Last weekend our team competed in rounds seven and eight of the Extreme Off-Road Racing (XORRA) Series in Cortez, Colorado. Round seven of XORRA placed Roger running against Levi Shirley of Lucky Dog Racing; and Brad racing side-by-side with Monster’s Shannon Campbell. See More for Videos and Pics.
Simi Valley, CA - July 13, 2010- Gather your friends and be one of only 300 people to see the Newest King of the Hammers III Anarchy Movie on the big screen! This is your opportunity to see the race coverage up close and personal in a real movie theater!
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO JUNE 30, 2010 - JT Taylor is the first ever Rock Racer allowed to compete in the world renowned Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. JT Taylor competed in the Exhibition class and took first place with a time of 14 minutes 7 seconds, and a top speed of 86mph. “I am so excited to be a part of this race, and then to have the fastest time in the class is awesome. If I could send in my entry fee for next year today, I would!” smiled JT Taylor.
RENO, NV JUNE 16, 2010: Rock’n @ the Ranch, the 3rd event of the W.E. Rock Western US National Series, will take place at Donner Ski Ranch in Norden, CA over Father’s Day weekend, June 19th-20th, 2010. The event is set to attract at least 55 teams who will compete on some of the craziest courses this location has ever seen. To kick off the weekend events, Torchmate will be hosting the Team Meet and Greet BBQ during Tech Inspection at the Torchmate facilities in Reno, NV.
“Donner Ski Ranch is unique because it has some of the most beautiful, natural and very aggressive terrain,” said Rich Klein, W.E. Rock Promoter. “This event will have longer courses and because of the late winter will also include tabletops and doubles in the snow!” One of the biggest challenges of the weekend will be a never before used 35 foot vertical climb.
EL DORADO, CA MAY 19, 2010: The CalROCs Extreme Rock Crawling Series held on May 15th and 16th in Reno, NV was a huge success with crawlers from around the US and Canada putting on a spectacular show for the crowd. “The weather was perfect and we had the best spectator friendly, natural course event to date,” said Glenn Bonner, promoter for CalROCs. “You could see 8 of the 12 courses at the same time from one area.”
Each competitor ran four separate courses per day, where there was definitely no shortage of carnage and rollovers. In the Super Mod class Dustin Emick beat out Derek Trent at the last cone of the last course by pulling off a wild 20 foot drop bonus line for an 8-point lead to win the event.
PLACERVILLE, CA MAY 17, 2010: The Maxxis W.E. Rock Eastern US National Series season opens this weekend May 22nd and 23rd at the Rausch Creek Off-Road Park in Pennsylvania. Over 45 east coast rock crawling competitors will compete on courses combined of natural and man made terrain that includes a 20 ft vertical climb call the “Hands Climb.”
“The unique part of this course is it is a combination of natural terrain with man made obstacles,” said Rich Klein, W.E. Rock Promoter. “The traction differences between the two offer a huge challenge for the teams, they can’t really dial in their rig for one or the other.” The biggest obstacle of this event will be the Hands Climb, which is a 20ft vertical wall that the driver has to climb starting out of a bowl with no running start. Rausch Creek Owner Bruce Shallis commented, “Shannon Campbell is the only driver to ever make the climb, but even he was penalized for hitting a cone.” As if the difference in traction and huge climbs wasn’t enough of a challenge, drivers may also face the Pennsylvania scattered rain showers, which can quickly change the course and slickness of the rock.
EL DORADO, CA MAY 12, 2010: The CalROCs third season will start this weekend, May 15th and 16th, at a new event site local to Reno, NV. With four courses running each day starting at 10am, and over 40 competitors, there are 160 high action spots to watch with no shortage of carnage, rollovers, and incredible displays of driving talent.
The natural rock formations in the Reno area aid to the excitement with steep climbs, vertical drop offs, and tight technical sections. The CalROCS series attracts competitors from the entire western region with some of the wildest, coolest and perhaps weirdest looking vehicles you have ever seen, from fairly stock looking jeeps to incredible “Moon Buggies”.
PLACERVILLE, CA MAY 5, 2010: The W.E. Rock Ballistic Fabrication Pro National Event whipped up the action and the wind at the Tucson, AZ Pima Motorsports Park. Local Arizona racers competed against national champions with solid performances on the scoreboards, while the wind scattered vendor row and flustered the concentration of some drivers. The class winners were Brad Lovell, Brent Bradshaw, Todd Stephensen and Nathan Unruh.
The battle in the Pro Modified class had Jesse Haines leading at the end of day one and day two in his brand new rock crawling rig, but he took second to Brad and Roger Lovell after the final shootout. Lovell had made several small mistakes in the shootout giving Haines a comfortable lead as he crossed the line and started his time. But Haines took too much time attempting to do one of the big hill climbs and timed out, putting 35 points onto the scoreboard. Troy Bailey, who had lead the majority of day one, had a huge roll over that put him towards the bottom of the competitors. On Sunday Bailey successfully worked his way up the points ladder to finish third overall. Also notable in the class was locals Mike Klensin placing 6th, and fourteen year old Wayland Campbell who took 11th place showing amazing talent that will once again represent the Campbell Enterprises for another generation.
PLACERVILLE, CA APRIL 7, 2010: The W.E. Rock Western US National Series Opener in Oroville, CA brought out the best crawlers from around the US and Canada to put on a spectacular show for the family crowd. “It was the perfect weekend for the season opener, great weather, top competitors and a huge crowd that was into the crawling,” said Rich Klein, promoter for W.E. Rock. “In 2010, our goal was to bring rock crawling to the crowds while maintaining difficult courses.”
A perfectly set day at the Surplus City Urban Assult man made course made for some great round one racing. The Terminator, a 35ft vertical climb, continued to be a challenge to most competitors, but many more made it over than last year.
Moab, Utah - Easter Jeep Safari (April 1, 2010) While the auto giant suffers within the difficult economic times, they didn't show it this week while at the spectacular 2010 Easter Jeep Safari held in Moab, Utah. Chrysler unveiled a fleet of concept off road vehicles on the rocks of Moab, Utah and everything they debuted is something special. Whether you were looking at the new Power Ram, Jeep Nukizer, or the bright red off road desert racing's Ram Runner, they have brought out all the big guns. From slow crawling in their next version of a JK to the white and black Power Ram with the short wheel base.
FARMINGTON — The organizer of a rock-crawling competition won't return to Farmington because he said he lost thousands of dollars last summer when the Bureau of Land Management charged him excessive fees.
Rich Klein, World Extreme Rock Crawling president and chief executive, said after BLM charged him more than $8,000 dollars to hold an October contest, he won't use the public land again. He said he lost about $6,000 in the contest in Chokecherry Canyon in the Glade Run Recreation Area north of Farmington. "The rules say that it's supposed to be fair and reasonable cost recovery," Klein said about BLM fees. "There was nothing fair and reasonable about BLM office in Farmington, N.M."
PLACERVILLE, CA MARCH 24, 2010: The W.E. Rock Western US National Series Opener is this weekend in Oroville, CA. The most well respected rock crawlers in the world will compete on a man made rock crawling course which includes a 25ft quarter pipe jump-up and a 35ft climb called the Terminator.
Fifty of the Nations best drivers will be at this weekends competition. Fighting it out in the Pro Modified Class will be National Champions Brad Lovell, Tracy Jordan, Shannon Campbell and multiple time World Champion Dean Bulloch, who are just a few of the premier full bodies vehicles that will be doing insane maneuvers that you never thought was possible.
In 2009 the W.E. Rock series produced a number of epic battles in each of the four classes including Pro Modified, Unlimited, Modified Stock, and Formula Toy. The points battles came down to 3 or 4 point spreads over the 4 event season. In the Pro Modified class, Brad Lovell had perfect scores in the first two rounds, and then dropped to Tracy Jordan who took the perfect scores in the final two rounds. But Jordan made a 3 point mistake in the second round of competition that put him into 2nd place at the end of the season. In the Unlimited Class, Cody Wagner and Jesse Haines had the same battle with both completing 2 rounds of competition with perfect 100 scores, but Haines was not as consistent and dropped to second place by only 3 points.
Falken Tire would like to invite you and your friends to join us during the 48th Annual Tierra Del Sol Desert Safari for some fun, food and entertainment. On Friday, March 5th, we will be hosting a "Build Your Own Taco Bar" with everything from; carne asada, shredded chicken, shrimp, corn and flour tortillas, plus all the fixings.
So, come and kick back with us after your day of trail riding and enjoy some food, beverages (beer, soft drinks, water, energy drinks, etc.), radio controlled rock crawler racing (on our custom built track) and one huge bonfire. Food will be served from 6pm - 8pm; beverages from 6pm - midnight.
Feb. 18, 2010 – LAS VEGAS, Nevada – The 2010 King of the Hammers race is in the books after entertaining some 25,000 fans who flocked to the Mojave Desert’s famed Johnson Valley for the weeklong festival on the rocks. Off road racing champion, Rob MacCachren, led the Rockstar/BFGoodrich/BlueTorch Fabrication backed race team in the #21 Blue Torch Fab-built two-seat rock racer. MacCachren spent the better part of the month tutored by BFGoodrich rockcrawling champions, Jon Bundrant and Larry McRae.
After only a couple days on the rocks of Johnson Valley, Jon Bundrant deemed MacCachren as the consummate professional who learned the tricks of rockcrawling faster than anyone he’s ever tutored. Volunteering for duty in the right seat of the #21 rock racer was Larry McRae, Bundrant’s longtime teammate and the spotter for the championship rockcrawling team.
Les Figueroa and Co driver Joe Thompson in the Lucas Oil/Figspeed car 4478 gave it a valiant effort but in the end came up short.
" I have to say to just qualify for the race was exciting and we were ready to go out for a day of wheeling, we had not had an opportunity to run the course with many last minute changes to the car after the LCQ, the crew and I worked on the car until 2:30 am and were headed to the starting line just after 5 am. We had a fantastic and fun day of racing and had to bow out at mile 110 due to electrical failures.
Feb. 17, 2010 –"Easy" Rick and Co Driver Scott Ward left the starting line on the front row and were first into the desert to the first obstacle Crowbar, the plan was to keep ahead of the other 99 cars as carnage was expected on several of the rock crawling obstacles.
Lucas oil car 554 followed race strategy to perfection. Leading with 22 minutes ahead heading into Chocolate Thunder with gaining time 25 minutes ahead coming down Wrecking Ball.
February 17, 2010 - Gilbert, AZ- The 2010 King of the Hammers was a race like no other thanks to Jeff Knoll and Dave Cole. Shannon Campbell/Team Monster Energy have been mentally preparing for this race since 2009. Arriving on the lake bed on Monday to test, prerun and put a strategy together like most teams is mentally exhausting. This year Shannon, driving the 2009 IFS buggy drew 72nd position and would be starting in the 36th row. Starting from the back is nothing unusual for this amazing team. As the green flag goes down Shannon switches into race mode and is on a mission.
Feb. 17, 2010 –The 2010 running of King of the Hammers was an amazing race. There were easily 20,000 spectators riding in thousands of RV’s and buggies. It appeared there were 3 camps, a vendor show, and race course hidden somewhere in the middle. We were right in the thick of it trying to prepare for the biggest race of the year. King of the Hammers is THE rock race and the point was not missed in our camp. Over the past 3 months my brother and I spent all our time and money gambling for a win and we brought it all. Trailers, parts, tools, radios, and a massive crew of volunteers. We showed up early, ran the course, tuned the trucks, and months of effort cumulated into a sleepless night before the race.
Roger Lovell to Lead the Charge in the Rocks
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO - For 2010, Lovell Racing is headed in an exciting new high profile direction – The Traxxas TORC Series presented by AMSOIL. Brad Lovell will pilot an AMSOIL sponsored Pro-Light throughout the 2010 season in hopes of capturing a piece of the $200,000 purse. Brad comments, “I have watched off-road racing since I was a kid and never realistically thought I would have a chance to compete. I’m thrilled and in awe that my dream is coming true.”
*Click FULL ARTICLE above to play video* The 3rd annual King of the Hammers Race is creeping up on many, especially those new to this form of off road motorsports. Rob MacCachren, along with his 2010 King of the Hammers teammates, Larry McRae and Jon Bundrant headed out to the Lucerne Valley to prepare for this years race. The past rockcrawling champions guided MacCachren through the rocks. Larry McRae took to the co-driver's seat of the Blue Torch KOH rock racer for his first ever time in the right seat. The duo paired well and will be a team to watch at the upcoming 2010 King of the Hammers race.
The much awaited 2010 starting order for this years' King of the Hammers has been announced. New rock crawlers such as Rob MacCachren, Brian Deegan, BJ Baldwin and more will join together with the Rock Crawling and Rock Racing champions such as Shannon Campbell, Jon Bundrant, Jon Nelson, Larry McRae, Dean Bulloch and more for this years race. The race will be held Feb 12, 2010 so get the day off and don't miss an incredible event.
January 12, 2010 : Rockcrawling Champions Larry McRae, Jon Bundrant and Jon Nelson TEAM with Off Road Racing Champion – Rob MacCACHREN for King of the Hammers BFGoodrich Tires DREAM TEAM!
LAS VEGAS, Nevada – With only one month away from his first ever King of the Hammer’s race, Rob MacCachren has assembled a trio of past champions on his King of the Hammers race team. Joining Rob MacCachren will be legends of the sport and past rockcrawling champions Larry McRae, Jon Bundrant and Jon Nelson.
JOHNSON VALLEY, CA, January 12, 2010: Raceline Wheels continues its 4 year reign as 2010 Griffin King of the Hammers Official Wheel. “Raceline Wheels and Greg Mulkeys participation in years pasts events and again this year has had helped us grow the event to the level at which it stands today,” said Jeff Knoll of Hammerking Productions.
Raceline Wheels is the racing division of Allied Wheels that is managed by a very familiar face, Greg Mulkey. Mulkey has over 30 years building and designing competition wheels to stand up to the toughest race that consistently brings back championships. Raceline has been a part of King of the Hammers since its inception four years ago. At last years race, 32 out of 92 racers knew the value in Raceline and competed with zero failures. “Raceline builds wheels meant to race,” said Mulkey.
LAS VEGAS, NV – November 3, 2009 - Professional rock crawler and off road racer Nicole Johnson announced today a new and exciting relationship as ambassador for GenRight Off Road in Simi Valley, CA. In addition to designing, manufacturing, and distributing a variety of aftermarket Jeep products, GenRight Off Road can often be seen trail wheeling as a way of demonstrating its products and interacting closely with its customers.
Committed to building the best and most innovative products for the “true” off-road enthusiast, GenRight’s owner Tony Pellegrino strives to know his customers and identify their needs in real-world driving situations on the trail. Nicole Johnson, who has been trail wheeling with her family for over 16 years, will be accompanying Tony and the GenRight crew at various 2009 and 2010 events.
Team Waggoner Racing, of Capistrano Beach, has decided to retire from rock crawling… indefinitely. After 9 years of competition and more than 70 events this team has some of the most impressive statistics in the sport.
Team Waggoner Racing has competed in 18 Championship series and 17 of those were a top 4 finish! Needless to say they are not walking away empty handed and most importantly their heads can be held high.
