Thanks again everyone for the great event and to everyone for helping it run smoothly.
Event #2 was help at Oakdale park in Melrose MA, a traditional spot for Boston Crawlers as this was our fifth year straight holding events here. We continue to find new rock in this park and this event was no exception. Der Kampfer found us a great spot at the top of the hill looking over Boston.
Congratulations go out to Brendan (Der Kampfer) and Dan (Force5) for their respective wins in Pro and Shafty for the day. Brendan won an RCP Progress Chassis, a Cow RC work mat, and a Cow RC tote to bring them all home in. Dan won himself a Castle Creations BEC, a Cow RC work mat, and a Lattice Innovations build Jig as well as a Cow RC tote to bring them all home in.
Be sure to check out Bodhi's great videos from the day on
youtube his new setup with his remote display and external mic. The results are great, awesome shots and audio that is more than just the truck noises (sorry for the cursing "thumbsup")
For those of you that were not able to make it you missed some great courses. We built 3 pro courses and 3 Shafty courses.
- = Pro Race Report (written by BC-Brian) = -
Course 1 Pro was setup with a start gate at the bottom of a large inclined face. Gate 1 was a simple climb coming into gate two which required a little bit of finesse. You had to setup vertically for it and then pull the rig over and through the gate without sliding down and clipping the right gate. Gate three was another straightforward gate leading up to gate 4 which was another tricky one. You had to setup for the gate in a large V-notch with the gate up and to the right. Everyone was trying to hook their front left tire on the edge to pull up but getting it there was the tough part. Many rigs took a tumble down the hill trying to set up for it. A few were successful with their first attempt and some found that a single reverse would set you up just how you needed. Gate 5 was a simple gate, if you were not foolish enough to fall for the trap. The easy way was around to the side and straight through while others who did not think it through enough (or simply had a brain fart) tried to make it up through and undercut V-notch. I think I was the only one who just totally forgot there was an easy way. Gate 6 was a squeeze but otherwise pretty simple. Gates 7 and 8 were a heavily constrained banked turn. Gate 9 was a tricky setup, a semi-undercut V-notch in an area where getting your rig setup how you wanted it was tough. Once you made it up through seven you had a shot at the bonus . setup on one rock and yank the throttle to make a small gap and then pull through the bonus. After that it was off to the finish which was a relatively straightforward uphill. No one told me about the large puddle at the top of it but luckily I missed it as I dug deep for throttle coming through the finish gate. Force 5 took first place on this course.
Course 2 Pro was setup on a much flatter main surface with lots of features connecting 10 gates and 5 optional bonus gates (though most people only had time for 1 or 2). Gate 1 on this course was near vertical and required you to hook your front tires over and pull you up and through. Gate 2 was a heavy off camber that required you to keep your front driver’s side tire high on the face and push your rear end around until you were setup to take the gate. Gate three was an uphill climb with a large feature in the center that was more than happy to knock you off your line and grab your axles. The trick here was to stay way to the left and ride the ridge up. Gate 4 was another steep uphill with some smoother rock. There were three nice lines to take here but make sure you stay away from the brush on the right or your battery may come un-plugged…… not that that happened to or anything. Gate 5 was a very technical descent down a nearly vertical face but Force 5 found some brass and showed us that you could launch off the top and gap jump to the next rock. It looked like certain doom at first but he showed us how it was done. Gate 6 was one of the toughest on the course. The gate was setup across a large wedge of rock. Some people tried to approach it from the bottom but there was no good place to setup for the pull. Others tried to come at it from very far off angle but the gate would toss them off to the left. The only way to get through this one was to take a little from column “A” and a little from column “B”, pull up and into the notch and let your chassis drop into it. From there it was just a struggle to get grip and pull out without hitting a gate. Gate 8 looked like a killer pull up some slick rock but again Force 5 showed us a sneaky line. He went around the top and was able to sneak through on a sidehill instead of having to deal with it. Gate 9 was the other killer gate on this course. You needed to pick a way into this large steep bowl and get your rig set up for a killer climb. The gate was setup on a steep uphill, the rock available for the climb was a few slabs ~1” thick. You had to choose two and try to pull up, if your tires slid off then your rig was off the line and you would have to setup again. Once you were through it was off to the finish. A not so simple climb up a rounded face. It looked easy as you approached it but you soon realized that it was just a little too tall to be a simple climb. An off angle approach with a one tire pull was the way to tame this beast. Der Kampfer laid down the law on this course with the only negative score.
Course 3 Pro was set up with two distinct halves, the front half and the back half. The entrance to gate 1 was just a few feet front the start line. It was an uphill into a V-notch with a follow up to gate two that forced you to take a harder line up the “V” or loose time. Gate three was an uphill break over that was just tall enough to hook a tire on and pull up it. Gate 4 was a descent and if you didn’t maintain control of the truck you wound up in the vegetation….. no one wants to be there. Gate 5 was a straightforward climb. After completing gate 5 drivers motored down a footpath to the second half of the course. Gate 6 was an uphill climb with a small notch for chassis clearance. Afterwards there was an immediate boundary that followed all the way to gate 7. You had to setup way to the right, at the risk of sliding off the line to slice through the gate off angle without taking one of the gates with you. Gate 8 was a cool uphill climb. It appeared that it would be straightforward but drivers soon found that this was no simple climb. They had to setup far to the right come across the rock and hook up with one tire to hold the line then pull the whole rig around and over. Gate 9 was an uphill climb on a moss covered rock. I had hoped it would require the drivers to use a little throttle management to get up it but people were able to creep up it without any problem… oh well. Gate 10 required you to drop into a small notch and pull up and to the left through the finish. As drivers finished their times were called and they were allowed to use whatever time they had remaining to enter “Bonus Land”. This was an area with 5 bonus gates worth -2 points each. The driver could attempt a bonus gate and after progress had to straddle a check-in gate, after they checked in they were free to do another bonus gate. This continued until they were out of time or until they had completed all 5 bonus gates. Der Kampfer was the only one able to get all 5 bonus gates with 3 seconds left on the clock. Force 5 took his second course for the day, closing a big gap after course 2.
Thanks to everyone who came out to the event. We hope to see you all at the next one.
Pro Winner for the day
Shafty Winner for the day
