The last four years have witnessed an evolution in hard-core four wheeling and extreme rockcrawling. It's an evolution we would never have imagined back in the archaic days of spring-under lifts, bone-jarring multishock setups, and enough illumination up top to suck the life out of the best batteries. Today's onslaught of new rockcrawling events has kept us busy traversing the country to bring you all that's new, exciting, and on the forefront of the "rock-mania" trend. We caught wind of the inaugural CalROCS/JP Off Road, Put Up or Shut Up Shootout and made the trip to California's Lake Amador Resort to witness the action firsthand.
CalROCS promoter, Rich Klein, promised us a true rockcrawling event, one that offered technical courses and obstacles which would require precision driver and spotter teamwork. "We feel the sport has been heading toward rock racing, . . . CalROCS events will be truly technical rockcrawling," stated Klein. In addition, Klein said, "concerns at the top of our list right now are driver, spotter, and spectator safety, and environmental issues surrounding our sport." In this event, increased time allotments of up to 15 minutes and slower speeds left more time for the drivers to use the gray matter, rather than simple brute force. Many obstacles required such tight maneuvering through the gates that a clean pass, without the use of four-wheel steering, elevated the driver to the ranks of rockcrawling deity.
The venue attracted seasoned rockcrawling veterans from across the country, just a few of which are Jason Bunch, Mike Shaffer, and Chris Durham of ARCA fame, NWRCA series finalists Caine Covert and Al Berikoff, and 1999 Top Truck Champ Grady Mcleod.
The rules and scoring were pretty straightforward-with 40 points maximum per obstacle, penalties were assessed for stopping, backing, touching a gate, wandering off course, or winching. Rear-wheel steering is allowed but you get docked three points for each time it is used. One cool scoring feature-if the spotter starts the course as a passenger and stays there, the team can get five bonus points. Here's the catch: If the spotter bails, you get docked five penalty points. Ties were settled with the scoring of a special obstacle.
Did we like it? You bet. This year's event, which was sponsored by JP Off Road, Mickey Thompson, and Advanced Adapters, was a warmup for the 2002 season. Next year you can look forward to multiple vehicle classes and an expanded vendor midway. The 2002 series will include events in Victorville, California; Reno, Nevada; Lake Amador, California; and a UROC/CalROCS-sponsored World Super Crawl in Las Vegas. For information regarding future events, contact CalROCS, 530/622-0370, or visit www.calrocs.com.