This videographer behind the 'Zuk nearly got run over.   It was pretty stupid to be on the downhill side of a 4x4 that was in an unstable situation.     Care to see a video of this roll?   Video shot by Richard Sheridan: Windows AVI (1.4 MB) RealMedia (272 K)   Or how about this roll?   Video shot by Anita Rathje: Windows AVI (2.2 MB) RealMedia (410 K)

Vantage, Washington September 23-24, 2000 The first annual North West Rock Crawling Association (NWRCA) rockcrawl competition gave me insight into how the Japanese must have come up with blowfish sushi. Some demented cook dreamed up something incredibly dangerous and passed it off as being edible; a customer was pressured into eating it by his peers; his survival put pressure on his peers to follow suit - and before you could say "Bob's your uncle," it was added to the menu. Oh, sure, some people have died from eating blowfish, but those incidents only served to enhance the dish's mystique. And so it was with the NWRCA rock crawling championship. After witnessing their first ever championship, I am certain that it has assured itself a permanent spot on the list of must-attend 4x4 events. Roger Bell, one of the members of the NWRCA The NWRCA is a newly formed organization whose mandate is to provide a rock crawling competition for the Pacific North West fourwheelers; people from Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, Canada. To fully understand the competitors' situation, you need to be aware of the event's history: there was none. Because this was the group's first competition, no one knew what to expect. To give an idea of what the obstacles would be like, the NWRCA posted a handful of photos on their website. When I saw the photos, I thought it was going to be a pretty tame event. It certainly wouldn't be like the hardcore ARCA competitions. What I, and many of the entrants, failed to grasp was that the photos were the work of someone who didn't know the best way to capture angles and slopes. In fact, the photographer displayed a remarkable ability for downplaying any semblance of angles or depth. The end result was something reminiscent of the white bunny scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail. Everyone entered, thinking it would be a cakewalk to slay the bunny - but their opinions soon changed when the bunny started tearing their heads off. That sets the scene for when we arrived on the morning of the first day of the competition. There was such a huge number of spectators that it took a while before we were able to find parking and hike our way to the staging area. We crested a hill and spread out below us in a semi-circular bowl were hundreds of spectators and dozens of 4x4s attempting all manner of obstacles. It was a confusing array of sights and sounds. Revving motors pulled our attention from one section to another, never giving us enough time to focus on a single sight. There was so much happening that we just didn't know where to look, so we stood there, dumbfounded. The first rollover shook us from our stupor and we hurried over to shoot some photos. That set the pattern for the rest of the day. We basically went into ambulance-chasing mode, trying to capture the best carnage photos. Unfortunately, whenever we got to the aftermath of one rollover, a new one would be happening somewhere else. The sponsor, competitor and spectator turn-out was impressive. The course designers came up with some great sections. Even "Super Jeep" had difficulty. This "Stars and Stripes" CJ rolled into a difficult position... but it was later successfully extracted and the driver went on to do quite well on subsequent obstacles. Sometimes all it took to save a vehicle from rolling was the spotter pulling on a tow strap. Carl Jantz's flat fender Jeep running huge 44" tires worked very well on this terrain. His rig only had 5 hours on it after beeing put together over the last 7 years. On day one the rear ontrol arm brackets kept bending allowing the rear driveline to pull apart. That evening, he reinforced it. On day two, he managed to win 1st place in the Extreme class. Thoroughly "experienced" body work like on this 4Runner will probably be more common on the vehicles in next year's NWRCA event. After this year's carnage, I can't imagine anyone entering a pristine rig into the competition. Jason Conover from SNORT gives his 1/4 elliptical rear end a workout. The competitors had great support from the spectators. Wayne "Fozzy" Foster from the Island Rock Crawlers, replacing a blown birfield. Andy James, also from the IRC, replacing his birfield, too. After he got it fixed, he promptly blew another one. Richard Sheridan ripped the right knuckle off of his Toyota/Dana 44 hybrid axle. This Land Cruiser was roll number...by that point, I lost count. A six-month old Jeep TJ. Now that's got to hurt! So what made the obstacles so difficult? There was no secret here, the obstacles were just plain vicious. The course planners plotted routes over four-foot drop-offs, up impossible slopes, and along gut-wrenching side hills. Adding to the difficulty was the terrain's composition which was a mix of sand and sharp, brittle rocks. Even after you managed to crawl through the sand and get your tires onto the rocks, the rocks could break off and drop you back down to the sand - or throw your vehicle off balance, sending you into a roll. The terrain was loose enough to require wheel spin but hard enough to easily snap drivetrain parts. This proved to be a fatal mix for many of the rigs entered into the competition. Overweight throttle feet and competitive stress resulted is some pretty captivating crashes and drivetrain suicides. That brings me to the oddest thing I noticed about the event. Many of the guys whose vehicles broke early in the competition weren't very upset at all. In fact, they were downright relieved! Which would you prefer? A broken birfield or a flattened roof, crushed radiator and a sore head? I spoke to a few drivers who considered themselves lucky to sustain damage which was enough to give them an easy reason to throw in the towel. And make no mistake about it, pride fuelled a lot of the drivers who would otherwise have simply bowed out of the competition. One competitor said that when they arrived, he was hoping his buddy in front of him would back out at the first obstacle; then he could also back out without losing much face. Unfortunately for him, his buddy tackled the obstacle anyways, and so he felt compelled to do the same (refer to the blowfish sushi analogy earlier in this story). As it turns out, both of them suffered spectacular rolls. Fortunately, they both had good roll cages (that were seriously damaged by the end of the weekend). Not all entrants were bound by their fear of losing face. Some drivers pulled out as soon as they saw the obstacles while others pulled out after receiving a particularly bad scare. The drivers who continued competing to the very end provided much entertainment for the spectators. As always, the bad drivers were enjoyable to watch because they were always a reliable source of carnage. But the skilled drivers were also fun to watch. I was especially impressed by a team with a silver Samurai running 35" tires. The steep climbs and drop-offs were heavily biased against the Zuks but this one team cheated death time and time again. Team work, extreme caution and judicious use of the starter motor saw them safely through the entire weekend. This Suzuki driver cheated fate the entire weekend. Every time I thought for sure he was going to wipe out, he managed to save the truck by the thinnest of margins. He and his spotter worked very well together. The crowd favourite was our own Canadian 4x4 ambassador, Al Berikoff of 4Offroad, from Maple Ridge, BC. Al's aggressive driving style was well-suited to this terrain that favoured fast driving and quick reflexes. His ToyZuki hybrid ran consistently throughout the weekend without suffering from broken parts. A rollover and burnt-out winch on the second-to-last obstacle cost him a lot of penalty points and he ended up coming in third in the Extreme class. Speaking of that roll over, it was one of the memorable moments of the weekend. Al was attempting to race up a gnarly rock wall that everyone had to winch on. The ToyZuki leaned hard to the driver's side and rolled over, landing in the deep sand. The leading edge of the hood got pushed into the radiator and steam started hissing from the radiator cap. The roll had also un-seated the passenger-side rear tire, robbing the Suzuki of some much-needed traction. The motor had stalled in the rollover and it took a while before the motor would start. Finally, Al got the Suzi moving again but the soft sand proved to be a major obstacle. The lugs of the Boggers dug straight down, stalling the motor just as Al had gotten his rig pointed straight at the rock wall. As he turned the key to re-start, he was rewarded with the depressing sound of a slowly turning starter motor. His battery was dead. Someone from the crowd shouted out that if he had an Optima battery, letting it sit for a while would allow it to recover some power. With nothing else to do, and having a few minutes remaining on the clock, Al sat back and waited. In the meantime, his spotter, James, had set up the winch cable just in case they re-gained power. After about a minute, Al tried the ignition again and the motor came to life. There were wild cheers from the audience when they realized that Al just might beat the odds. He hit the throttle hard, trying to power his way as close to the rocks as possible before winching but the soft, deep sand was robbing a lot of his horsepower. Now it was time to winch. Because the battery was so weak, Al had to keep the rpms up to charge it. But all the while, steam continued to escape from the radiator. It wasn't long before the billowing steam cloud was joined by the acrid black smoke coming from the winch. Forward progress was almost imperceptible. The Suzi's motor and winch were going to self-destruct before Al could make it up the wall. After several tense minutes, Al signalled to James to reverse the winch and he shut down the ToyZuki. Wild applause came from the spectators, who were bowled over by Al's and James' big-hearted effort to beat the wall. Looking at his engine temperature gauge, Al jokingly shouted to the crowd, "gee, do you think 280 degrees is hot?" On the first day of the competition, Al Berikoff did great, leading with a mere 77 penalty points. At the start of day 2, he was also doing well. But then he rolled it on the second to last obstacle. He was able to get the Suzi running again but the rad was leaking and he temporarily ran out of battery power so he couldn't re-start when the motor stalled. With steam and smoke pouring from the Zuk, Al had to take the maximum penalty points. The rollover also blew the bead on a tire but he was able to quickly re-seat it with this PowerTank CO2 system. The decision to take the full points on the obstacle was the correct one because it allowed him to save the Suzuki's motor. After doing some repair work to the radiator and re-seating the tire, Al and James finished the final obstacle without any further trouble. With all of the rollovers I saw, you're probably wondering if there were any emergency medical crews available. Fortunately, there were. Good thing, too. One guy in a Toyota pickup did an end-over-end roll and crushed his roof. He had to be rushed out in an ambulance. Luckily, he had recovered enough to be able to spectate on day two. He had a pretty sore head and no memory of the two hours surrounding his accident. I also heard that someone had lost a couple of fingers to winch. That didn't surprise me one bit since I saw someone spooling in a winch cable with his fingers less than two inches away from the fairlead. Even worse, he had someone else controlling the winch from inside the vehicle! He was just an accident waiting to happen. Speaking of which, I was surprised that none of the official event videographers were killed. The way they kept putting themselves into dangerous locations, as close to the vehicles as possible, was just begging for a maiming or death. One of them got his hand pinched between a rock and a roll bar while he was riding in a competitor's vehicle. I saw another nearly get crushed by a rolling Samurai. Most amazing of all, however, was that no one beat the crap out of them. These guys were constantly in front of the 4x4s, ruining everyone's chance for getting a good photo. Everyone was very fortunate that the organizers of this event were much more safety-minded. The volunteers did a good job of keeping everyone (except for the vidiots) away from dangerous areas. The NWRCA provided excellent exposure for their sponsors; abundant signage made it very easy to find the event location; food and refreshments were available for reasonable prices; and there were plenty of clean honey pots for those in need (no trees to hide behind out in the desert!). Most significantly, they did an absolutely top-notch job of marketing the competition which drew over a thousand spectators and close to a hundred competitors. This is a staggering achievement for a new organization and its first event. I predict that the NWRCA championship will draw even more competitors and spectators for next year. I also expect that the competitors' vehicles will be less, um, aesthetically pleasing. After the amount of sheet metal molesting that went on this year, I can't see anyone in their right mind competing in a vehicle with straight body panels. I'm sure the owner of the six-month-old Jeep TJ who rolled on the first day will think twice before signing up next year. For most of us, it's too high of a price to pay for a weekend of extreme 'wheeling. For others, they've got it in their blood and will be back for another year of carnage and destruction. The rest of us will be there to cheer them on. Jeeps were well-represented in the competition. The TrailReady Jeep. They won the manufacturer's class. They had some pretty nice beadlock rims. One of the moderately-challenging sections. This driver had rolled coming off of an easier drop-off the day before. He landed on all four tires and punched the gas, getting him through the section with a good time. On day two, he tackled this even steeper drop-off with a blown front tire! Longer wheelbase rigs like Andy James' Nissan/Toyota/Chevy hybrid had an advantage on some of the slopes. That flying rock is a perfect example of why the organizers were trying to keep spectators a safe distance away from the course. One of my favourite trucks of the weekend was Reo's (from No Limit Offroad) Suzuki pickup running Toyota axles and a custom coil suspension. Check out the articulation. If you like steep climbs, steep drop-offs, or carnage, you've GOT to attend next year's event! ...lars