New format to Rock Crawling?

Lil' Rich

Registered User
Within the Trail Hero event is a feature called the Trail Breaker Challenge. This is a cumulative idea from Myself, Jesse Haines, Tracy Jordan, and Jason Paule. For the most part we have kicked this idea around over the last 5 years and I decided to pull the trigger to move forward with this concept...

The Idea:
Our #1 goal when thinking of this event was to reach back into our roots of trail wheeling and find out what makes a great driver. To do this I asked a few very skilled drivers what their thoughts were. The number one answer was not just being able to drive the line, but see the line and feel it as you drive.

One thing that has displaced much of this process in Competitive Rock Crawling is the ability to watch the driver ahead of you, see what their line is and if it works. Once the line is figured out, it almost becomes a game of copy-cat driving and much of what separates teams are mistakes and vehicles.

Therefore, to find out who is the best, Drivers will not be allowed to watch one another on the course. Think old school early rock crawling days like Warn Nationals in Las Cruces. The canyon wound around and made it nearly impossible for teams to watch each other on course.

Next is how to score the event. A frustrating portion of Rock Crawling is the human element. Judging an event is literally one of the hardest things to do, and just like a football game, there is always an eventual error the interpretation of the rules, or something didn't get caught.

In the same sense, if it is based on time throughout the trail, it becomes a rock race, and takes a different type of skill. When this happens vehicles often break, clog up trails, lengthen the event, and usually it happens on the more flat ground rather than the real obstacle.

Both ways of scoring the event work well for their respective types of motorsports. Both KOH, W.E.ROCK, and Old School have done well with their formats and I love the excitement each bring to their own version of our sport. I for one, never want to compete against either Dave, Big Rich, or Craig. Instead what I want to do is Complement their efforts and focus on our roots as well as give the hidden talent somewhere in the trails an honest chance to show themselves.

To score this event we are using the element of time and points, but we will only score the vehicle while it is trying the actual obstacle. Each obstacle completed will reward the team the point value given to that obstacle based on difficulty. Overall Time from each course would be the tie breaker. Therefore time would start once the front tires touched the "Rock" and end when the vehicle has completely made the single Obstacle. If the vehicle cannot complete the obstacle in the allotted time, then they will receive a Zero points, max time and then be timed for their attempt at the bypass (Which is also not easy).

What confines the vehicle to the course is the obstacle itself, there is no boundary, cones, etc. With this we believe that this will not turn into a rock race as it will take definitive skill and slow movement to actually climb the obstacle. As much as these are waterfalls and obstacles, they will surely need to be driven with precision, which cannot be done with speed.

Drivers will be able to walk the trail for one hour prior to the start, and the order will be randomly drawn by teams the night prior at our Kickoff Party.

With all this, and the response that we have received for this feature, we will be expanding the event to 10 total positions. 9 of which will be hand selected by myself, and the last position to be voted on by the members of Pirate4x4.com.

The group that Pirate votes on will be selected by the drivers of the event plus myself, 10 total candidates.

I look forward to hosting such a unique event with the help from the industry and the drivers and hope this allows us to reach into our past and create something that can be really fun to watch and partake in for the future.

What do you think?
 

Coco

Well-Known Member
Location
Lehi, UT
Sounds like it is going to be a BLAST!!! Can't wait to watch this!! If I can help in anyway, let me know.
 

Lil' Rich

Registered User
It is free to spectators to watch, but they will need to pay State Park entrance fees if they plan to park in the State Boundaries at Sand Hollow. UPLA will be on hand accepting Donations in place of paying an admission fee.

We are always looking for help and could use some for this event. One of the logistical issues for this format is keeping the drivers from watching their upcoming stage. For this, we have put together several easy-ups with sides on them where they can hang out between stages. They will be set up at the finish of their previous stage. We will need officials to prep the driver and make sure they start their stage on time. One official per stage for this dedicated task.

The next position we need is a Scoring Official. This is easy, start the clock when the vehicle touches the first rock, stop the clock at the end of the stage. Scoring Officials will have a card that they'll need to record the teams score and time on their stage. Scores are determined by a point value given for the difficulty of obstacle. For example, the first stage has 3 obstacles teams must finish in 15 minutes. 1st Waterfall is worth 100 points, the second is worth 75 points, the third is worth 50 points. If the team finishes within time, they will get a score of 225 points and a record of how much time it took. If they time out on the third obstacle, they will receive max time and the points they had accumulated, which would be 175.

The scoring Official will also need to make sure that their is no Radio Communication devices in the driver's helmet, which must be checked prior to every Stage.

Lastly, we will need a couple recovery rigs. Volunteers for recovery will also be asked to assist with crowd control.
 

ChestonScout

opinions are like Jeeps..
Location
Clinton, Ut
I know ive seen it somewhere but whats the dates again?

I could possibly volunteer for recovery. 8k lb rig and a 15k lb winch with 54s and rear steer usually makes recovery cake
 

Lil' Rich

Registered User
I know ive seen it somewhere but whats the dates again?

I could possibly volunteer for recovery. 8k lb rig and a 15k lb winch with 54s and rear steer usually makes recovery cake

I know just the spot I could use your help.

This particular aspect of the event is on Thursday, October 6th. The entire Trail Hero event goes from October 5th-8th and features over 80 trail rides guided by Desert RATS, a W.E.ROCK Rock Crawl, and Ultra4 Endurance Race, and a KOW Bounty Course similar to the Backdoor Challenge where the winner get's $2000. Basically it is everything that entails the Rock Sports Industry stuffed into one 4 day event.

www.thetrailhero.com
 
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