When we created the Rock Bug, designing a high performance rear steer axle was a must for driver Tracy Jordan.  We understood Tracy’s position on this one as anyone who can master the art of rear steer is virtually unstoppable in the rocks and Tracy Jordan is without question one of those masters.  Unfortunately, with nearly twice as many W.E.Rock competitors in the more restrictive 2009 Pro-Mod class, which doesn’t allow rear steer, Tracy decided to run a solid rear axle in the Rock Bug in an effort to compete against as many drivers as possible. Although the 2009 competition was a complete success for both Tracy and the Rock Bug, you could tell Tracy was missing his rear steer axle.

Now we’ll fast forward to March 27th, 2010 as W.E.Rock kicked off a brand new rock crawling competition season in Oroville, CA.  Although Tracy would run the Rock Bug’s rear steer axle any chance he could get, word was the number of competitors in each class was inline with last year (around 12 Unlimited and 24 Pro-Mod rigs). So, like last year, the decision was made to run the Rock Bug as a Pro-Mod rig.  Then, literally 1 hour before the start of the competition in Oroville, everything got turned upside down.

As it happened, we discovered the morning of the event both Unlimited & Pro-Mod classes had nearly the same number of competitors (about 12 in each class).  Although the Rock Bug was set up as a Pro-Mod, there was no question that for the rest of the W.E.Rock season Tracy would be running the Unlimited class with the Rock Bug’s rear steer axle.  The question of the day though was what to do about this first event.  Do we run the Rock Bug in Pro-Mod and then Unlimited for the rest of the year eliminating any chance of capturing the season title? Do we attempt to run the Rock Bug as set for Pro-Mod (37” tires and no rear steer) in the Unlimited class, something that has to date never been done before, so that the season title could possibly be captured?  With no easy answer in site and now less then 1 hour before show time, Tracy calls for a coin toss.  Heads we run Pro-Mod, tails we run Unlimited.  I flipped the coin and tails it was.

Now making a very long story short, for the next two days Tracy Jordan battled it out with his Pro-Mod rig in the Unlimited class. This meant he would compete against rigs with larger tires and rear steer axles.  In the end, Tracy would prove once again why he is rained as one of the best rock crawlers in the world as he pulled off what seemed nearly impossible.  In a Pro-Mod rig, Tracy Jordan won Unlimited!

Tracy & the Rock Bug will be back competing in the Unlimited class  May 1-2 in Tucson, AZ and this time with 40” tires and a rear steer axle.  In the meantime, check out the video above of Tracy Jordan running the final obstacle of the competition, The Shootout, a course where only 1 other driver out of 12 was able to complete.  We also have a great collection of photos below from ace photographer Chad Jock showing off some of the many  teams running Spidertrax Spider 9 axles & components.