Once again, the Pro Modified & Unlimited drivers of W.E.Rock take on the man made course of Miller Motorsports Park for this years Round 3 rock crawling competition. The battle was fierce for two days, but in the end Brent Bradshaw (Unlimited) & Nick Campbell (Pro Modified) would prove victorious with their solid non-stop performance.
As this blog post is about 2 weeks late (sorry), I’ll skip the long essay and let you dive right into all the photos and videos from this event. Hope you enjoy and don’t forget to clear your calendar for W.E.Rock’s Round 4 competition which heads to Donner Ski Ranch, CA on August 6th.
When I bumped into John Gardner, Media Director of Miller Motorsports Park, I couldn’t help but ask “How big is this place?”. He responded with a smile “511 acres. I like telling people we’re 3-1/2 times the size of Disneyland with better rides.” He wasn’t kidding! I’ve gone to countless rock crawling competitions over the past decade and this one is easily among the best. Put simply, W.E.Rock Round 4 at Miller Motorsports Park was THE rock crawling event of the year.
The battle was fierce all weekend long in both Unlimited & Pro-Mod classes with each team not only working on an event win but shooting for the 2010 Season Title. In the end, Dion Wakefiled & Jesse Haines rained victory by grabbing the Unlimited & Pro-Mod top honors for the weekend (final scores for both classes below). Although not officially announced until October’s Grand Nationals event, the 2010 Season Title will go to Brent Bradshaw of Unlimited and Troy Bailey of Pro-Mod.
The Grand Nationals, which is rock crawling’s All Star Game, heads back to Miller Motorsports Park on October 1st & 2nd. We’ll be there again providing live updates via Twitter (http://twitter.com/Spidertrax) and hope you join us in person or online for what promises to be another amazing event.
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.
It’s that time of year again where new builds take form and old vehicles get overhauled, all in the name of next years competition season. For some time now, we have been offering contingency programs that pay out cash for top place finishers. Sure, it’s fun to race, but there’s nothing wrong with getting paid for something you love to do either. For 2010, we have revamped our contingency programs with some great changes that make getting paid even easier. Plus, with a 2010 King of the Hammers Grand Prize contingency pay out of $2500, this is one program you don’t want to miss!
We have two programs in place for 2010, one for King of the Hammers and one for XRRA & W.E.Rock. Details for both programs are available under the “Terms of Business” section of the Spidertrax Store. To save you time, here are direct links to both programs:
In summary, the newly revamped programs improve on those past in two key areas. First, we now give the option of running 3 different size Spidertrax decals, namely 12”, 18”, or 24” long. This allows the freedom of running the decal that fits your vehicle best. Of course, the larger the sticker the higher the payout. Second, vehicles are now required to run just one Spidertrax branded product to qualify. This way, you can be running just a Spidertrax Pro Series Knuckle set and still be part of the contingency program.
As if that wasn’t enough to get you pumped for next years competitions, we have something else to share. Crawl Magazine just released their latest print issue (Issue #19) that has a great article in it called, you guessed it, “Get Paid to Race!”. They asked us (Spidertrax), Ballistic Fabrication, & Pit Bull Tires questions about sponsorship and Crawl was kind enough to post their entire “Get Paid to Race!” print article right here for FREE! It’s a great read, so be sure to download your free copy today. If you like what you see, check out the rest of Issue #19. It’s sure to impress.
Although the title clearly gives away the ending, the story that leads up to this is nothing short of incredible. I’ve decided to mix up this blog entry a little different to those past. Instead of an overall summary followed by a days worth of videos, this time around I’ll walk you through each course, as it unfolded, all the way up to the Shootout.
Course B4 | Saturday @ 10:13 amBy the luck of the draw, Tracy & The Rock Bug would be the first to run B4. Before the event started, it was projected that B4 would be the crowd favorite due to a massively difficult climb called “The Terminator” (6:30 in). However, because this climb was optional and worth only 5 bonus points going over and 10 bonus points going back, Tracy started the trend off early and decided not to run either bonus for fear of losing more points then gaining. This trend would then be followed by the entire Pro Mod class, eliminating “The Terminator” from this competition. Tracy finished the course with a +8.
Course B1 | Saturday @ 11:21 amPulling up to this next course, word was no one had completed B1 yet. Unfortunately, this fate would not change as B1 got the best of Tracy & The Rock Bug. Although they didn’t complete the course, they did manage to secure a few progression gates and finished with a +37. In the end, only 2 teams on Saturday were able to complete this course, Brad Lovell and Shannon Campbell. The best score, held by Shannon, was +29 which was just 8 points better then Tracy. So despite the lack of finishing, this course would not knock Tracy out of the competition. Check out the video at 3:25 in where the Rock Bug shows off its incredibly low CG in a near roll.
Course B2 | Saturday @ 1:37 pmOnce again, pulling up to the next course B2, not one person had completed the course yet. As if to prove something from the last run, Tracy was on a mission with the Rock Bug and would not only be the 1st to complete B2, but would end the day with the 2nd best score for the course of +2.
Course B3 | Saturday @ 2:20 pmThe last course of the day and so far so good as Tracy and The Rock Bug were in amazing form. Our old XTS rig, driven by Rick Mooneyham, was running on the adjacent course and there is a nice surprise for you at 1:00 in. Tracy finishes this course with a solid score of –3 and ends the day in 3rd place with +44. Brad Lovell ends the day in 1st with +33 and Becca Webster in 2nd with +37.
Course A4 | Sunday @ 10:52 amAdding to the “urban war zone” course decor, A1 starts off by driving into the back of an old beaten Military truck bed! Personally, I thought is was pretty innovative so hats of to the Kleins’ for creating such a unique course. What made this course so challenging was maneuvering through the military truck bed. It was so slippery in the bed that getting in and out all while avoiding cones was near to impossible. Tracy finished with a good score of +16. However, Becca got hung up in A1 and finished with a +39. So in just one course, Tracy jumped ahead in points with Becca and the competition got that much more interesting.
Course A2 | Sunday @ 2:36 pmAnother incredibly difficult course that required a lot out of the spotter. Congratulations to Jason Jordan for getting Tracy and The Rock Bug through A2 with one of the best scores of the day, +22. Tracy has now passed Becca with a healthy margin so the race was on to catch up with Brad, the leader this far.
Course A3 | Sunday @ 2:58 pmWith no line in front of him, Tracy rushes over to A3 and quickly walks the course before starting the Rock Bug. The pressure was on now as Brad was in the lead with Tracy in 2nd place. Tracy not only had to do well on this last course, but he had to do extremely well if he wanted any chance of winning this Finale. Brad had gotten a –1 on this course, which has an amazing feat, and Tracy knew he had to beat this score. As he has shown us in the past, when the pressure is on Tracy works the Rock Bug in absolute amazing form. He walks A3 and gets the best score of the day, –11!
The Shootout | Sunday @ 5:45 pmThis is it, the final Shootout. The top 6 teams this far compete in the end all of end all courses. Points are cumulative for these 6 teams, so scores from Saturday and Sunday are totaled and added to the final score of the Shootout. Tracy is now sitting in 2nd place, just one point away from Brad Lovell who is in 1st. Vehicles run in reverse order of score, so Tracy would run and Brad would follow. The Shootout was near to impossible, with only 2 teams so far making it in the Pro-Mod class, namely Shannon Campbell with a +8 and Bill Kunz with a –1. Tracy had to bring his A game if he wanted to take Brad head on. Not only does Tracy bring his A game, he completes the Shootout with the best score of the day, –12!!! Brad follows behind and suffers a devastating blow. On the 2nd set of gates, he rolls his vehicle and is unable to recover. Tracy & The Rock Bug win the Series Finale!!!
So, there you have it. Two days of non-stop action with Tracy & The Rock Bug winning the series finale and taking 2nd overall in the series for points. What an amazing year it has been! We also have to give a special congratulations to Brad Lovell and his team Lovell Rock Racing for winning the 2009 W.E.Rock Pro-Mod Series with their Spider 9 powered rig. Next up is W.E.Rock’s Grand Nationals, October 3-4 in Farmington, NM. With the Rock Bug running in top form, the Grand Nationals is going to be one event you don’t want to miss. See you there!
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