ROCKCRAWLER.com - NARRCA - Showdown at Katemcy

Rockcrawling as a sport and as a pastime has taken off over the last two years like a gale force tornado. More and more, people are turning from mild trail riding to building or wanting to build all-out crawling machines capable of taking on the worst rocks in the world. But even with those really cool custom-built rigs, most of the competitions open to serious crawlers have historically been near the country's coasts. For many, though, the first serious "rockcrawling" competition was held in Las Cruces New Mexico.

Since the start of this new faction of the sport - the faction called competitive rockcrawling - local wheelers have taken to the nightly campfire and wondered how they would or could stack up against the best in the country under the same circumstance and on the same trails.

Well, now Rich Klein of Cal-Rocs is giving people across the country that opportunity. And in turn, Rich is finding a number of new places to wheel with obstacles that people never thought existed. Thus the birth of NARRCA (formally titled The North American Regional Rock Crawling Association), an off-shoot of it's larger more professional brother Cal-Rocs ( California Rock-Crawling & Off Road Championship Series). NARRCA is designed to promote regional events with local drivers and get more people involved in the sport of competitive rockcrawling.

The first such event in Texas took place the weekend of April 4-6 at Kruse Off Road Park near Katemcy, Texas. This sprawling 800 acre garden of granite is better known throughout the state as "Katemcy Rocks." The Kruse family opens their property up about two weekends a month to recreational four-wheelers but this competition just blew everyone away.

The two-day competition really began on Friday with the training of the local judges and a tech talk by Rich going over strategies and giving the new drivers and judges a chance to learn the ropes of competitive rockcrawling before going out to compete on the actual course. From talking to various competitors, I understand this was a real eye-opener.

The competition was broke down into two classes: Pro-Modified and Modified Stock. The Modified Stock class consisted of vehicles with 35" or smaller tires and stock or near-stock bodies. For example, "All vehicles must retain their original back body corner designs (no dovetailing permitted). All vehicles must have rear lights for stop/turn and driving. Aftermarket lights may be used." Vehicles with larger then 35" tires, custom mods like hydraulic steering or tube chassis run in the Pro-Modified class.

Example: Modified Stock

Example: Pro Modified

Both classes ran a series of six trail sections on each of two days (six trail sections on Saturday and six trail sections on Sunday). Even though they run the same courses, some selection of cones are considered optional (extra points) for the Modified Stock classes and are generally required for the vehicles in the Pro-Modified class. Vehicles/Teams (one spotter/one driver) accumulate points for things like running over cones, backing up, stopping, etc. Each section has a max point value and a time limit. In other words, if you score the max number of points or take too long going through the section you are done with that section.

Example of the terrain. Notice the orange and green cones. Green cones mean optional points.

If you missed this first Texas event or heard enough about it to whet your appetite for competition rockcrawling, then be sure to get prepared to attend the next Texas event. NARRCA will bring round 2 of their series back to Katemcy on September 12-14 2003. Be prepared to go play on the rocks!