CalROCS Season Finale Leaves The Crowds Happy.

CalROCS 2010 championship proved to be more than exciting with all the teams fighting to keep up the points and standings throughout the whole weekend and the crowds that showed up to see the carnage were impressed. 

Teams from as far as Canada and Virginia came out to test their skills and try their luck at the season finale at the beautiful Donner Ski Ranch in sunny California. 

Justin Hall from Team Rockhard showed up in his new Unlimited Class buggy and showed off his driving skills while his dad took on the challenge of hopping around the course spotting his son on some amazing drops and crevices that were a part of the bonus lines.

Good job Justin for taking first place in the Unlimited Class!  A great win considering it was only his third  time driving the new rig. 

Be sure and check back for the dates for the 2011 season of CalROCS!  http://www.calrocs.com/ 

A Close Call On The Freeway!

The event 'Sierra Trek', held at Meadow Lake near Truckee CA is awesome and I recommend putting it on the bucket list!   After packing everything up in the Jeep trailer and making our way down the hill we ran into trouble. The trailer hitch somehow broke off  when we were doing about 60 mph downhill on I-80 in Sunday traffic.

I just happened to look in the rear view mirror to see something shiny bounce down the freeway and almost hit the semi truck that was following us! It didn’t register in my head what that could have been and I was just about to say, “pull over” when the trailer snapped off the Jeep and swung around to the driver's side in the other lane! The safety chain held and before I knew it the Jeep swung hard to the right hand side of the freeway, luckily there was a big emergency lane and then a wide shoulder area. We hit the dirt, went up the bank and couldn’t stop; we lost control, came back down hard onto the freeway and started doing 360's downhill!

We couldn’t see anything but a big dust cloud that we kept rotating through. We got pelted with pebbles and a huge wave of dirt. I thought for sure we were going to get rammed by the semi truck as all I could hear was the screeching of brakes and skidding on the pavement, it was a really ugly sound. I was petrified and I was thinking about how well the roll bar would hold up if we started to roll; all I could do was hold on and wait, those seconds were very long ones!  We had no idea where we were stopped as the dust and dirt hung in the air for what seemed like forever. Finally I realized we were on the right shoulder and thankfully out of the way of downhill traffic. We did two full turns, which seemed like 10, and ended up facing traffic when we finally stopped. I didn’t worry about rolling so much as I did by the thought of getting plowed by the semi truck! I would have taken a direct hit!

Amazingly the Jeep stayed upright!  I think it was because of our Raceline Monster Beadlock rims that didn't bust a bead while we were rotating round and round down the freeway!  After I composed myself our buddy at Raceline got a "thank you" call!

The trailer ended up jackknifed on its side and stuck up under the back bumper.  I thought for sure that all the stuff in the trailer was going to be all over the freeway and if that were the case I really didn’t care, we weren't the new hood ornament on the semi! The only thing that came out of the trailer was the five gallon water can (far bottom left corner)! That was a heck of a pack job!

This is the Jeep facing uphill traffic on I-80 after we finally stopped, Whew, what a ride that was!  

The semi truck pulled over with one other car and the drivers came running up to see if we were okay. The truck driver was amazed that we didn’t get killed as he watched the whole thing happening and later told me that he had never seen anything like that in his 20 years of driving truck. He gave Del and I a high five and told Del he had amazing driving skills to have kept us upright and out of the main traffic which is what saved our lives. The CHP finally showed up about a half an hour later and I overheard one of the old timers say, “I see we have a lucky one here today”.

Some acquaintances from another club were coming down the highway returning from the same event and immediately pulled in to help get the trailer upright. They just happened to have a spare tow bar for a trailer and stripped the old bent parts off and replaced them with their stuff. They even had a spare ball hitch but it was too small so we broke out the on board Ready Welder and they put a weld inside the hitch to make it fit and viola we were on our way within about 45 mins. They even took the time to pull over with us at the next exit to check if everything was working okay with the “trail fix” that they did. The off road community is really a great network of people that go over and beyond the call of duty to help a friend or acquaintance in need.

We were both covered in dirt and dust in places that I’m not sure how it even got there and we later discovered there were pebbles in our seats from all the debris flying through the air when we were spinning through the dirt. Whew, that was a close call and we were very, very lucky. It was also a reminder to check your vehicle and equipment before hitting the road.

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Xtreme Outlaws Motor Sports Event

The Grand Sierra hotel in Sparks NV really knows how to put on a show!  Kicking off the event was a pre run of the 250 mile race course that winds through the desert on some pretty harsh back roads that seem to be forgotten.  I was treated to some spectacular views and some pretty knarly wheelin in my old Toyota Land Cruiser that proved once again that she is very capable. 

There is also a motocross event that looks pretty darn exciting and a huge course has been built right here at the hotel so the entertainment is literally steps away.  The pool parties have been awesome, the food is great and the atmosphere has been lively. 

I've had the opportunity to meet several key people in our off road world and of course spreading the word about the BlueRibbon Coalition and the need to keep our public lands open so that we can go and recreate responsibly.

Being a slow poke,  this buggy whizzed right by me when he had the chance. 

Lunch stop in Virginia City.

Besides a snake, jack rabbit and plenty of lizards I ran into some other company on the course. 

More to come from Reno!!

Off Road Champions and Businesses Support The BlueRibbon Coalition

Check out the new video of a great batch of off-road champions and businesses, pitching it up for BlueRibbon Coalition, including Dustin Webster, Lance Clifford, Big Rich Klein, Greg Mulkey, Brad and Roger Lovell, Mike Klensin, Shannon Campbell, and Victor Angon.


We're talking about top names helping to promote the biggest, bad dog on the block -- the BlueRibbon Coalition. See the video and then make sure you join up or add a year to your membership, or get some of your buds to join. These folks are telling us we need to strenghten this national grass roots organization more than ever.

See it here: http://www.sharetrails.org/tv/champions/ 

Awesome, thanks to all these folks/businesses for helping to build the strongest coalition ever...

The Nukizer at Jeep Safari

The minute I laid eyes on this Jeep, I was in love!  The Nukizer has got to be one of the hottest things I have seen out in Moab, and believe me there are a lot of phenominal rigs at Easter Jeep Safari! 

We got the invite to come out to the photo shoot of this and other new rigs from Chrysler and we didn't think twice about it! 

Here are some pictures to drool over.  Caution!  Mouth watering, hand and foot twitching may start to begin!

Some Land Use Updates from Del Albright

From Del's Desk:

Special Land Use Update from Del Albright: 3/22/2010, NOTE: Farmington, NM URGENT letter request #7 below…


1. Land Use Article: I want to make sure you know my latest article on land use and access is available to you and your club/websites. Called “Stop the Stink,” I think you’ll find it an interesting read about what is going on in our country these days. Download/read article here: http://www.delalbright.com/Articles/stink.html

2. Businesses Team Up for Land Use Travel: More and more events, conventions and organizations are asking for my help these days in saving trails and keeping our sports alive. Thank goodness businesses know how important this is and are kicking in to help fund/sponsor some travel. This is worthy of mention because as you’ve probably heard me say before, let’s buy from businesses who are helping us save our trails – those doing something for landuse. For Moab Easter Jeep Safari, I’m proud to be teamed up with some more great off-road outfits – GenRight Off Road is leading the charge at the premier level; Motorsports Fabrication Services (MFS) has spent a week getting tons of fixits and “to do list” stuff done on the Jeep; and Nemesis Industries has kicked in a donation to help as well. See more on this here: http://jeepndel.blogspot.com/

3. RLTC Online Volunteer Training Course: RLTC is a unique (nothing else like it in the recreation/off-road world) online volunteer training course with several hundred students/graduates around the country. If you have it on your desk, it is never too late to start. If you’ve been thinking about starting, now is a good time. Learn more here: http://www.rltc.biz/

4. Land Use Blogs: I am getting pretty good about keeping up my land use blog and you can subscribe to follow right here: http://jeepndel.blogspot.com/. My BlueRibbon partner, Don Amador has a very active blog as well right here: http://thegeneralsrecreationden.blogspot.com/

5. Access Army: if you’ve not seen the new Access Army, with our pens and shovels, please visit: http://www.accessarmy.com/

6. BlueRibbon Coalition: if you’ve not seen the new BlueRibbon Coalition website and magazine, this is worth a cruise through…check it out at http://www.sharetrails.org, these folks are the grassroots leaders nationally for saving trails, sharing trails and keeping our sports alive and well. Join or donate to BRC here: https://www.sharetrails.org/secure/join_or_contribute/

7. Farmington, NM: Glad Run; Choke Cherry: Glade Run Recreation Area contains many serious 4x4 areas, including Choke Cherry, and it's Loren Healy's backyard (Loren is the Current King of the Hammers). The BLM came up with two plans for the area that would mark trails and put existing ones on the map. Now they are coming up with Alternative maps that do not make much sense and do not match up with what the locals think should be done. We need LETTERS from you, please.

PLEASE TAKE FIVE MINUTES TO WRITE A COMMENT TO THE BLM: it’s been made easy with a letter generator here:

http://www.pirate4x4.com/letters

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks, Del

Ps. Thanks to Net10.net, Bob Melani, for hosting my email system and newsletter. http://www.net10.net/

4Wheel Parts March Madness sale and open house

3/13/10

I had a great time at the 4Wheel Parts March Madness sale at their Sacramento, El Camino and I-80 store.  Rigs of every shape, size and color showed up to show off their rigs so there was plenty of big tires to stand around and kick while telling stories with other fellow four wheelers. 

Free hot dogs and hamburgers were served up while three different  bands entertained the crowd throughout the day.  An RTI ramp was set up to test the rigs' and drivers' abilities, but I think the best part of the day was when the junk cars were literally dragged out to the middle of the parking lot and it was a free for all "car crawl" instead of rock crawl.

Besides offering great deals throughout the store another focus of the get together was land use and access and the famous "land use buggy" Travis Carpenter's MFS buggy #4405 and the MFS crew were there to answer questions, talk about responsible land and trail use and show off their bad to the bone rig.  

                                                                             

Nor Cal4Wheelers were also on hand supporting the BlueRibbon Coalition and demonstrating the PETT toilet system that will coming to a trail near you.  CA4WDC was there as well to answer questions and support land use.   

Hats off to a successful day and a chance to meet the crew at 4Wheel Parts.

Stacie Albright, recreation advocate with the BlueRibbon Coalition with Marc Ori, Manager of the Sacramento store.

Dan Schuenke of Citrus Heights shows off his stuff on the ramp.

The bad to the Bone MFS 'land use buggy' and driver Travis Carpenter.

MFS Owner, Jeff Hayer, proudly sportin' his shirt with a land use theme. Thanks Jeff!

This Toyota had no problem with the metal obstacle

The rig on the left is an Isuzu!

Tim Worlein's YJ tackled the ramp and got some big air!