The smell of competitive rock crawling is back in the air with W.E.Rock kicking off their first event of the year in Tucson, AZ. Tracy & the Rock Bug have had some time together both on the trail and in the shop getting ready for this day. Today marks the Rock Bug’s ultimate debut and we are happy to report Tracy and the Rock Bug were both in amazing form, securing the top spot of the day!

Before reviewing today’s competition, it deserves mention that yesterday we had the first chance to weigh the Rock Bug. Keep in mind, this recorded weight includes a rear steer axle and an oversized radiator, both of which were designed and intended specifically for King of the Hammers. We planned on swapping these out for a lighter solid axle and smaller radiator, in total shaving over 160 lbs. As mentioned in our last update, time did not permit this change for this first event but we should be making these improvements for the next W.E.Rock competition.

Having said all of that, the Rock Bug with all fluids and fuel weighed in at 2,510 pounds. This puts the Rock Bug’s approximate weight with a solid rear axle right around 2,350 pounds. Keeping in mind the Rock Bug is a full bodied two seat Pro-Mod rig, it is currently on track to weigh less then Tracy’s legendary Scrapper single seat moon buggy which weighed 2,360 pounds.  It is also worth noting once these weight saving changes are complete, the Rock Bug should easily be the lightest vehicle competing in today’s W.E.Rock Pro-Mod class.

Back to the competition, day 1 of this 2 day event is now finished and as mentioned above Tracy and the Rock Bug have secured the top spot with a total of -16 points. The point spread is close though so it is still anyone’s game tomorrow. Videos do the Rock Bug far more justice then my writing, but I will make a quick mention on the video below of course B2.

On B2, Tracy hits a cone and is called on it by Judge #1 but he and his spotter clearly do not hear the call. You will see Tracy continue to negotiate this cone with another judge, who we will call Judge #2, watching his progress from above. The crowd, including myself, begin yelling at Tracy as he is clearly consuming enormous time on a cone that Judge #1 called him on. When Tracy and his spotter hear the crowd, they ask the closest judge, Judge #2, if the cone was hit and this judge says no. So, they continued negotiating the same cone which consumes the time needed for the course’s bonus climb. Once the course was finished, Judge #1 said they hit the cone for 10 points in addition getting 4 points for backups while negotiating this already hit cone.  Needless to say, this did not go over well with anyone and the final call by Lil Rich gave Tracy back 4 points of his potential loss of 10 (for missing the bonus that the majority of teams completed). In the end, it was a raw deal for everyone with no clear winners. Luckily, Tracy & the Rock Bug’s solid performance carried them to 1st place for the day despite this negative run.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter as we are posting live updates of the Rock Bug and will continue to do so tomorrow during the final day of competition.  Until then, enjoy the videos below of the Rock Bug in action and be sure to check in tomorrow for the final outcome.

Note: If you have a fast connection and computer, hit the “HD” button in the video window to watch the movie in full High Definition.

Course B1

Course B2

Course B3

Course B4