Team 831 Summary for Rausch Creek Off-Road Park
Friday July 27th, 2007
Gavin Lewis
Driver
Pro-Modified CJ #831
Saturday started off with some outstanding weather, sunny and about 65 degrees, perfect weather for rock crawling event. The new site that the staff of Rausch Creek created was outstanding, but all the practice in the world would not have prepared us for what the twisted minds of the We-Rock staff would set up for us in the way of courses. What we thought would be the courses we were not even close on and the hairiest of them all would naturally be our first course to run.
Bruce and I had approached the course with caution, we had seen two prior competitors become rather crossed up with one taking an hard roll. We walked our pro-mod buggy around the back of the tall knob down into a pit and walked it right up the bonus line to set us up for gate two. Our first mistake was we had taken a lot of time setting up for the bonus. As we passed through gate 2 we were lining up for gate three which was a nasty side hill that was an almost guaranteed roll over. We opted to take the 8 point penalty for the spotter strap for safety and got through but with only 10 seconds remaining and the rig sideways next to the exit gates I attempted to power the rig out the exit. Unfortunately in my haste I struck (destroyed) a banner tape and got us DQ-ed for that course.
Course two had two bonus lines to attempt, the first we walked through and got lined up to try the second which would be worth 20 points. We got a hair off line and wedged the rig in a deep pit. Not able to move forward or back and running low on time (as well as oil pressure) the rig started to roll onto the drivers side. Knowing the exit was right behind me I stayed with the roll and as it landed was able to pivot the rig on the drivers panel forcing the rig back onto its tires during the 180 and was able to shoot out the exit gates. While in the roll/pivot we struck 2 cones and had pointed out at that point.
Course three had a nasty downhill left that had one line through it, if you were a hair off it was over. We found the wrong line right away and could not get out of it, so we tried the only solution we had left, to try and drive out of if, which would roll us onto our side and force us to call in the crane to extract us. Not the start we were looking for.
Course 4 would be our savior, it was feared by many competitors for two reasons, first half way through there was a 180 you needed to make with little to no room to do it in, the second was a 6 foot drop off to an undercut ledge going through gate 3 with no run out room. We walked the rig to the 180 just clipping a cone, the slight bulge of the tire caught the cone, 2 more psi in the tire and we would have cleared it, however no other competitors missed that cone. We got the rig spun around and lined up for the drop. All prior competitors had taken a second cone there, low score being a 22, we dropped off and missed the cone finishing with a 13, low score for the day on that course. Things were looking up.
Sunday would be a new day for us, and we had momentum going into our first course. We ran the course well until a rock pierced the drivers panel of my rig breaking the rock off and forcing us into a cone. We finished the course with seconds remaining and a decent score.
Course 2 was tricky, but Bruce and I had spotted a line no others had attempted. We actually drove past gate 2 up to gate 3, then backing down a steep hillside that the other competitors had tried to side hill and took cones, we got lined up and shot strait through gate 2 and gate three and out the exit, scored a 0 on the course which would be the low score to that point. We were feeling good and trying to make a move forward.
Course 3 would be a man made course. Gate 1 was nearly impossible to miss one of the cones, we had made a decision to give it a quick shot and if it looked as though we would hit the cone we would take it and move on to the rest of the course. We walked the rig around the back side of the mound at a near 80 degree side hill to line up for a 20 point bonus drop off, we made the drop and finished the course with a 3. A judge had claimed we struck a banner which we had not, there were even other competitors of ours arguing that we did not hit the banner but in the end the judge’s call is final.
Course 4 was a nasty jagged rock hill climb, we got a hair off line and took 2 extra back ups but thanks to the hard work of Bruce stacking rocks for me we were able to walk up the final hill climb and out the exit with a 0 for the course. We would end up scoring a mere 24 for the day which we were happy with!
In the end we took home 8th place this past weekend and locked ourselves in for a 5th overall finish for the series. Considering the breakage we sustained this season (blown motor, drive shaft, hydraulic ram, brake caliper, skid plate, leaking tire, and 5 rollovers) we are very happy with out finish!
We would like to thank all our sponsors for making this season possible; Quadratec, BFG, Tom Woods Drive Shafts, Extreme Axle Sales, Ultimate Air, K&N, CTM, Ramsey Winch, Rausch Creek Offroad Park, TruHi9, &PSC.
We would also like to thank Ron and Dave (R2 and D13 formally) for all their support and time away from work and family to keep us going. With out you guys this would not have been possible!
Lastly, most importantly, we would like to thank our families who support us in this sport. There is a tremendous amount of time away from our families both in travel and prep work for the events. With out you backing us and supporting us we would not be able to do what we love.
Thanks again for a great season! Although the East Coast series is over we still have one last event in September, the US Grand Nationals where East meets West. We will be competing and reporting from Houston TX and hope for a good showing. Until then, see you on the trails. |