Back From ARCA Extreme Rock Crawling Nationals at Farmington NM

[DC]

Hello everyone,

Well, my wife and I got back last night from the ARCA rock crawling nationals at Farmington. As Blaine indicated earlier, he and Kathryn will probably not be back home until late tonight (since they planned to leave very early this morning, with a 14 hour return drive ahead of them).

Since this was the first ARCA (or anything offroad) competition that I ever attended, I learned a number of things. Here's a brief list in no particular order ...

1) Automatics ruled standard transmissions in a big way, especially in their ability to achieve higher wheel rotational speeds in a given situation (as Blaine pointed out several times). I have always been a big auto-over-stick supporter for offroad purposes, but the evidence was even more graphic in this most extreme competition.

2) Those competitors that didn't air down sufficiently, did not get a good bite and never gained good traction on the rocks (this one surprised me, as I thought anyone worth their 4x4 "salt" employed this fundamental technique to good effect).

3) Excellent teamwork and effective communications were the exception and not necessarily the rule. The Currie team exhibited the best of both attributes and the positive results were obvious.

4) Some competitors employed the "brute force & sheer power" approach to some of the more challenging obstacles ... and sometimes this worked (although typically at the cost of a lot of carnage and rollovers). However, although some might consider it boring, those that finessed these obstacles with some "elegance", scored more points in my book (and again, the Currie team was on top in this category as well).

5) I shot 316 digital photos over the two-day event. One must remember to recharge the battery pack overnight (which I overlooked). If I had, I may have shot 416 pics. (A back-up lower capacity lithium ion battery, charged last April let us limp through the last half of the second day, after my wife was good enough to go on a hike to-and-from our truck).

6) Although we came prepared (as we live in the desert), a hat, sunscreen, and plenty of water is a must for the 8 to 10 hour days out in the sun (and there isn't a heck of a lot of shade around either). You also get plenty of exercise hiking up and down the various ridges and canyons.

7) Most importantly, I got a chance to finally meet the Johnson's in person ... to have a couple of meals together, and to get to know them better over the course of the two days of competition in Farmington. I can now state first hand what the rest of you folks already knew ... and that is that Blaine and Kathryn are first rate people ... irrespective of the Jeep connection (although that is certainly a major bonus).

8) And Kathryn's TJ is awesome. As soon as we met, I got under her Jeep right in the motel parking lot to check all the goodies out ... very nice indeed!

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One of the highlights of the competition was Chris Durham's attempt at obstacle B7 ... "Blitzkrieg" (which was the most difficult obstacle on both courses, IMHO). The competition judges and marshall moved a lot of the spectators well back of the ropes, because Chris is apparently known for attacking such obstacles with "vigor" (and therefore might end up taking a "less-traveled" line). Sure enough, he attempted the most difficult line (that I never saw anyone take before or after). After a couple of radical attempts with a lot of bouncing and falling back down the severely inclined rock face, he snapped his front driveshaft. With only a few minutes left on the obstacle before timing-out, he and his spotter went into a kamikaze trail repair. Parts and tools were flying everywhere ... and they got the driveline replaced in less than 2.5 minutes! They got resituated for a run at the more "normal" line (if you could call it that), and after a couple of attempts, Chris made it up in time. That was a mindblower.

I'll leave the more detailed account to Kathryn, but in short, the Currie team did very well both days with no rollovers (and there were many overall), and no carnage to speak of. Day one was their best on the "A" course (they only knocked-down one flag, and overall penalty points were at a minimum). However, on day two, they got into trouble on "B1" (which didn't strike me as that difficult an obstacle), where Jeff Waggoner took out two flags (20 penalty points in practically one shot). Since we left before the awards ceremony last night, I don't know whether the Currie team pulled-off the national championship or not (they were in first place by only 4 points going into this final competition for the year). I tried to find out today who won by looking at the ARCA site, the Currie site, other boards, and even on-line newspapers in New Mexico, but there hasn't been any info whatsoever on the results. I am sure Blaine & Kathryn know at this point, so we can all wait to hear the outcome from them.

By the way, going back to my digital pics ... I plan to email the best of my Currie associated pics to Kathryn for her use. But there are a lot more. Scott ... is you past offer still good in terms of providing me with some space for these? If not, since PhotoPoint seems to have fallen out of favor with many, who do you recommend at this point?

Anyway, we had a great time, and all I can say is that the competition, vehicles, and driver/spotter teams were all awesome. We really enjoyed ourselves and highly recommend that any of you that can make one of these ARCA competitions in the future do so ... you won't be disappointed.

Don