Ryan decided to give class 4 a try at Rausch creeks\' RCROCS series with the Aussie locker buggy- i volunteered to spot and give him a hand this weekend.
The ride down was uneventful, mike wolf with his TJ and Ryan and Liz headed down with myself not being too far behind. We rolled in after dark, enjoyed a clear sky around a bon fire and headed for sleep early as tech started at 7:30.
Ryan and i were up early, checked in, passed tech with the addition of a 2nd fire ext and headed out to walk the courses. They were about as evil as we expected for class four and we decided our goal was not to get last place and keep the buggy off its lid. 50% of our goal was met as you will read on.
we were second inline at our first course, had a plan, and started. i believe we made the first two gates with a little maneuvering pushing the buggy harder than i have ever seen on its roll limit. made it to the camel back at the top and unexpectedly got hung up and ran out of time. received a score of 38.
our second course wasn\'t as much off camber, but rather more technical obstacles. made it through the first gate, but wile positioning for the second trying to squeeze as much as possible with a backup, Atom took a hard tumble down the back side of the course. Ryan was ok, and the buggy appeared to be ok, but soon found a spindle had ripped out of the buggy and left atom immovable. we were done for the day.
After extraction by crane and lifted back to the trailer and close inspection, it appeared that less than gradeded nuts had striped out and a ujoint cab had popped.
Mike wolf had broken a rear shaft earlier in the day wheeling, so we had two trucks to fix. 571 hadn\'t made it out of the trailer yet, but was ready. After a stubborn locker and shaft change, a few new bolts and ujoint cap, all three rigs headed out for some casual wheeling the rest of the afternoon. we ran trail five, which atom for the first time walked up the left side with newly water filled front tires, the big O, a few others, and came back to the comp to watch some action on the two hands climbs where spectators still gathered.
We knew thunderstorms and rain were headed our way, and in the morning packed up and were on the road in the rain by 9am. uneventful ride home.
Another great trip, Atom survived a few class 4 courses, and 571 is now back after the crash. good weekend, awesome wings on the comp course for 5$!!!
Smike