Rock Rod Racing Takes 2nd at W.E. Rock Eastern Season Opener

The team was excited to go to the opening race in Dayton, TN which is the home of the largest and rowdiest fan base in the nation.  We finished on a high note last year placing top 2 in every rock crawl event we entered.  The offseason had us busy checking parts, freshening/investing in a few areas and prepping a new enclosed race trailer with organized, labeled storage of spares and tools.  We had invested in a new Ruffstuff Specialties full float rear axle, Fresh drivetrain components from Yukon Gear and Tom Woods Custom drive shafts and a new Griffin Radiators cooling system.  In March we had a shakedown run at the annual Big Meat run in Disney, OK and some occasional practice days.  We were more ready than we had ever been before.

We lost Kyle Bruso as spotter to driving his own Pro Mod racer, can’t blame him.  So we talked Chuck Carlson out of retirement, he was with us since 2002 and spotted threw a few championship seasons.  Branden was back of course, helping more than ever, he will probably drive in the next W.E. Rock event and Dad will spot…. It seems to be the most effective combination for knocking Derek West and Richie Keller off the top spot on the podium.
We arrived early enough Friday, dodging Tennessee showers throughout the afternoon while we set up the pit area flying our Maxxis, Torchmate and Yukon Gear banners.  Eventually the rain let up, the skies cleared and we walked courses to strategize as the crowds came through the gate.

Soon it was race time, we elected to run a bit of a conservative night, being the first night, first event of the year, we just wanted to get back in the groove and avoid any fatal mistakes.  The sand was still damp which made things a bit slicker than normal.  On the driest of days, the drivers know that Dayton requires more thumping, drivetrain abuse and skinny pedal than any other course in the nation.  As the dust settled, we managed to finish every course, though not always with killer low scores.  In the last course, we were the only ProMod car to see the finish gate…. A great way to end the night. We were up on the field by 17 points.

We celebrated some with the other racers, but kept it mild as we were up early to go to Downtown Dayton, TN and participate in the Strawberry Festival Parade. 

8:30 came early, we woke up to a cheerful voice saying “rise and shine, time to go to the parade.”  So we loaded up, headed to town and joined 4 other teams in the parade.  The Kizzars, hosting the event, had ½ page flyers that we handed out to the mass crowds that had a picture of our Yellow Rig from a past event! Thanks to W.E. Rock for the visibility.  The cars went down the parade street, crew behind the wheel, tossing candy to the kids.  The drivers donned their fire suits and walked the sidelines handing out fliers to the kids, dads and prettier moms inviting them all to see the action later that evening.
We arrived back on the mountain top, ready to go, the weather seemingly cooperating, a little dryer than the previous night.   We were first up on obstacle one, it had some nasty ledge climbs ½ way through.  I think Josh, setting courses ,was playing mind games with us, the bonus climb appeared to be easier than the “normal” line…. So we hit the bonus, thinking we had been right up it in previous years.  The top shelf was loose with small rocks and sand, we couldn’t seem to get the right bounce to break the racer over the top.  After several attempts, with a bit of skinny pedal, I managed to spit a drive shaft, no one’s fault but my own…. My driving, but also my weld on the shaft when I tweaked it in the off-season. 

We were off to lick our wounds, changed out to a fresh spare shaft (thanks Tom).  We ran pretty decent the rest of the night.  One drop off impacted the rear axle pretty hard as we backed off into the abyss below.   We wasted a lock ring and went back to the pits for our spare.  There we discovered we stuffed the link so hard that the rear axle link mount (tested over the last 4 seasons) folded up and took some parts out in the process.  We got it back together fast enough, a bit of welding, field engineering (code for quick hack fixes good enough to finish the night). 

We cruised down to the last obstacle, having seen no one on it… but the score sheet said it all, only two teams had finished the course.  We made quick work of the first ledges, confident we had time to conquer the nasty ledge towards the end.  We nailed that ledge a variety of ways, testing the drivetrain more than it’s been in quite a while, the field fix in the back of our heads, but somehow surviving.  On what would be our last attempt at the ledge, we took a weird bounce and before you knew it we did a 2½ barrel roll down the hill and timed out.

So while Chuck and Branden checked the racer out, I ran off in search of the master score sheet to see just how ugly we made things since starting the night in first place.  Good news/bad news.  We were up from most of the field, with a 19 point margin for second place going into the shootout.  The bad news was Derek and Richie were hot Saturday night, finished every course and ahead by a sizeable margin.  Catching them in the shootout was a long shot.

As the shootout progressed we saw that the margin would do us some good.  The racer was a little roughed up, but still running, the question was, for how long.  Lots of noise coming from the tranny, sounded like a cracked flexplate or converter bolts making a symphony as they spun off some new metal object in their path.  Nothing obvious, it would have to wait.  When our time came, we put up a decent score on the first section, and then moved on to bonus land where 6 climbs were available at 5 points each.  We did the math, checked it a few times and confirmed with the judges, we only needed one climb/five points to clinch second place.  We picked the easiest one and nursed the tired racer through in no time at all….  Nothing else broke, second place secured and drove it into the trailer for a safe ride back to the shop and some TLC.  We’ll have to fire up the new Torchmate system this weekend and make some link mount pieces, a little beefier than the last design of course.

Next stop, Hannibal, MO for the second WeRock east event.  Branden has more wins there than any other driver, Even Derek….
Watch Kenny Blumes Rolls, Bumps and Finishes! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX_Kxk9A558

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