I have just received the latest information from
ARCA concerning the enforcement of its rules, specifically the
issue of strictly enforcing the rule that all participating
vehicles must be street legal. According to Ranch, there will be no
changes in the enforcement of rules for the Farmington event. It
seems that the diversity in vehicle setup that we've seen since the
beginning of this series - Rear steer, Individually controlled,
hydro shocks, super light rigs etc. were not even considered for
this season. The result is that the competitiveness has quickly
outgrown the rules. "We have been lenient on the rules and in all
fairness, must continue with the same very basic requirements for
Farmington as we have in the past four events." Ranch said.
Vernal Utah! - Who's he? Isn't he the "Ernest goes to Camp"
Guy? I have to admit, before the fourth stage in the "Goodyear Rock
Crawling Championship Series" I'd never heard of Vernal, Utah.
This Jeep's ready for some serious crawlin'
action!
Now I like to think of myself as pretty knowledgeable when it comes
to geography, but even I had to ask where Vernal, Utah was. One
wise guy gave me these simple directions - "Go east from Salt Lake
City until you get to the middle of nowhere, then go another 20
miles." Actually, Vernal is much more than I expected. It is a
nice, quiet little community with very friendly people. It seems
like a place where everybody knows everyone. But enough about
Vernal.....
Contingency - The driver's check-in saw the
participants making final preparations for the 2-day event.
Anticipation filled the air as more and more drivers arrived,
stirring up the competitiveness among them - the testosterone level
was definitely rising.
Warming up before the big event!!
The Walker Evans crew was busy turning wrenches on his new "Secret
Weapon" - A front and rear wheel steer-able S-10 that has more
hydraulic hoses and levers than most heavy-duty construction
equipment. Will the new truck give Walker an extra edge out on the
obstacle? We'll just have to wait and see. Time is running out on
the Goodyear Rock Crawling Championship Series and the drivers know
that this is one of the last opportunities they have to make up
points on the series leaders. Several of the top drivers are using
Goodyear's new (and not yet available to the general public)
37-inch MT/R tires, hoping to gain a little bit of an advantage
when they're out on the course.
Vernal's obstacles were as tough as they come
- this "Commando" is slightly off course!
Overall, the course at Vernal is not quite as difficult as the
Cedar City course, but it does have some difficult spots. One of
the hardest of these is Obstacle 7 on Course B. Most drivers on Day
1 spent a good majority of their allotted time just trying to get
past the first wall - a ten foot behemoth that caused more than its
share of broken parts and frustration. If drivers made it over this
wall before timing out, they faced the second of three walls on
this obstacle. This second wall was a steep drop-off that left most
of the short-wheel based rigs doing a front-wheel-balancing act.
After that surviving that, they had to climb another steep wall.
This third wall looked like a simple end-of-course obstacle,
however, at least one Jeep ended up on its roof trying to scale
this one.
Course B, Obstacle 7 - the first of three
walls on this obstacle. Most rigs, like this Bronco, didn't make it
past this point.
All in all, the two courses at Vernal are challenging. They were
difficult enough to provide more than enough frustration for all
drivers. Even the 37-inch MT/R's had a rough time on these courses.
Major changes in store - One issue that I brought up to Andi
was the fact that not all vehicles looked street-legal (most in
fact, were quite obviously not street-legal) * The first item in
the Vehicle Specification Requirements states that "Vehicle must be
street legal will current license/registration tags. She informed
me that I was not the first person to ask her about this and that
this was an issue that they were currently addressing, and that a
change is in store for the fifth, and final stage of this series at
Farmington, N.M. event. According to Andi, ARCA is planning on
strictly enforcing the "street-legal" requirements for all
vehicles.
One of the many Jeeps that won't qualify to
participate in Farmington, if ARCA strictlty enforces the
rules.
I'm sure this will cause an uproar among some of the drivers whose
vehicles are nowhere near street-legal. We'll just have to wait and
see how ARCA handles this issue - I'll keep you posted as I get
more information. Once again, the ARCA folks worked long and hard
to make this event a huge success. These events just keep getting
bigger and better. Get ready for the fifth and final stage at
Farmington, N.M. it is going to be the very best yet. One
suggestion I do have for ARCA though, is this - Put up a lot more
signs pointing the way to these events. At Vernal, the only sign I
saw was two or three turns off the main road. Remember, the more
spectators you can get out there, the faster and bigger ARCA will
grow.
Photo Galleries:ContingencyEvent Photos For more information on the Farmington,
N.M. event, or for information on participating in the next event,
visit the ARCA web site -
Off-Road Experience
I've been 4-wheeling off and on for about 15 years now. It all started back in 1985, on a tiny piece of coral in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, called Guam......
A friend was interested in getting a Toyota FWD, so we took one out for a test drive. During the test drive, we got the bright idea of testing it's four-wheelin' capabilities and nearly drove off a 100 foot cliff!! Well, we survived and my friend bought the truck, so I decided to buy myself a new Toyota (without the optional test drive, of course!)
Articles by Eddie Perez
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