Just a note to our VX friends about our last competition. This year the Supperbowl of rockcrawling (UROC Suppercrawl) was held on man made courses at Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City Utah, our home town.
This was our first and last Suppercrawl as competitors: http://www.pirate4x4.com/albums/supe...04day2/afr.jpg
Friday October 15th 2004
#1 http://bbs.off-road.com/photobb/show...ppuser=&stype=
After watching a number rigs in front of us either fail or roll, I wanted to just pull up and take 40 points but this is the world championship and we were here to compete. After 4or5 attempts, the rope broke due to the abrasion over the top. First I lost my radio, then my watch then the rope so I came around on Linda’s side just to watch. Each time she went up the Jeep would stand vertical, Linda would let out the clutch and roll back. We were almost out of time when the Judge said we had 20 seconds left. I asked Linda if she wanted to give it one more shot. That proved to be our first of many mistakes. She went up and then to the left then back over hitting hard on the left front corner. So back to the trailer to lick wounds and see if the rig was safe to continue with. A little welding bending and heating was required to before we could go on to…
#2
This ended up being our best run. The out was a down that had me worried but after a few tight cones at the start, up the wall and then down we came away with a 0 score!
#3
We waited for almost 4 hours to get to #3. Clay had set the standard and was the first to roll on this one with many competitors following suit. Well we could not even get up the first wall because of the break over. We need more tire and less skid plate but a 40 on this one that I had helped with in the construction, seemed OK.
#4
Very few made it through #4 in the required 7 minutes and we were no exception. This was a very technical course requiring a number of front and rear digs to negotiate. Linda and I figured we could have done it no problem in 15 or 20 minutes but we will never know timing out half way through.
Saturday October 16th 2004
#8
We did not last long on this one. The start was a side hill then a clime to the right up a wall. I failed to hold the Jeep on the transition to the wall and the Jeep went on its side with Linda laughing all the way.
#5 http://www.pirate4x4.com/trailreport...l2004/day2.php half way down. Lucie got this course mixed up calling it 3 when in fact it was 5
We just could not get up this wall which was probably a good thing. Many that did, never got out of the hot tub that was at the bottom of a very steep chute. The jeep was hopping, trying to make the climb, so after taking the 40 back at the trailer I checked the air pressure. This was my own fault having aired the tires up to 11psi on Friday and now they were at 14psi due to the heat of the tires. All year 7psi had worked well but since the concrete had apparently more traction than slick rock or granite and I wanted to be easy on the axles, I felt we needed a bit more air in the tires.
#6
This was the killer for us. It was a simple course. All we had to do was go up at an angle across a ditch then up a wall to get lined up to back out the finish gate. Well that was the plan A. Up and across the ditch proved no problem at all except we were running out of time and the Jeep was headed down straight at the out gate instead of the desired up the hill to back out. When I said straight at the out gate it also meant the jeep was sitting sideways on the hill with the right front tire over a lip. Linda told me to let go of the rope and she would power down the slope through the gate. That was now plan B but what happened was the Jeep went over hard and rolled though the out gate. It hit so hard Linda was not laughing. The cage bent enough to break the dash. Linda bent the steering wheel, hit the cage hard enough with her right hand to cause sufficient swelling and apparently cracked a rib. This was by far the hardest roll being the 8th time over for the year and 3rd this event. Linda is demanding a 5-point harness now. 4 point is not sufficient for this level of competition. I know of at least 2 drivers this week that suffered concussions.
#7
Our last course. I asked Linda if she was OK to continue and her reply was that she had to finish. This was another technical but short (meaning doable in the required time) course. Up to the left in a ditch then high up on a wall to rear burn around a cone to back out the finish gate. Our radios quit and we were forced to yell instructions back and forth. With 5 seconds left. Even though I felt we were not lined up, I instructed Linda to put the Jeep in reverse and throttle down. She went through the out gate with one second to spare! Even though this was not our lowest score I feel under the circumstances it was our best performance. After a trip to the Doctor, Linda found out she had 2 possibly 3 fractured ribs on with at least 2 breaks that she received in the roll off of #6. She has taken a day off to relax but with the pain pills she should be OK in a month or so.
I kept asking myself what are we doing here? We are trying to compete in a moderately good trail rig not a competition rig against the top off road drivers in the world. We are running the smallest tires with the least modified rig, which will now take a lot of work to put back together. Then I tell myself that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to participate in a major motor sporting event and we will always have that to remember.
Todd
