|
LaGuerra en Rocas Rojo - Presented by Vanquish Products |
 |
 |
 |
|
Written by Harley
|
|
Wednesday, 22 July 2009 17:55 |
|
What a great weekend! This is my first expierence crawling in Colorado and only my second time ever stopping in the state. Eritex Inc drove down from Omaha to KC on Thursday night and ROCKEDUP RICKY rolled into town at about 7:30 on Friday morning to pick us up. We hit the road and rolled into Morrison at about 5:00.
|
|
Last Updated on Tuesday, 28 July 2009 13:48 |
|
|
Written by Harley
|
|
Friday, 03 July 2009 17:49 |
|
Watts Mill
The KCRC 2009 Comp #2 was held at Watts Mill on the south side of Kansas City. A great location with lots of natural rock. The event was looking pretty iffy all week for me with a good chance of rain in the forecast and a close family friend in the hospital back home in Omaha. D-day rolled around and it was awefully overcast but no moisture, then shortly before having to leave for the comp I got the phone call that our good friend had passed early that morning. It wastough to hear but she was not young and we knew it was coming. It put a damper on the day early on. I loaded up my gear and headed off to the site to try and still enjoy the day with all the guys of KCRC.
We got the courses all setup by about 10AM. The rain just barely started to spit, so everyone hurried to get in line to run their courses. The rain would flirt with us throught the day but never seemed to hamper actual performance, we lucked out.
Course #2:
I ran Course #2 first as I saw the first few compeitors really struggle with one gate and I could see the rocks were not going to hold up and I would need everything left to try and make the gate. I made it through the first couple gates clean and approached the first difficult climb, one that caused many to point out before they even reached the gate (which was even more tough then the climb). I had some issues getting up, taking a roll over to save from getting a roll over/OB/reverse. I got up the climb and was able to make easy work of the tough gate to folllow. Down some "stairs" in a "controlled fall" and I was on to the really hard gate that nobody had yet passed. I got so very close to making the climb several times but just couldn't make it happen. In the process I seemed to move just about every rock left too. Nobody would clear this gate all day. So I took the 20 point bypass for that gate and finished the remaining gate (which many more did not finish). When all was said and done I had a 20, the low score of the day for that course. Link to the on-board video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4V-Dp3krBW4 Course #1:
This course was BRUTAL! Many people only cleared one gate clean, and most pointed out. It started with a tough vertical inches from an edge leading to the fast flowing and flooded creek below. When not yet even through the gate you have to begin your side hill to approach the wicked off camber gate two. I hit the lower gate on gate 1 and continued to gate 2. I worked at gate two for quite awhile and finally made it with 15 points (in hind sight I should have taken an easy stradle for 9 points). Next up was gate 3, a wicked vertical. I made it up with 2 reverses, one of only 2 rigs on the day (1 MOA and 1 shafty). Gate 5 was another crazy vertical, one that nobody was able to pass. Finishing the course through 6 and finally the finish line. A final course score of 53, yikes. Link to the on-board video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxw5m4GW7nE
Results:
When the results were finally in, I again found myself at the top of the list. Two comps, two wins so far. The courses this day were particulary tough and discouraging, the next one will be better. Again, already the race for the points winner is on with the 2007 winner and last years runner up Matt Dankenbring right on my heels. It was a good day and one that I needed to in order to help clear my head, this is all still a hobby right? Thanks again Jason and MaxAmps for supporting me in this hobby and letting me enjoy it with everyone else.
|
|
Last Updated on Friday, 03 July 2009 18:24 |
|
Written by Harley
|
|
Friday, 03 July 2009 16:55 |
|
2009 KCRC Comp #1
Longview Lake Spillway
The 2008 season was my first year of dedicated competition, never missing a comp. Matt Dankenbring had been the series winner for two years in a row and I was gunning for him. I was trailing by 10 points mid-season, but after a change of rigs I started to close the gap. It came down to the last comp, Matt was unable to make the final gate. This caused him to DNF and gave me the season win.
So the tention was high for the 2009 season. The first comp of the KCRC 2009 season went very well and the ARC ran great. Comp #1 of the season and win number 1 of the season, I couldn't ask for a better start. I ran my onboard video camera and the footage can be seen at the links below. Taking first place even with running the on-board camera was a blast. It was close though, I was less then a millimeter away from the final gate on course 1. Course #1 Video Course #2 Video
|
|
Last Updated on Friday, 03 July 2009 17:41 |
|
|
Written by Harley
|
|
This year marked the second installment of Crawlapalooza hosted by OKRCRC. The event has been held at Hogan's Off-Road Park in Disney, Oklahoma both years (give me Disney OK over Disney FL any day). The rock in Disney is amazing, the comp is head in a river bed below a very large dam. The OKRCRC crew gets things setup early and everyone meets down on the rocks after the drivers meeting at camp. Course 1:I decided to get it done right away, I was second in line and had looked over the course pretty intensely. The course looked pretty easy with only one obstacle that made me nervous. The course started with a bridge that us KCRC guys brought down with us and let the OKRCRC guys use to mix it up. The one obstacle on the course that was making me nervous was a large drop that you had to go down. It was all downhill after that so if you rolled off it you could end up 50+ feet down the hill. I decided to back down the obstacle, costing me a point but saving me from who knows what could have happened. I cleaned the rest of the course and finished strong. I ended up with a -9 on the course, very happy. Course 2:
Right after course one I went strait to course two because I was feeling pretty confident. The course didn't look bad, just three hard gates. Gates 2 and three were right by each other and you had to hold a tight line while not falling down into the deep V below the gates. I decided to use momentum and wheel speed to clear the gates. Clean through those two gates and on to the rest of the course. The last tricky gate was a drop that had an OB marker just in front of it. You had to carefully negotiate the drop and begin you turn in before you finish dropping off the ledge. This was also a difficult obstacle. I should have cleared it just fine but when I was sliding down the rig slid over and put my right tire next to the gate marker which I hit as soon as I moved. I avoided the OB marker and finished the rest of the course. I finished this course with a 1 so at this point I was sitting at a -8 Course 3: Where it all fell apart for me. Course 3 had 1 hard gate and that was it! I just screwed myself and have nothing else to blame other than nerves. The tricky Gate 4 was another drop down, again if you fell off you were screwed. I should have had no problems but I gave it too much throttle and it just went down costing me 10 points. Then I was all nerved up and had another roll that hit me costing me a touch penalty! DAMN IT! I finished the course with a 23. A tough finish for what would have been a great finish. Results:
I ended up with a final score of 15 for the day (not including the finals course score) which landed me in 18th place for the weekend. This was a huge improvement over my 2007 performance but I know I could have been in the top ten easily. Looking forward to next year already.
|
|
|
|
|
|
