Pumped, and ready for day 2
After a disappointing day one (you can read about it here http://moabdave.com/2013/06/06/an-old-school-beat-down-day-one/ ) I was determined to make day 2 of the Old School Rock Crawl more successful. I didn’t have a plan for how I was going to accomplish this, but in my head I hoped it would be true. After timing out on 3 obstacles, and rolling over on one, how could it possibly get any worse, right? That’s not a question I should ever ask myself, nor would I recommend that you do this to yourself, trust me it has bad consequences!
Jeremy giving it all that he’s got to get my big, fat Jeep up and over the rock
I started the day on obstacle 5, which really didn’t look too bad. Up and over one big rock, then climb a steep hill, descendent down the back, and you’re good to go. What I didn’t count on, was how big that first rock really was, and how difficult it proved to be to try to get over it. With the way he placed the cones, Craig made it so that to get over the rock you had to drive both driver side tires up on the rock, causing you to severely lean to the passenger side. Then, at least in theory, your front passenger tire should climb up over the rock and line you up for the steep climb over the hill. I say in theory, because for me that never happened. I just couldn’t get
The rock didn’t look so big before I went through the starting gate
my front tires to grab and pull me up and over. It just wasn’t happening for me. So after what seemed like a very quick 10 minutes, I timed out. So much for starting the day on a good note!
On the positive side, after a long night, and early morning of wrenching, Jeremy had gotten his Jeep put back together. After removing the oil pan, which turned out to be quite a chore, because when he pushed the rock into his oil pan, it also pulled the top of his transmission away from the engine, bending a couple of bolts which held the two together. All of this caused the
Jeremy doing some last-minute wrenching on his crawler
oil pan to be pinched, and even with all the bolts removed, it still wouldn’t come off. After fighting with it extensively, they finally got everything lined back up where it was supposed to be, the oil pan was released from its hold. Luckily there was a welding booth set up for competitors to use, and Jeremy was able to get the hole in his pan welded closed. All of this was done in time, barely, but in time for him to start the competition Saturday morning.
Attempt number one, almost, but not quite
Obstacle 6 made me a little nervous, it is shaped like a fin; skinny, tall, and long. And lucky me, I got to drive up and across it and down the backside. For this one, Misty insisted that I wear my 4 point shoulder harnesses; normally I just wear the lap belt portion, which despite numerous rollovers, has always done a good job of keeping my butt in the seat. Well, I figured I got them for the Rock Crawl, so I might as well use them. My time begins, and I positioned myself in front of this steep climb. I tried it once, to see if I could crawl it. That wasn’t going to work, I was definitely going to need
Ummm, this doesn’t feel right!
some momentum to carry me up and over. So, up I go again, this time using a little bit more of this skinny pedal. Things started out smoothly, but just before my front tires got to the top, my rear driver tire slid into a hole in the rock, this caused the front of my Jeep to slide to the driver side; and that quickly I was in trouble, big trouble. Soon after this series of events started, my front passenger tire came off the ground, I desperately slammed the transmission into reverse, but I knew deep down inside that it was to no avail, I was too late. Things quickly went downhill from there, both literally and
First point of impact, see how the corner of my roll cage is actually sunk into the rock
figuratively speaking. I’m pretty sure the first part of my Jeep to touch the ground was the top front left-hand corner of my roll cage, not only did it hit the ground, but it shattered the concrete where it impacted. I felt the hit, and it was a hard hit, and although they were jarred, my shoulders and hips were held securely by my racing harness.
I came to rest on my passenger side, and after being checked on by Jeremy, Misty, Bear, and I think just about everybody else that I’ve ever known, who all deemed that I was unhurt and unscathed. Before I
On 3, everybody push!
knew it I was being pushed back over onto my tires by a mass of testosterone driven men. After gathering up a few loose articles which I had in my Jeep before the roll, but were now strewn across the ground, including the key for my ignition; and after a quick check to make sure I wasn’t leaking fluids again, I fired up the Jeep, and submissively drove my Jeep off the course. 2 rollovers in 2 days, things definitely weren’t going as planned; although I am told that I put on a good show, so maybe that’s worth something!
Here’s the video of my dramatic rollover.
Jeremy and Bear conspiring against me, err…uhhh, I mean scoping out their next course
Jeremy made me look even more foolish than I already felt, as he summarily finished off obstacles 5 and 6, achieving respectable scores on both of them. Maybe he was using all of his skill on driving, and didn’t have any left for spotting; or maybe he was just taking lessons in the Bear School of Spotting (just kidding Bear, please don’t hurt me!). Honestly, Jeremy did wonderful driving, especially for his first time, and in a vehicle he has minimal experience in.
Looking at obstacle 7, I hoped, desperately hoped, I would do well on it. There were no V-notches to catch
Boulders, now this is my kind of wheeling!
me, and no gaping holes for me to fall in causing me to roll. In fact it was just a bunch of large boulders, very reminiscent of Coyote Canyon, one of my favorite Moab area trails (here is my blog about the last adventure I had in Coyote Canyon: http://moabdave.com/2012/06/13/coyote-canyon/ ). The obstacle started with a long trench filled with big rocks, and large logs, and remarkably I made it through fairly easily, and completely unscathed. The next section was a large pile of rocks, and after getting hung up once, and needing Jeremy to stack a couple rocks for me, I again made it through without too much difficulty. In fact, not only did I complete the course, I did so with a perfect score! It was a great feeling, and a much-needed boost to my waning confidence.
Once again, Jeremy doing his best to help get me through a tight spot, and interestingly enough, this is about 2 seconds before the spotter rope broke and Jeremy went flying
My last obstacle of the day, and in fact of the weekend, was obstacle 8. This obstacle was newly built last year, so I had not seen it or had the opportunity to drive it before, so after passing through the starting gate, and coming around the corner to see a huge V-notch didn’t make me real excited. I started up cleanly, but just is my front tires crested the top, my rear passenger tire fell in the notch (why is it always my passenger side, is it just me or have you noticed a pattern also?). This definitely felt, and I’m sure looked way too familiar. As I struggled to climb out of my current stuck situation, all of a sudden the spotter strap, which Jeremy had vigorously been pulling on trying to help give me out of the wedge I was
New paint job, what new paint job? Let’s be honest, at this point who cares right?
in, flew over the top of my Jeep. I thought this weird but not too concerning, until the judge told the timekeeper to stop time. This I thought was very strange, as I’ve never seen that happen before. Looking around I see Jeremy walking towards me rubbing the back of his head, dragging what I later realized was the other half of the spotter strap behind him. As I said, I was really wedged in this hole, and Jeremy was doing his best to help pull me through, when all of a sudden the spotter strap broke, and Jeremy went flying, apparently landing head first about 5 feet behind where he had been standing. No doubt, he was a little shaken up, but considering, he was fairly unscathed (meaning no blood); although he reported his back being quite sore for the next couple of days. After verifying Jeremy was okay to go on, I continued my desperate attempt to extract myself from yet another wedged-in situation. But to no avail, for all too soon I was once again out of time. And with that ended my weekend of competing.
To recap, the weekend consisted of 8 separate obstacles, I completed one of them, rolled on 2 of them, and timed out on the remaining 5. Definitely not the performance I had been hoping for. On the positive side, I didn’t break anything on my Jeep, my first time competing that that hasn’t happened, so I was happy about that. I definitely do want to wholeheartedly and sincerely thank both Bear and Jeremy for spotting for me; with all joking aside, without
Even in the middle of competing on an obstacle, Jeremy has time to ham it up for the camera
them I definitely would’ve done much, much worse. Jeremy no doubt busted his butt for me, one spectator even commented that he was the hardest working spotter out there. I completely agree. As a driver, he also did quite well, completing all of his obstacles on Saturday, and ending up with an overall decent score for the weekend despite not being able to do 2 obstacles on Friday. All in all, I wish I had done better; yes, I rolled my Jeep twice, yes, I banged, dented, and scratched the crap out of my new paint, but that didn’t stop me from having an absolute blast! I’m already looking forward to Old School Rock Crawl 2014, make your plans now, I promise you won’t want to miss it!
Thank you to Jackie Serra for this great sequence of photos of my rollover!
MoabDave 