I won't pretend to be as entertaining as Bud while telling my version of how our trip to CalROCS went this weekend. I had a four hour drive home to think of what I wanted to say, let's see how I do.

Machelle and I had a rough week, and had a family function scheduled for Saturday at the beach. I was truly not up for the family function, don't like the crowds at the beach for starters, and a few hundred other excuses I could bore you with, but won't.

Friday morning rolls around, and I just can't stand it, I HAVE to go to CalROCS. The problem with going was it can be some distance from camp to the competition. I just wasn't up to towing the Jeep up there merely to get from camp to the comp. I also knew that if I took the Jeep, I'd allow myself to get roped into helping with the recovery duties again. Health reasons would have made that a stupid thing to do...but I'm stupid so...

<light bulb goes off in head> I get on the 'puter, ICQ Seth Markowitz (#319M Modified Stock). Offer to trade him hot showers for the use of his truck to get back and forth from camp to the comp. Seth jumps on that idea. Got all my ducks in a row, it's only 7am, now I have to pitch the idea to Machelle.

It took some assurances to her that I would behave and not get worn out, but she relented to my incessant whining, and agreed to go to the event. I love it when I win...although I think she wanted to go as much as I did, and just made me work for it for fun.

I called Seth, we agreed to meet at camp that night after the drivers meeting in Barstow.

Machelle and I loaded the RV, and headed out. When we got to Cougar Buttes, I intended to camp as close to the comp as possible. This proved to be easier said than done. The road to the comp has more whoop dee doo's than an Olympic Mogul's course. We finally see a turn around, and go back to the camp area by the first rock pile. This later proved to be a very SMART thing to do (for a change).

Seth and his spotter for the weekend, Jack Graef, owner of CTM Racing, (www.ctmracing.com) showed up around 9pm. After introductions, we sat around the fire and did some bench racing.


Jack and Seth.

Jack spots for other competitors as well, and is truly a "professional" caliber spotter IMO. Listening to he and Seth discuss different techniques, and then seeing those same techniques put to use over the course of the next two days was truly educational. Machelle and I both came away from the weekend with a wealth of new found knowledge and ideas.

Everyone was up bright and early Saturday morning, coffee and a mini "Get Ugly" style breakfast, and we were off to the comp. It turns out the road in is VERY sandy in spots. I might've gotten the RV through them, but I'd have been working it hard. The BFG Tire trailer got hung up in one of the sandy areas, bringing all of those behind to a halt. There were tow rigs, trailers, comp cars all over the place for a short while till the mess got cleared.

The CalROCS staff had once again out done themselves, and were still hard at it making final preparations. We ran into Little Rich, the course Marshall out on the course working. He took time out from weed/snake control duties to talk to us. When we told him we were doing the JA media gig this time, he said if I needed interviews with any driver's, staff, judges, whatever, just let him know, and it would be taken care of. Wow, now that's some service!

To the ladies and gentlemen on the CalROCS staff, judges, vendors, competitors, team members, and everyone else that I'm forgetting, you guys put on one hell of a show! Thank You!

A couple of examples that I saw of the sportsmanship, generosity, and just plain cool stuff that goes on at a CalROCS event...(I don't and won't pretend to know some of these people, but use names when I know them)

Teams running back to camp to get parts for other teams, teams giving up their spares to keep a competitor with a break in the competition.

Sunday morning, Camo (PBB Moderator) and his wife Lisa, (she drives the orange Formula Toy) stopped by our camp. I was out walking our dogs, when I get to the RV, Machelle has a rose. Lisa gave it to her for Mother's Day! She said she thought all of the mom's out there should get a rose on Mother's Day!



We don't know these guys from Adam, Machelle talked to Lisa a little bit on Saturday during the comp, that's it.  I don't know exactly what Adam's position is either, but he worked his ass off helping out on the Modified Stock course all weekend.

I was getting in place to take some pics of Skinny's run on one of the pro courses when I saw this encounter...Skinny and his spotter are getting the car set up in the start gate when someone shoves a shirt and pen into Skinny's car. Without even hesitating, Skinny stops what he's doing and signs the shirt! Name me another motorsport where that's going to happen!


"Skinny" and his spotter, working it.

OK, enough of that, you get the idea.

I was pleasantly surprised to see JA's own Lucas Wood out there, and wearing a judges shirt to boot! Thanks for giving up your time and volunteering to judge Lucas, you did a great job!


Lucas is pretty quick for a big guy, heheh!

Turns out Seth is running last in Group 1, Jody is last in group 2. We walked the courses with some of the competitors before the 10am start time. Machelle and I tried to figure what line we would take to see how our ideas compared to the competitiors lines. We generally had the same ideas. Sometimes they worked, sometimes they didn't.

Seth and Jack got creative and backed through a particularly tight gate following a bonus gate on Sunday, when they were running first in their group (start orders are reversed on Sunday), too bad they had to give their plan away. That idea proved to be brilliant, and highly entertaining to watch! Jack is a workhorse, built like an NFL tight end. He held Seth on a particularly nasty off camber section for what seemed to be an eternity, particularly to him.


Hang on Jack, hang on!

This was the first event for the new Formula Toy series. Only two entries made the start this time. I hope to see this "formula" series take off. It looks like it is a lot of fun, and is relatively affordable compared to other divisions.

Lisa, in the orange Hendrix Motorsports entry, ran first Saturday, and did a nice job getting through the first course, which had a nasty off camber shelf to climb.


First ever Formula Toy in competition, and a woman is driving!

The Tin Bender entrant in Formula Toy, featuring TA's JRT spotting, and ReTodd's car, was true to form when they went next. I tell you, if Todd had been there, he'd have been proud! They went from four wheels to laying on their side in one gate!


Closely followed by the "short bus" being the first to flop, with a man driving!

Seth twisted up his front driveshaft during his fourth (of five) courses on Saturday.


What's that dangly thing?

Kelly (KCJ401), crew chief for RawXRacing, had Seth's spare back at camp, and ran back to get it. Then he had driveshaft issue's of his own to contend with, as Jody grenaded a front driveshaft u-joint.


Jody "helping" Kelly with u-joint repairs!

Seth and Jody both had good days on Saturday, pretty festive mood in our camps that night... SteveN from PBB and his family stopped in for a bit, as did Jeff Mello and his spotter, some of us wandered down to the RawXRacing camp, where the women (guessing) had prepared an all you can eat taco bar.

Seth, Machelle and I had a grilled London broil, baked potato, corn on the cob, and salad for dinner...damn RV camping SUCKS!

Roll Over Roy stopped by camp for a bit. Roy's stories are always entertaining, he had Jack and I busting our guts laughing.

I'm glad to report that Super G is alive and well, and the Safari Gard trail buggy is back in action. Some of you will remember that he had a NASTY roll at TDS.

Sunday morning dawned another beautiful day in the desert. Seth and Jack had high hopes for the day. Sunday's courses would be the same basic courses as Saturday's, only run backwards. The pro's were on a whole new set of courses, this time, on the same side of the rock pile as the Mod Stock guys. Doesn't get any better than this from a spectators viewpoint...get to see it all!


Does it get any better than this?

There had been a conversation Saturday night that the Mod Stock courses were better designed going one way than the other, and they were generally easier on Sunday. If there is any truth to that, Little Rich is a clever bastard, and outsmarted them. Saturday's courses seemed much easier than what the teams had in store for them on Sunday. It was going to be a GREAT day to be a spectator!

There was lots of action on all of the courses Sunday. Unbelievable driving, spotting, and some carnage. To the best of my knowledge, no one was hurt severly in any of the roll overs, which is always a good thing.


These guys righted their Toy, and finished the course.

We decided to get while the getting was good, and took off before the final standings were announced. Congrats to Jody and RawXRacing for their third place finish. It was an impressive performance!



RawXRacers!

Another big thanks to all that made this weekend come together, you did a great job!

View ALL of the pictures (412 of them) taken by Bob and Machelle this weekend.