BEAVERUN Snow Run Jan 30th

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                      [color=009900]The Park[/color]
   
      BeaveRun Motorsports Complex is a relatively new facility located north of Pittsburgh, in Wampum, PA. It began as a Road Racing course with great elevation changes, fast sweeping corners, and awesome layout. It was constructed by a car enthusiast but quickly became a favorite among motorcycle racers like myself, also.

I first traveled to BeaveRun in 2004 for a private track day that was organized by a fellow USGPRU competitor. My friend Rich and I put in over 100 laps in one day on this fairly new course and this place was quickly put on everyone’s schedule. In the years following I enjoyed some very exciting races at BeaveRun including some first place finishes. (Beating Rich was my personal favorite)

I have been on the mailing list for the track since my first visit, so I have been trying to stay current with all their new additions. Needless to say that when Dirt Days @ BeaveRun was announced, I was excited!

Dirt Days @ BeaveRun was being promoted as a safe “LEGAL” place to test both your driving skills and your vehicles off-road capabilities.  In the past they have even organized a Halloween night run.
 
                        [color=009900]The Build-up[/color]

It’s about 12 noon Friday. I’m still at work trying to focus, but all I can think of is exploring a new park.  Ever since Cora and I took a 2.5 week road trip last summer, I have become addicted to exploring new parks and remote or desolate areas. Our road trip took us to Rausch Creek, PA (Club Comp.) then the still burning, deserted town of Centralia, PA for an all day self tour in the CJ, then south to BIG DOGS, Virginia (Ice Breaker Run) and then Back to Rausch Creek (RCROCS Comp.) I guess the excitement of discovering new trails, meeting new people, and having to be prepared for anything is still alive in me.

                        [color=009900]The Plan[/color]

We were planning on loading up both my CJ buggy and Cora’s CJ, heading down to Cranberry Township, PA (20 min away from BeaveRun) Spending the night at the Marriot, then heading to the track Saturday am.

                    [color=009900]The Trip (reality)[/color]
The phone rings… It’s Cora. She tells me the Super duty batteries are dead; she is going to jumpstart it and start loading the truck.  What could possibly go wrong?  The phone rings again within 10 minutes… its Cora again, however this time her enthusiastic tone has been doused in total disgust!  She rapidly updates me as to the last 10 minutes of horror. It seems that while opening the hood to her CJ7, the prop rod fell down into the spinning fan blades. The small clip that usually holds it safely in place until needed must have been stolen by those pesky CJ rust gremlins. Needless to say the fan blades were not happy about their uninvited guest, and quickly took refuge in the radiator. After disposing of all the lime green snow, she reluctantly drove her Jeep back into the shop.  

Now most people at this point would have accepted defeat, No not Cora. I could hear it in her voice, her mind was feverously working. Trying to come up with a strategy on how to get her CJ repaired and in its place on the trailer. Sadly, the radiator was well beyond repair.

We got the Super duty fired up, hooked up the small trailer, loaded my Jeep buggy and headed towards Pittsburg. The weather cooperated for most of the 4 hour trip. However we did hit some heavy lake effect snow off Lake Erie, at the intersection of 90 & 79, but it only lasted for 20 miles or so.

As if the start to our weekend wasn’t exciting enough, the driver side rear trailer tire blew the inner sidewall just as we hit the snow band.  After a BAJA style pit stop, we were back on the road.  We were planning to meet MikeMike aka (mindless) at our hotel about 10pm. He was picking up a Dodge Ram cab just north of BeaveRun. After a late dinner and some witty conversation with the waiter/bartender/busboy, Cora and I retired to our room and Mike retired to his back seat.

We arrived at the track early and started to get our Jeep unloaded. We were fast approached by Chris, the events coordinator at BeaveRun. Chris was very enthusiastic about today’s event and eager to show us a great time.  

The track has added an impressive building to the grounds.  It contains meeting rooms, bathrooms with showers, technical training and expo areas. It was monstrous.  We soon had a rather large group hanging around Mike’s Dakota and my Jeep. We were clearly the Big Kids on the playground!

After a brief drivers meeting we headed out to the trails.
Chris and most of his trail guides were running “really” clean looking Toyota FJ’s. I helped one of the guys who pulled up next to us get his Dodge Raider started.  Yes, you are reading that correctly! His battery was dead, and would not take a jump so I dragged him around the gravel and blacktop parking lot for a few laps with all four wheels were locked up. Finally it found enough traction to bump start. It was a funny sight.

Our first obstacle was a 3ft deep water hole filled with 2” thick ice chunks. The dirt that was removed to form the water hole was piled up just beyond and created a fairly steep climb out if the icy water. While this obstacle captured more than a few vehicles with little ground clearance, Mike and I were anxious for more of a challenge.  The “GAS LINE” trail has a relatively short but fun rocky hill climb area.  But we wanted more.

Before lunch one of the guides walked us down a few more difficult trails, “MONKEY BARS”& “GRAPE APE”. Now this is more like it! Monkey bars was filled with off camber, hills and bowls running along a small ridge. It was littered with trees. I found it difficult to fit my CJ through some spots without 3 point turns. This trail was very fun but definitely not wide enough for a Dakota on full widths. But without mike as camera man, I would have never gotten such good photos. The next section called Grape Ape was similar and just as much fun. This area was packed with some very challenging lines for all levels of rigs.
 
After lunch, Chris and his crew decided to show us “VICTORY ROCK” (insert dramatic music here) located just a short distance away, we wound our way down along a hillside to the spot. Although Victory Rock is named after one rock grouping, the area is littered with rock and boulders strewn all over. This spot proved to be the most fun we had all day. A guy from The Erie Jeep People Club driving a SOA YJ, was the first to attempt to conquer Victory Rock.  The Dunlop shod YJ climbed its way up the near vertical 4ft rock face, despite being covered with snow. A broken front axle joint ended his forward progress so close to Victory, when it took out both the ears on the inner and stub shafts of his Dana 30. While I did conquer Victory Rock, it was in no way as impressive as the previous run on 35” Dunlop Mud Rovers.

We all enjoyed ourselves in the rocky playground for the next hour or so before we headed back to the pits with the three legged YJ.

We met up with Chris and his crew and thanked them for an enjoyable day of 10 degree wheeling.  He told us we didn’t get the chance to see the best they had to offer… “BeavR Pond”. He mentioned that our club is welcome to reserve a 2 day event with them. The possibility for a small club competition, maybe some night wheeling and camping was discussed.  I’m confident in saying that we will definitely be making the trip to Wampum Pennsylvania again.  

Next time, minus a hood prop rod!

-Erik
http://www.mudnuts.org/modules/Gallery/
More pictures are posted in the Gallery

For more info about BeaveRun Motorsports Complex visit
http://www.beaverun.com/dirt_days.php