On August 3rd, 2002,
the Rocket City Rock Crawlers put on their first RCAA-sanctioned
event near Huntsville, AL. RCAA came onboard pretty much at the
last minute, after signing on the Rocket City club as the Southeast
regional division hosting club. The club is now the official
host for all RCAA events to be held in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia,
Florida, Arkansas, and Tennessee.
Long before RCAA came
around, though, the club members had been hard at work grooming
one of the toughest several hundred feet of trail in Alabama.
Held on one of the club member's private land, the course was
basically one long hill. Sounds simple, right? Wrong!
That steep, wooded
hill, was tight, twisty, and full of gigantic rocks and boulders.
To make even more difficult, the organizers placed markers in
such a way that forced the competitors to take the most difficult
lines possible. Some were so tight, in fact, the folks running
full-width axles could barely fit through at all.
15 competitors took
to the trail during the day and at least a third of them failed
to finish due to breakage. Most of the rigs sported serious modifications,
including 1-ton running gear, but they were no match for these
rocks. The trail claimed axles, joints, coil-over shocks, and
even busted a transfer case in two.
The real surprise of
the day was 16-year old Ory Stephens, who made easy work of the
trail in his custom-built buggy. The rig sported mostly Toyota
parts and climbed the entire hill with barely a bark of the tires.
Ory's 72 point score just barely edged out Ken Blume's 79, but
the rest of the pack fell much further behind, with the nearest
score of 129 bringing Travis Smith into third place.
Place |
Name |
Rig |
Home
Town |
Score |
1 |
Ory Stephens |
Toyota
Rail |
Chattanooga,
TN |
72 |
2 |
Ken Blume |
Jeep
CJ-7 |
Lowell,
AR |
79 |
3 |
Travis
Smith |
Bronco
Tube |
Hartselle,
AL |
129 |
4 |
Joey
Richardson |
Jeep
TJ |
Memphis,
TN |
141 |
5 |
Joe Duvall |
Toyota
Rail |
Rossville,
GA |
150 |
6 |
Lee Buffington |
Jeep
CJ-5 |
Fort
Payne, AL |
157 |
7 |
Sam Gillis |
Jeep
CJ-8 |
Fultondale,
AL |
162 |
8 |
Ricky
Bozarth |
Toyota
Truck |
Woodville,
AL |
166 |
9 |
Keith
Bailey |
Jeep
CJ-7 |
Fultondale,
AL |
172 |
10 |
Ricky
Garrett |
Ford
Bronco |
Chickamauga,
GA |
173 |
11 |
Clay
Herron |
Jeep
CJ-7 |
Madison,
AL |
224 |
12 |
Scott
Lang |
Jeep
YJ |
Secton,
AL |
252 |
13 |
Gary
Brooks |
Toyota
Truck |
Rainsville,
AL |
280 |
14 |
Brent
Mann |
Toyota
FJ-40 |
Nashville,
TN |
280 |
15 |
Allen
Jones |
Jeep
YJ |
Secton,
AL |
280 |