CalROCS Round 3, Brown Valley CA – New Holes, New Rocks, and Llamas

Saturday June 25th: The weekend started in the early hours with the drivers walking the new courses that Kurtis Harryman had laid out for them. Harryman knew all the drivers were disappointed that they could not run at Donnor this weekend. The amount of snowfall, the Tahoe area received this winter broke records and is still melting off. This is why Round 3 of the CalROCS extreme racing series had to be moved to Brown Valley.

CalROCS had a few tricks up their sleeves to pick up the drivers’ spirits. Harryman brought out “Frank’s Backhoe, Inc.” to help change the landscape a bit. They dug into the earth, making hug holes around the already challenging obstacles and found massive boulders that were used to build rock gardens to flex all the rigs to the max. The drivers could not wait to hit these new obstacles and be the first to conquer them. Harryman set up bonus lines around the best new lines to encourage the drivers to put on a show for the crowd.

The CalROCS Sunday “WFO Shoot Out” is quickly becoming the highlight of weekends. After the final scores are tallied up, the top competitors line up for the Shoot Out. This weekend Shoot Out was different, they decided to open it up to the drivers to suggest what they for obstacles. Rob Kaufman stepped up and suggests a side-by-side race with round eliminations. It did not take much to convince CalROCS to set up the course. The course started with a short sprint to the rock piles, a race out into the field past the llamas, a few quick turns, then continued up and over the rock garden, though a few quick obstacles, past the crowd, and the first one across the finish line advanced to the next round. An unexpected obstacle was the llamas! After the llamas were cleared off the track the drivers hit the course two at a time. Engines roared through the field and drivers picked their line through the rock garden, the heats were very close. Competitors were able pass in the field and over the rocks but in the end it came down to who could get the best line through the rock garden and whose rig could stay running after the hard weekend of competition. Mike Turner took 1st, with Chris Brown in a close 2nd, so if you cannot make it out for the whole weekend, make sure you come on Sunday and stay for the “WFO Shoot Out”

The weekend was full of high throttle action and hard hitting carnage. The new holes kept the competitors on the gas kicking up more dirt as they tried to maneuver through. The placement of the new found boulders forced the drivers take different lines than what they had taken at past Brown Valley events.  The 1st place “Any Seven Off-Road Trophies” for round 3 went to, Ashley Hall in the Stock Mods, Jim Brown for the Full Bodies, Dan Patterson in the Pro Mods, Rob Kaufman in the Super Mod, and Justin Hall in the Unlimited Class.

To learn more about the CalROCS Extreme Off-Road series, check out www.calrocs.com.

 

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