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Warn / B. F. Goodrich Rock Crawling Championship
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| Annual Sports-in-the-Rough Rock Crawling Championship | Short Cuts | ||||
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By: Joshua Lowenstein - 11/2000
King of the Rocks 2000
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| Mike Papola shows off on the last stages of Cactus Canyon.
Joshua Lowenstein |
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Warn, B. F. Goodrich, and Sports-in-the-Rough brought the annual battle for King-of-the-Rocks trophy to Montrose, Colorado for the 2000 National Rock Crawling Championships.
Montrose, Colorado and the BFG-Warn Rock Crawling championship made for a great combination, pitting the best drivers with the best vehicles against the nastiest rocks. Together, they put on a great event with 61 of the best drivers and rigs known to the competitive rock-crawling world. This event drew many WRCC regulars, and additionally, a whole raft of ARCA drivers joined in for the fun.
Just like all Sports-in-the-Rough rock crawling championship events, competition spanned three days, with two one-day qualifying rounds and one Dirty Dozen final for the best qualifiers. Bob Hazel selected Calamity Canyon and Cactus Canyon for the preliminary events, and the indescribably difficult Die Trying trail for the final. All of these trails wind through steep-walled dry washes; you go down to get in, and up to get out.
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| Steve Rumore approaches Stage 5 of the Die Trying final. Joshua Lowenstein |
There's a problem with trails like this: they are one-way only trails -- once started, the only place to go is out the other end. If they broke during competition, drivers still had to run the rest of the obstacles to get out. Die Trying is 3 to 4 miles long and the five stages set up for the final were all within the first mile and a half. Even after finishing competition, all twelve of the competitors still had over half of the trail to complete!
Some competitors drove the Calamity and Cactus trails during the preceding weekend's Sports-in-the-Rough Montrose Madness event, and the trails weren't THAT hard THAT weekend. On THIS weekend, though, Bob Hazel's sadistic gate placement made some sections of these trails nearly impassable. The courses forced these rigs to the edge of insanity -- and some couldn't cut it. The breakdowns included too many axle u-joints to count, drive shafts spit out like used up chew, and some parts that nobody thought would ever break.
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| Mike Palmer from Denver, CO driving his 1952 M38 could droop that tire to the ground, but he 'detunes' his supension for competitions. Joshua Lowenstein |
Mike Palmer managed to break a Dana 60 stub shaft and took his Detroit locker with it. He ran is Willys the whole second day with only three wheels driving -- and still managed to get within two points of making the Dirty Dozen. Sam Patton broke a rear Dana 60 full-floater axle shaft in his HeePee CJ7. The broken axle took the whole spindle assembly with it, and Sam was done after completing only two stages on the first qualifying trail.
The course terrain varied from climbing sandy hills to crawling gigantic boulders with cliff-like climbs steep enough to test the nerves of even the bravest drivers.
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| Kelly Powers from Acampo, CA managed to snatch-block his CJ5 back over, completing the stage with only a couple of seconds to spare. Joshua Lowenstein |
Rollovers
Neil Lillard's Wrangler YJ and Mike Weaver's Avalanche Sniper3 found out the hard way that the waterfall on Stage 7 of Calamity Canyon was really just a short cut to being upside down. Of 61 competitors, only six managed to climb this double -whammyish cliff.
Calamity Canyon
Harold Off and two or three other rigs ended up on their sides on Stage 2 of Calamity Canyon. Can you say OFF Camber? (bad pun intended!) This stage was a leaner, with a drop off that tilted even more in its middle. This lean, combined with the drop, triggered serious spring unloading for folks with insufficient rebound dampening. Mike Palmer and Clifton Slay made this stage look easy with remote reservoir coil-over race shocks that were set so that the spring could not unload fast enough to cause a problem.
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| Clifton Slay from Avalanche, in Denver, gets a little twisty. Joshua Lowenstein |
Tracy 'Air' Jordan is geared soooo low... (how low is Tracy's FJ40 geared?)...
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| Tracy twists his FJ40 up on Stage 3 of the Calamity Canyon trail. Joshua Lowenstein |
Tracy's narrowed FJ40 is geared so low that when dropping down a very steep ledge on Stage 3 of Calamity Canyon, the momentum surpassed the wheelspeed and lifted the rear end off the ground and the FJ stood on its nose. Thinking quickly, Tracy attempted to coax the rear end back down over its tires by quickly revving the engine... but at 137:1, the Chevy-powered Cruiser simply drove along on its nose. Tracy ended up grabbing second gear and stabbing the go pedal to make it come back down.
The Cactus Canyon trail started out fairly mellow and got nastier as the stage number increased. Stage 6-7 of this trail offers some of the best technical crawling and toughest angles -- it even rivals many parts of Die Trying. The drivers proved that there was more than one way to climb this stage. Scott Lentz, driving the Jeep called Brutus used all the HP his AMC 304 could muster. Scott powered his way up and over Stage 7, he never had all four tires in contact with the ground at the same time during his assent.
The night before the final day of the event, rain came to western Colorado, and it got colder to boot. By morning, a couple inches of snow covered the hills nearby... right including the Die Trying area. Can you say... slimy?
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| Team Purple attacks Stage 3 on the Cactus Canyon trail. Joshua Lowenstein |
Nearly one thousand spectators braved the chilly air and muddy trail to watch the battle royale for the King of the Rocks Trophy. Before the final showdown started, the driver with highest points picked his position in the starting line up. Steve Rumore picked the eighth position, thinking that the trail would be drier by the time he got to start if the sun ever came out from behind the dismal clouds. Troy Myers picked the number one slot, saying, "I don't want any excuses."
In this final, time became a huge factor. Bob Hazel set stage time limits short enough that more than one try on a given line insured that the section could not be completed. Troy battled the slime and though he picked first class lines, the slime on the rocks won out and Troy timed out on Stage 1. Neil Lillard and several of the finalists also timed out on the slimy rocks. Steve Rumore, the 'meteorologist,' took a chance that the trail would be drier before his start, and guessed right... the sun eventually broke through the dreariness to help clear the trail.
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| Don Robbins' FJ40 on Stage 5 of the Die Trying final trail. Joshua Lowenstein |
Highlights of the Final
Don Robbins drove his FJ40 with the fully hydraulic suspension and was was able to pick lines that were seemingly impossible. Don got high centered too many times to count, yet, by using the vertical lift capabilities of his 4 wheel ram system was able to lift the TLC up and simply over the offending rocks. When that did not work, he could lift a tire off the ground and his spotter Dave Gore could place rocks under the tire.
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| Joel Randall on Stage 1 of the Die Trying trail. Joshua Lowenstein |
Too Many Bridemaids and Only One First Place Trophy
Steve Rumore and Joel Randall have had too many top ten finishes to count in the last two years. Joel even lost one first place trophy in a controversial ARCA decision. Steve has taken a few backseats of his own, too, but with a driven performance in Montrose, Steve and his Sniper came out on top.
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| Steve and Drew heft their weighty first place trophies. Joshua Lowenstein |
Steve wrapped the tarnation out of his 450 Hp mouse engine, and even with the rod knock that developed during his (yes, another) second place Four Wheeler Top Truck competition, the weary mouse held together. Steve rear steered, finessed, and throttled his way to a first place victory by a whopping 28-point margin.
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| Two of three snipers -- Steve Rumore and very Happy new Sniper owner Mike Weaver. Joshua Lowenstein |
The Avalanche Engineering Snipers made a huge showing in Montrose, with all three Snipers breaking into the dirty dozen. Although Troy and Mike did not fare as well as Steve Rumore, their hybrid super machines proved yet again the merit of their design. Six vehicles competed in Montrose flying the Avalanche Engineering name; watch out, these guys know how to build them!
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| Drew Barber 'hikes out' to try to get Steve Rumore's Sniper tire down on the first stage of the Die Trying final. Joshua Lowenstein |
Defending King or the Rocks Troy Myers on Stage 1 in Calamity Canyon. Joshua Lowenstein |
Mike Weaver drove his first competetive event in a brand new untested showroom-fresh Sniper to a 10th place overall finish. Mike is seen here on Stage 3 of Calamity Canyon. Joshua Lowenstein |
| The Dirty Dozen | |||
| Place | Driver | Vehicle | Past Events |
| 1 | Steve Rumore | AE Sniper #2 | ARCA/WRCC |
| 2 | Joel Randall | Currie CJ5 | ARCA/WRCC |
| 3 | Jason Paule | Twisted Custom CJ7 | ARCA/WRCC |
| 4 | Don Robbins | Toyota FJ40 | ARCA |
| 5 | Larry Thomas | Jeep CJ7 | Events |
| 6 | John Currie | Jeep TJ | WRCC |
| 7 | Troy Myers | AE Sniper #1 | WRCC |
| 8 | Don Bernier | Jeep CJ7 | ARCA/WRCC |
| 9 | Brett Lovett | Jeep YJ | WRCC |
| 10 | Mike Weaver | AE Sniper #3 | WRCC |
| 11 | Neil Lillard | Jeep YJ | ARCA/WRCC |
| 12 | Kevin Yoder | Jeep | WRCC |
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| Bob Hazel presides over the Sports-in-the-Rough crew as they deliver the driver's meeting.
Joshua Lowenstein |
The Western Slope Four Wheelers and the Montrose area BLM deserve special thanks for helping with this great event. Without the help of the club members volunteering as stage judges and helping with crowd control, this Sports-in-the- Rough event would not have been possible.
Click here for more pictures from the event.
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