courses. I saw many new dents. I saw front ends come apart and driveshafts come apart. I saw broken axles and broken steering setups. I saw Herculean efforts to push, pull, and lift trucks over obstacles. I saw repairs done in minutes on the trail that would take most people hours in their own garages. I saw contestants volunteering time, effort, tools, and parts to help other contestants continue the event. I saw incredible spotting. I saw incredible driving. I saw good people competing against each other and having a great time doing it.

Will I go again? Definitely. I came away from the event with a checklist of things that I need to do to my CJ if I ever want to compete with these guys. Will the series change? Yes. Hopefully for the better. I'm sure that there will be more 'big dollar' trucks competing. I'm sure there will be more big names competing. More sponsorship money will change things. Will the rules change? Yes. This is a very immature motor sport. Each event in this series was a bit different from the last. Rules were adapted for situations that came up that were not expected. Obstacle ideas were changed from the first Farmington event last year to this one. Vehicles changed through the year as people had ideas on what they needed to compete and possibly win.

All in all, I had a great time watching good people having fun competing -- and putting on a great show for the spectators. We could not have asked for a better finish: the two series leaders came into the last obstacle of the last day close enough that either could win depending on the outcome of that section. Wow!!

Now, all I need to do is call Currie for a pair of 9-inch axles, Detroit for the locker, lower gears, armor......