CalROCs Cougar Buttes -- A Phenomenal Crappy Weekend

[sethmark]

After some last minute shuffling of spotters, I entered this past weekends CalROCs event with Jack from CTM as my spotter. We had been at practices together before, but never with him spotting for me, always for Cody. So Friday I headed up to Barstow to get tech'd in. No issues there, had a nice meal at Mollie's and met Jack that evening. That Friday it was HOT. Damn hot. But they were calling for cooler climes over the weekend, so we hoped.

Anyhow, Saturday morning Jack and I were dead last in line in Group A. After a nice hour plus wait to start our first obstacle, we rolled up to it and smoked it. Dead nuts perfect. -14 out of a possible -15. We had an optional bonus line which we watched most guys struggling getting into it, but everyone did finally get in it and got thru it. Well, our turn came and we prestacked the course a little and drove the whole damn thing like a freeway. No emotion, no throttle, nothing. Dead crawl. Yee haw. -14. Good start, feeling confident.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Webs...lROCs5-7/Obs1/

Unfortunately, now we had another hour wait and it was starting to get warm. Finally we got to roll again and this time we had a big off camber drop off followed by a weird climb. Both the drop off and the climb were cake. The last section was loose boulders... Also cake. -5. Now we were doing amazing.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Webs...lROCs5-7/Obs2/

Our third obstacle of the day also had a bonus line. Unfortunately, we didn't stick to plan and I got a little off line. Dinged the cone (one of only 2 cones we hit the whole weekend), but it was a bonus gate and we got half the points back. Finished that obstacle with a 6. We hit the bonus gate and had one backup, but finished the bonus line. Not terrible, considering that Cody had 40'd this obstacle.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Webs...lROCs5-7/Obs3/

Then the **** hit the fan. Entering into #4 for the day, we performed the most beautiful set of front and rear burns. About 5 of each to slide the car sideways and up about 15 feet. Up a little ledge that was throwing everyone off and it's a nice easy around the corner and exit. Except, as I climbed the ledge to get out, my front driveshaft twisted up like a pretzel. It twisted so far that it backed out of the splines and dangled. DAMN!!! We had a perfect run in progress and now we were in trouble. Well I jockeyed the car into line using rear only and started the process of SLAMMING it out of this gate. Unfortunately, without front wheel drive we were cooked. Couldn't climb and timed out. DAMN!!! Freakin' 39. So much for our perfect day. But I had a spare driveshaft which Bob changed out for me (YOU ARE THE MAN!!!!) and we were back in the races.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Webs...lROCs5-7/Obs4/

Our last obstacle of the day was one of the harder ones and as usual, we perfected it. -4. DAMN!!! Almost a perfect day... But there's always tomorrow.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Website/CalROCs5-7/Obs5

Well Tomorrow came and again we were on fire. This time, instead of being last in the pack, they reversed the order and I was first in the pack. No problem. First obstacle had a bonus line which we took and again hit the cone entering into the bonus. Doh! (the second and only other cone we hit). The Obstacle had a wicked tight turn and we decided to pull forward and back out of it. Great idea, but Jesus I was REALLY REALLY REALLY off camber. The car was so crooked it was scary. But WTF. Jack through a strap on the cage and that was that. I backed out,
easy pie. 7 on that one. Not bad. 1 gate with the bonus points and 2
backs.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Website/CalROCs5-7/Obs6

Our 2nd obstacle that day was deceiving. It had a loose boulder section that we thought was easy. It wasn't. But with a couple of backs, we were positioned for what we thought was the hard part... A nasty off camber drop and a big vertical. Well... The horrible nasty drop was a piece of cake (though we watched 3 or 4 other roll there later in the day). The climb was nothing. End of obstacle, 0 points. Perfect.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Website/CalROCs5-7/Obs7

Then, I got doinked. On the 3rd obstacle that day we timed out. The judge was a dick and didn't give us any heads up on time and we just plain ran out. Unfortunately, it was also a perfect run and would've been a +3. Instead, it was a 37. DAMN!!!! Out of the running for the top 5.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Website/CalROCs5-7/Obs8

Oh well... Finish strong. And that we did. We took a -5 on the next obstacle and 0 on the last. What a run. We were on fire, but just couldn't do it. Too bad. What a great weekend.

http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Website/CalROCs5-7/Obs9
http://www.offroadmarketing.com/Webs...lROCs5-7/Obs10

Thanks to Bob and Machelle for taking such great care of me! And to Jack for being the MAN!!!



Seth

[cbassett]

Excellent pics and story Seth!
Some hairy off-camber stuf in there, especially considering how low and wide you are; I'd been on my lid multiple times.

I didn't know rock stacking was allowed in competitions.
Are the judges supposed to keep you apprised of the timer?

[bob91yj]

We had a great time camping with you and Jack, Seth.

We both enjoyed the bench racing session's around the camp fire Friday night. Interesting perspective in camp Saturday night with all of the competitors hanging out.

I know you're not as happy as you wanted to be with your finish, but I think you guys had a spectacular run, that had to exceed any of your expectations.

I'll take a spot from Tommy any day, but Jack was incredible. We learned a lot watching the two of you work together, you guys made it look easy.

[TDW]

Originally posted by cbassett

I didn't know rock stacking was allowed in competitions.
Are the judges supposed to keep you apprised of the timer?

The comps that I have been to the judge usually is pretty good at keeping you informed. Either that or a lot of times you will hear driver/spotter asking the judge about 500 times how much time they have left. Quite a few rigs you see have an onboard timer on the dash that they can reference to get a rough estimate where they are at.

Great job Seth, on the comp and the write up.

[bob91yj]

The timer issue arose when Seth asked the judge for time, judge responded two minutes thirty seconds. ( I was there, on the course taking pics, media pass.) Seth was close enough to the last gate/exit that he could have made a lunge for the finish rather than time out when the judge called time.

It seemed that the elapsed time since Seth had requested a time was remarkably quick for 2:30.

I suspect that the judge goofed on his math, timer read 8:30 when Seth requested a time call, and the judge mistakenly said two thirty, rather than one thirty. Whatever happened, it was unfortunate, but part of the game.

Lesson learned is to buy yourself a kitchen timer ya cheap bastich!

[Joe Dillard]

Thanks for sharing Seth! Correct me if I'm wrong - but if Bob took the pics (along with driveshaft swap), he did a fine job too! Sound like it turned out to be another fantastic event.

[bob91yj]

Yeah, that's me. I'm a pretty high energy person, just can't stand not being in the mix.

Some recent health issues have kept me down a little bit, but I still jump in when I see a chance, heheh.

Here's my story from this past weekend, link to over 400 pics is at the bottom of the page if you don't want to read the babble.

http://www.jeepaholics.com/feature/calrocs0504/