2001 Skyjacker Women's National Rock Crawling Championship -
Some Things You Should Never Do - This idea of an all-women competition was a good one, and kudos go out to Sports in the Rough and Skyja
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2001 Skyjacker Women's National Rock Crawling Championship -
Some Things You Should Never DoThis idea of an all-women competition was a good one, and kudos go out to Sports in the Rough and Skyjacker for a great event.
Publish date: Nov 1, 2001 By:Brad Ullrich Source: Competition Rock Crawling on Off-Road.com
2001 Skyjacker Women's National Rock Crawling
ChampionshipSome Things You
Should Never Do
by Brad Ulrich
November 2001
--
On BLM land outside Aztec, NM, 37
women in well-prepared rock rigs competed for the title of "Queen
of the Rocks." They came from all over the country, from states as
far away as Wisconsin, Nebraska and Louisiana, all converging on an
area called the Rock Garden, which up until a couple years ago, was
a well-kept secret to all but local four wheelers.
First place was awarded to
Nadine Barber behind the wheel of the Avalanche Engineering /
BFG-backed Assassin.
The secret is no more. The Rock Garden Four
Wheelers, holds an annual competition there that has drawn entries
from all over the country, and now this competition, sponsored by
one of the biggest suspension manufacturers, Skyjacker Suspension,
has put the national spotlight on yet another of northwest New
Mexico's legendary hard-core four wheeling areas.
The variety of vehicles entered was representative
of what is usually seen in the rock crawling world.
The entries
were mostly Jeep or Jeep-based vehicles, with a few well-prepped
Toyotas, a few early Broncos and a couple Suzukis thrown into the
mix. Some rigs belonged to the drivers. Others, were borrowed from
husbands or boyfriends. But no matter where the vehicles came from
and who was driving them, the caliber of competition was highly
astute.
In fact, many of the women
exhibited more patience and restraint on the pedal than a lot of
the men drivers do of late, where it seems that the current mode of
rock crawling competition has become point the vehicle at the
obstacle and mash the pedal to the floor.
Jody Weaver crawled her way
into second for the weekend in her Sniper.
The competition was laid out on two courses.
Course A was in the lower area, known as the Rock Garden, and
Course B was directly above, along an area known to the locals as
"The Long Way In."
The entire area was excellent for spectating,
located on a bluff overlooking BLM lands (AKA: the American
People's Land) and is easily traversed on foot, which makes the
area extremely spectator friendly.
The
event started with a Friday night sign up at the Best Western Inn
of Farmington and finished up with a meeting, explaining the rules
of competition and familiarizing everyone with the event.
As for the competition, it was brutal, leaving a
slew of vehicle casualties after only one day of competition.
Rollovers and busted parts forced many aside for Sunday's
competition.
In the typical
Sports-In-The-Rough fashion, odd numbered vehicles completed the
upper course, and the even numbers had completed the lower course,
each swapping off the following day. By Sunday, few were left to
compete on each of the 16 stages.
The
competition became fierce battle of who could stay alive. Rollovers
and breakage left only four of the first six competitors on Stage 1
on the lower course broke. This left little hopes for anything more
than a handful of finishers.
This idea of
an all-women competition was a good one, and kudos go out to Sports
in the Rough and Skyjacker for a great event. The drivers were
impressive, and many learned one lesson: never spot for your
significant other in a competition!
First Place: $2500, a Ramsey Platinum 9000
winch, Detroit Locker, $500 Skyjacker Gift Certificate, and a $150
Advance Adapters Gift certificateSecond
Place: $1250, a Ramsey REP 8000 winch, Detroit Locker, $250
Skyjacker Gift Certificate, and a $100 Advance Adapters Gift
CertificateThird Place: $750,
Ramsey Winch Recovery Kit, Detroit Locker, $150 Skyjacker Gift
Certificate, and a $50 Advance Adapters Gift Certificate.
I'm not going to go into a long diatribe about who I am, where I came from, etc. Because, do you really care? Of course you do, I lied, here goes.
I'm a transplanted Chicagoan, moved to Tucson in 1980, Safford, AZ in 1989, and the Four Wheeling Center of the Universe, Farmington, NM in 1996. I rode motorcycles for years, started with street bikes, had a built to the hilt Kawasaki 500 triple in the early 70's, a Yoshimura engined Kawasaki 900 after that (you ask, why is this guy still alive after those two bikes?) picked up a Yamaha 360 dirt bike somewhere along the way in the late 70's, got a Honda CB1100F, traded that for a Honda XR500R (cool bike!), got tired of motorcycles somewhere in the mid 80's, had been wheeling in my buddy's Ford F-150, bought a Jeep CJ-7 in '85, still have that same Jeep which has gone through several metamorphises.
Articles by Brad Ullrich
Untitled Document
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