Dale Humphrey is the president...
Dale Humphrey is the president of the Dusters Off Road Club and co-owner of Twisted Trails Off Road Park. His behemoth Ford Ranger has a 460 and a C6 with 203 and 205 transfer cases. The Dana 60 and 70 have been welded to support the 44-inch tires controlled by hydraulic steering.
Drummond Island, Michigan, is not well known by city dwellers many miles south in the expansive concrete wasteland known as the Motor City. You will be hard-pressed to find speed limit signs, traffic lights, or rowdy crowds to put a damper on your fun. The 136-square-mile island is just east of Michigan's Upper Peninsula and has a vast trail system that will keep you driving for days in the dirt.
Every Memorial Day weekend this tranquil island overflows with 4x4 enthusiasts, all here for the Turtle Ridge Rock Challenge. This is one of the biggest noncircuit rockcrawling competitions in the state, and this year they had nearly double the competitors of years prior. The newly added Unlimited class brought a number of new vehicles to the scene and was responsible for the massive turnout this year. Over the weekend 27 people bashed, broke, and blazed their rigs through the four courses set up by the owners of the Turtle Ridge Off Road Park and volunteers from the hosting Williamsburg Welfare Wheelers out of Traverse City, Michigan. They also made quite a few more trails with taller, more off-camber cliffs to climb and brought in rock to extend the boulder crawl, which made it more challenging than ever before.
For more information, visit the websites of Turtle Ridge Off Road Park (www.turtleridgeorv.com) and the Williamsburg Welfare Wheelers (www.williamsburg welfarewheelers.com).
The winner of the Modified class with a blazing-fast time of 13 minutes 26 seconds for all four courses was Mike Raczynski, his spotter Mike Schmidt, and his over-200,000-mile Toyota. The 22RE motor and stock transmission feed dual Toyota transfer cases thanks to a Marlin Crawler adapter. Square-tube driveshafts feed the high-pinion ARB'd FJ-80 front and welded Toyota rear, which both stand up to 39-inch TSLs with Inner Air Lock beadlocks running at 3 psi.
Mike Colville is the owner of Motor City Machines, and this is the first buggy he has built specifically for himself. Mike has been running rockcrawling circuits around the East Coast for many years and brought this specimen of his rockcrawling expertise to the competition. It runs an LS1 and a 700R4. An Atlas transfer case spins a 14-bolt and 60 front with 39-inch Crawlers.
 Luke Delk, a returning competitor,...  Luke Delk, a returning competitor, showed up with some new modifications including four-wheel steering. He crab-walked what's left of the S-10 on 47-inch LTBs to a Second Place finish in the Unlimited class. |  Dana Waxler has been wheelin'...  Dana Waxler has been wheelin' since he got a driver's license, but this was his first competition in his new buggy. It's built Ford tough with a 302, a C6, and 60s with spools and 5.13 gears. |  Green CJ Tad Dowker, winner...  Green CJ Tad Dowker, winner of the '08 Rock Challenge, tried his luck against the buggies in the Unlimited class this year. His heavily modified CJ with quarter elliptical suspension flexed its way into Fourth Place against the big dogs. |
 Kyle Leftwich has finally...  Kyle Leftwich has finally come to the point where everything is working well on his Sami. He says his Suzuki just keeps on running no matter what he puts it through. The 1.6L Geo Tracker motor feeds a 6.5:1 transfer case, locked Toyota axles with 5.29 gears, and 36-inch Iroks. |  Absent from last year's competition,...  Absent from last year's competition, Chris Paiva returned this year with the Ranger. Since then he has cut the rear frame for more clearance, added a full four-link suspension for the air-shocked 8.8 Ford and Dana 44, and switched to the super-sticky Maxxis Trepador tires. |  Red Buggy Matthew Quick from...  Red Buggy Matthew Quick from St. Ignace, Michigan, has been wheelin' Drummond Island for years. This homebuilt, freshly concocted machine runs a propane-powered Chevy small-block out to an FJ-40 driveline suspended by gas shocks. Double beadlocks keep the 39-inch Boggers on the rims. |
 You don't see too many '69...  You don't see too many '69 FJs out bashing around at a rockcrawling competition, but Nick Rudolph has tubed out a lot of the chassis for protection. Under the pristine paint this FJ is all business with a 350 Vortec; a Dana 300; and a welded 14-bolt rear and 60 front, both suspended by 14-inch Fox coilovers. |  Kyle Kirkish came back raring...  Kyle Kirkish came back raring to go with tons of new mods. The rear end was bobbed; 1-ton axles with 5.13s and chromoly shafts were swapped in and are now controlled by cutting brakes and suspended by coils and a three-link suspension; 37s were replaced with 40-inch Iroks and are steered by hydro assist. He placed Third in the Unlimited class. |  This externally caged yellow...  This externally caged yellow Chevy S-10 belongs to Adam Aldridge. Since last year's axle-breaking debacle when he had to careen through the course in a three-wheel peel, he has switched to chromoly Dana 60 axleshafts with good results so far. The big V-8 and all that tube paid off because this year's obstacles were tighter and taller than ever. |