Hello. It’s that time again. The second event for We-Rock has come and gone. Event #2 was held in Hannibal Missouri on May 29-31. Due to surgery, Bruce was not with us this competition so our team mechanic Matt stepped up for spotting duties. We left Thursday afternoon and after 14˝ hours of driving, we arrived in Hannibal on Friday morning. After catching a few hours of sleep, we set out to work on the buggy. We had to make a few last minute repairs. After checking the buggy over, we drove over to check out the courses.
The park in Hannibal is an old rock quarry in the side of a hill near the main interstate going though the town of Hannibal. The event site holds a large amount of big car size boulders along with step up hill climbs as well as step drop offs. The rocks are not what you would think for MO with being very “lava” like and have great traction BUT toss in mud that changes the game real quick.
The weather on Friday was in the low 80s and partially cloudy. Some of the locals we talked to told us that they have gotten a lot of rain recently. When we woke up Saturday morning, we found that it had been raining all night. This seems to be typical for We-Rock events on the East Coast. There was an hour delay due to the rain therefore we started at 11 am.
Our first course for the day is B4. We were lucky the night before and drew to start in the middle of the group. We were to follow Rose Crawlers. Bunny and Eugene didn’t make it due to engine trouble, so we ended up being first after all. B4 started out with a 10-12 foot rocky wall. This is a difficult obstacle due to the uneven surface. We went for the bonus line but didn’t make it. We then went for gate one. We tried to crawl up but came short. Matt said I needed to bump it up if I wanted to get over. I tried to do so but my right rear tire slid into a hole. This is turn sent my front end into the air and to the right. When it was all over I was sitting on my roof with a score of 40. The recovery crew quickly got me back on my tires. After pulling the spark plugs to clear the cylinders, we were up and running.
On to B1; it had a lot of medium sized rocks at the bottom of two climbs and a drop off at the top. We got up the first hill with no problem but the jeep just barely caught the gate 1 cone. We chose to drop off backwards through gate two. Due to how the jeep seems to like to do that. No problems with the drop down and onto gate 3. Gate 3 was a steep five foot climb with a 90 degree break-over. We chose to take this one “dirty” with only 3 tires through the gate and saving the jeep from another roll. We scored a 19 on that course, which was the best score up to that point.
B2 was next with a steep climb for gate 1, side hill thru gate 2, and a tight downhill after gate 3. We started and Matt ran up to stack rock while I waited. We tried this steep rocky climb from the right side, only to be denied. When the rig slid left and rolled over. Fortunately for me it landed on its tires, so I put in reverse and backed up so I could try again. We were successful on our second attempt and made the climb clean, no cones. I drove back down to make a big loop to line us up for gate 2. A steep side hill, we know it will side hill if it can get traction, but unfortunately with all the rain last night that would not be the case. We took the lower cone and the way out. Now run to the bottom to turn around and shoot up a muddy hill through gate 3. A tight turn around the banner with only 30 seconds left, we chose to hit the banner for 10 points and get out to finish the course. Our course score was 29.
B3 is our final course for the day and probably the hardest. Huge rocks piled at the bottom of a 10 to 12 foot wall with big holes to get caught up in. The first 2 gates were at the bottom and almost parallel to each other. We climbed up to get to the first gate; unfortunately we slid to the right and took out a cone in the process. We drove past gate 1 and backed up to line up for gate 2. We started through gate 2 and nosed into a huge rock. After several back- ups and burning up several minutes, we were able to get through gate 2 and onto the climb. As we reached the top we ran out of time and finished with a score of 38.
Well the first day has come to an end and unfortunately we are sitting in 11th place.
Sunday morning certainly came early, today we get to run the A courses. We walked all the courses before our 10am start time.
Our first course is A4 and today we get to run after Mike Thompson. The first gate was a hill climb to the left and then to gate 2 was a drop down and over to gate 3 a climb up and a 360 turn back through the gate again and out. We ran this course nearly perfect and were able to make the climbs with a few back-ups due to the rear diff getting stuck. After getting to the top I burned the front to the left and dropped to the bottom. A quick turn around and run through the middle and back to the top. I had to do a 360 turn and go back down where I came up. We ended up with a good score of only a 2 on this course.
Onto A1, a course we had checked out several times. There was a bonus at the entrance and another at the exit. We made the climb through the first bonus with no problems, but got stuck on the rear diff at the top. After a little maneuvering we were onto side-hill gate 1 which we got through clean. Onto gate 2, we made the gate but the right front tire fell into a crack in the rocks. While trying to back out, the front drive shaft twisted the slip shaft spine and broke. In comes the excavator and like Disneyland, I was off for a high flying ride. We finished the course with a score of 37.
Matt and I rode back to the trailer and swapped the front drive shaft assembly. We were back to the next course without having to use any breakdown time.
The A2 course consists of 2 bonuses and 3 gates. Since we need all the points we can get, we went for both bonuses. The first bonus is narrow and uphill onto a big rock with a tree to the right. We found out in Dayton, TN that the jeep could fly. (See YouTube we-rock Dayton spring 2009) for details. This time we found out the jeep can also climb trees. Matt had me drive the right front tire up a tree and turn left. That dropped me off the tree and with a little throttle, I was up and over the rock and through the 1st bonus gate. Gate 2 was a narrow v-shaped drop to the road below. I drove around from the back side of the course, up the middle to the top. We chose to back off the 2nd bonus and out the exit gate. Our score was one of the best scores with a -21.
Our last course of the day is A3, consisting of 1 bonus and 3 progression gates. Off to the bonus we went and with a little bit of time and patience, we were able to side hill through the bonus. We went back on top around a tree a through gate 2 clean. Gate 3 was a wide drop-off and out to the exit gate. Final score of -13.
As for the weekend, all was good. We did much better Sunday than Saturday, with a 10th place finish. Our next competition is June 27th and 28th. This event is being hosted at Rausch Creek Off Road Park in Pennsylvania.
Hope to see you all out there in June.
Ron “R2” Lind
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