calroc event

[lcwizard]

calroc/ uroc, whatever they call themselves these days ( i still like ARCA)
will be having a pro rock crawling event near globe feb 11-13. trucks should start showing the beginning of the week at globe hotels.
My ex team-mates tracy jordan, don robbins and jason paule are negotiating
with toyota. very good chance there will be an FJ Cruiser based rock crawler
for the 2006 series. hmmm..... i just may get back on the team if that comes true.

 

[Lars]

very good chance there will be an FJ Cruiser based rock crawler
for the 2006 series

Other than the grill I cant imagine anything being based on a Cruiser. I lost interest in the competition once guys started running vehicles that have no obvious link to a production vehicle. Dont get me wrong, I still admire the creativity and fabrication skills and I will be out there for this event.

I remember the first comp here in Flo Juntion, a guy won in an old CJ7 with 35" tires, 2.5" lift(spring under!) and Dana 44 axles.......... no bling at all except an Atlas transfer case.

 

[Cdaniel]

Other than the grill I cant imagine anything being based on a Cruiser. I lost interest in the competition once guys started running vehicles that have no obvious link to a production vehicle. Dont get me wrong, I still admire the creativity and fabrication skills and I will be out there for this event.

I remember the first comp here in Flo Juntion, a guy won in an old CJ7 with 35" tires, 2.5" lift(spring under!) and Dana 44 axles.......... no bling at all except an Atlas transfer case.

I'm kind of with you on that. But I do love watching the full on competition rigs and drivers as well as the more streetable versions. Don't they have classes for competition with different levels of modification now? I thnk you only see the "bling mobiles" in the magazines because they think that is what sells. The unlimited nature of the vehicles is great. It brings out the radical and ridiculous to take their best shot. I just hope this doesn't go the way of NASCAR where everything except paint and body shape has been homogenized.

 

[RHINO]

the rigs are phenomimal and its way cool to watch them whatever "grill" they may sport.
but i would really like to see a more stock class, like what the sport used to be, say a modified class where the rigs are still mostly originall parts with just the regular mods like lift, gears, lockers ect., pretty much 90% of us non competing wheelers.

 

[lcwizard]

inovation

i remember florence juction. i was don robbins spotter, we had a blue FJ40 w/ a fuel injected 2F, SM420 to a 3 speed t-case and narrowed dana 60's (sorry
there were no birfield that would hold up at the time).
One of the reasons i don't participate any more is because of the way the trucks evolved. the first three seasons the trucks had to be streeet legal. I remember Don and I drivivg through Las Cruces in the land cruiser to hit the bar the first night right after competing all day.
It's not all bad though, because without the performance craze surrounding the
events I doubt anyone would have bothered building the Atlas, Orion, or longfields.

 

[RUSH55]

Dave, I have a Petersen's mag with a pic of you walking ahead of what I'm guessing is Don driving that blue 40 (black and white pic) up a rock hill, with a tire way up in the air. You guys were running LC axles then. What's funny is the pic went along with an article about swapping in an SM420...Toyotally Crawling!

 

[lcwizard]

i remember the event. because of my "enthusiasm" as a spotter many rules were drafted to protect spotters. Apparently Ranch Pratt was at an obstacle where i was standing on the front tire to keep the front end down as we were driving up a rock ledge. kind of like walking a rolling log. I found out how little sense of humor they have.

 

[RUSH55]

Who's Ranch Pratt? A judge or something? How long did you spot for?

 

[lcwizard]

Ranch was the pres of ARCA now with UROC.
I competed 5 years, although the the first year there was only one event..
Bob Hazel actually put on the first events. Sponsored by Warn. Arca started more than a year later. In the first events you had to be street legal, plated and insured. It made it more competative

 

[RUSH55]

Yeah, going the way of many other sports. When big money gets ahold of it, it just kind of floats off into some other dimension of ridiculousnes, to where everyday Joe's can't compete with the corporate sponsored, corporate owned superstars.

 

[sjpitts]

I personally think they need some sort of wagon division, where the vehicles must be street legal and able to carry four adults and their camping gear.

To many of todays vehicles are single seat things that look more like big ATV's then anything else. Not very practical in the real world.

Jared

 

[RUSH55]

Top fuel dragsters aren't practical in the real world either, but millions of dollars go into racing, and millions of people pay big dollars to go see 'em.