WHAT: Hallowheelin' at AOAA
WHEN: November 1-3, 2024
WHERE: Rausch Creek Off-road Park, Tremont, PA
MEETING TIME: when you get there
MEETING PLACE: at the park
CB CHANNEL: FRS radio
RESTRICTIONS: none
COST: $70/veh & driver, $25/passenger (+$60 park membership) per day
CAMPING: free primitive camping

Info: www.rc4x4.org/

The List:

Harry/Hannah
Mike M
Mike A
Chris/Jodi
Matt
Jeff P
Anthony
Mark

---------------

Short recap:

2024 humble Pie, Field & Forest Recreation Area, Harrisville NH
Task: 7 red trails, 28 checkpoints in 24hrs to qualify for a next day timed bounty run.
We finished the task in 6th with a time of 7 hours 15 min. 
Bounty run challenge performance yielded a 2nd place time at 14 min 31 seconds!
Almost tasted the pie, yet humbled by the trails, the bounty run experience, the new / old friends, and the meaningful hand shakes that were shared throughout the weekend.
Thanks to Bob Siwinski and Liza for a great event. I can't imagine what it takes to run your beautiful property and the constant effort it takes for these events.  Thanks to the supporting FLX4x4 team and new friends made.  Harrison H. Hendricks Hannah Hendricks Mollie Denis Reid Denis Michael Maskalans Caleb Spillane Joe Bailey John Mackiewicz Rob Connelly MD Wing and so many more.
Lastly could not have done it without my spotter Nick Pearl, and his wife and girls for letting me steal him for a few days!  Nick Pearl you did an amazing job, I still can't believe what we accomplished and I could not have done it without you.   



LONG recap (fair warning LONG):

Back story:

Last fall I somehow talked myself into building a new buggy.  The goal: lighter, shorter, quieter, more agile, trail comfortable, budget built (moon style) buggy to get back into higher level rock crawling and transition from 4400 racing to wreck wheeling.  It would be a 4cyl Ecotec transaxle car.  Engine sourced from a 2007 cobalt.  New tricks for me to add in:  turbo, transaxle mid engine, 4 wheel / rear steer, superduty 60’s, fully symmetrical front and rear mechanicals, and 42” competition compound BFG red labels.  A few junkyard parts and some tricks that would be sure to hurt some feelings.  In the back of my mind i was hesitant to admit that driving this new build was the feeling of being beaten by Bob’s property in 2018ish era.  I recall blowing 300M RCVs at the gate of Boulderdash (not a red trail) on DOT trepadores in the race buggy, and not returning since.  It had been years that place left me with a bitter taste but I knew it was time I needed to return.  Over the 2023/24 Holidays Nick Pearl walks into my shop and sees the subframe of the new car on the floor with only the transaxle sitting on it, 4 bald mock up tires, and a seat.  He says “This thing is going to be badass. You are gonna get an invite to Humble Pie and you are going to clean up out there with me pulling rope for you!  You do it, I'll be there!”  That really resonated with me for the next few months.  So much so that I made the goal that the car would be done for the Field and Forest season opener as a shake down run and I planned to get it done.  When the time came, I ordered a ticket and showed up for the season opener, brand new untested car.  Harry and the gang took me right into the thick of things.  Black trails and Red trails. Very happy.  Not many new buggy blues.  Throughout the season, I continued to settle in with the new car as it was outperforming the driver still.  After many trips and even 3 to Field and forest, Drakeville, Rausch creek, AOAA-  I must have been doing something right as I got an invite to Humble Pie 2024.  I had never been to a Humble Pie.  I don't really know many of the hometown favorite locals and still barely know my way around the place. I was and still am out of my comfort zone there.  None the less Nick stepped up and said this thing is awesome, we are doing it.

Humble Pie Event:

Hold onto your butts.  Rolling in Thursday afternoon with the 48’ trailer after the 6.5hr trip we set up camp and started on a plan for the event.  The challenge was set: run the 7 red trails on the property in 24 hours to qualify for a bounty run challenge that had a 25 minute time limit.  The stakes were set as bragging rights, the infamous pie plate, and 2k$ winnings to the rear steer class.   Noon Friday till noon Saturday was the allotted time.  Go!  Drivers meeting at Friday 10:30am, nothing to report or protest.  We did need a plan on how to achieve the requested video of “more balls” drop during the competition.  I had never run this obstacle, so this was a concern for me if my spotter needed to video and spot me at the same time.  Nonetheless, Nick said he had no worries.  We planned to run with Reid Denis at the start in his drag axle LS based buggy and would lean on his navigation skills to get us rolling.  The horn blew and about 20 rigs rushed into the woods ahead of us as we planned.  I didn't want to be a bottleneck and we had time to run our day.  We started at Elm street-  in the back we made our way through the trail.  At one point I noticed 2 hours had elapsed.  Nick was getting impatient as was I.  We broke from the group and passed a few cars and started finding our own solo grove and smashed on.  The new headset bluetooth coms in our helmets and super winch were doing awesome pulling us through obstacles as needed. I had never had help in my ear, and Nick really had never spotted me, nor spotted a rear steer car.  We learned, we perfected it, we laughed, and we continued on.  “Good talk.”  We finished up Elm street and then Sucker Punch.  From there we headed to Everything Sucks and Everything Sucks Redux.  Back through camp for a quick pit stop and then we hit Summit street and Easy street.  Back down around through camp again we headed to our last set of trails as darkness was setting in.  Through Nelson's crawl, then Sidewinder, then back to the office to check in for our time record.  To our surprise only 5 rigs had completed this task before us when we checked into the office and showed our photo evidence of 28 checkpoint signs.  We did it in 7 hours and 15 minutes!  Doing the long trails first paid off as now there were many broken rigs and carnage we had avoided.  Late that night, Ried and Joe came back to camp in the middle of their run with a broken short side axle shaft.  As a fellow competitor I was able to help them and changed out the broken stub on the shaft assembly and handed it back off to others to reinstall to get them back on their way.  Food and sleep was next. 

Bounty Run Time Challenge:

Saturday morning, qualifying 6th, we had to be on the line early AM.  Nick and I took the car out and walked the bounty run in its entirety, at least 2 times.  We noted winch points, winch plan, and other lines if I ran out of talent.  I had never been on 50% of the bounty run in a car.  I had only winched over breakover rock and then bailed with a fluid leak at a prior trip.  9AM bounty runs started in qualifying order.  Local(?) big name Paul Barns with the fastest qualifying time started the day first with a solid run, no winching and completed in 16min44sec.  He got a 2min bonus for no winching to put his time on the board at 14:44.  We watched 2 more rigs run it, and then I headed back to belt in as we were #6.  The horn blew and I was off.  With Nick in my ear I got rolling but soon bogged down for small hiccup even before the spectator groups.  Big slick rocks just got me, but we worked through it quickly.  Back on the line and through the rocks we made it to one of the main obstacles. A big wet hole, rightfully named Bung Hole i believe. I had driven it once in the dry before but failed on it again in the wet another time prior.  Today it was wet, so we planned to winch after 1-2 attempts.  Nick hooked me up and pulled right through.  Some blasting through rock walls above after I made it to breakover rock.  This was the furthest point I had ever been on this trail set.  Lined up, hit the car up almost right on the line I wanted- lots of wheel speed and boost, some rear steer wiggling and a reset, I just got the car where it needed to go to clear over.  Spectator crowd cheered and fueled Nick and I.  At this point I was in a total state of excitement- and forgot what car I was in.  I hit the next half of the course like I was in a 4400 car on a hammer’s goat trail with bypass shocks and a V8, or at least that's what it felt like in my head.  To my and many spectators' amazement I smashed through the second half of the course where the big stuff is at a leading pace.  We had one more quick winch before the Taint corner and then smashed up through and around to the finish.  Bob blew the horn at the finish line and came over to shake my Hand.  All smiles from him and me as I had just completed my first rookie bounty run.  The supporting team and friends surrounded the car and we all enjoyed the moment.  Finding out later that I had put down the day's leading time of 14:31, was icing on the cake (pie?)  What a rush- we were in the lead.  We were actually in the lead and held that lead the rest of the day.  The day ended with a great BBQ and fellowship and some shootout shenanigans on Elm Street climb.  The night ended but the pit in my stomach didn’t as there were 5 more rigs (slowest qualifiers) to run the next day and anyone could still take the lead.  The next morning came with a change of plans as we had planned to leave at 7am to get Nick back home to his Girls ASAP, but with our time holding in the lead we had to stay.  I walked by Andy Bory's trailer and gave him a smirk and a quick jab that if anyone takes it from me it better be him.  We walked to the line again and watched a few drag axle cars in anticipation. Our teammate Caleb also put on a pretty good show with a great effort to finish out of time after a minor breakage on course but an impressive repair and finish.  Up next was Andy's run.  He was moving.  Fast. He had won in 2019 and was no rookie.  He had a few hiccups and winches but in the end he pulled off a 12:25 and took the win!  I shook his hand and we both knew he took it from me, but he earned it.  I let him know that while I was walking by his car earlier on the line and he was nowhere to be found, I noticed his seat mount was hanging on with a few tack welds on one side and missing some hardware on the other.  I gave it a good shake for safety and then decided it was fine.  If it was my car and as the driver moments before a run, I wouldn't have wanted to know so i didn't rush to find him or tell him till after.  We both laughed about it.  After the last few bounty runs, we helped clear the course tape and headed back to camp, rolled out for the 6.5hr drive home.  Landed uneventfully and Nick returned home.

What a crazy event and experience.  Definitely humbling in many ways.  Thanks to everyone that helps and attends, friends, teammates, Bob and Liza, Nick my spotter, and all involved in this great sport pushing us to do great things.

Photo credits: Field & Forest Recreation Area Hannah Hendricks Lauren Siwinski

Looking forward to this! Hope the ole cherokar is healthy for the trip

after Otter's trail clean up we also signed Pitman Rock!