Well, as of Saturday afternoon, Team Mall Crawler appears to be in the lead!
It was an awesome day at Paragon, and not just because I got to take the Durango down Coal Road. I've never seen so many rollovers -- and virtually all of those failed to put the vehicles out of commision.
As this was the first time I attended Neuroc, I had no idea what to expect, but it turned out great. Even the weather cooperated: although raining lightly on the ride up, it cleared up by the time competition began. It was mostly sunny, with a few gray clouds coming over occasionally. There were lots of Jeeps and buggies all other the place, with a few other brands thrown in, but lots and lots of trail power.
The competition was broken into three groups: Stock/Modified, limited to 35" tires; Modified, limited to 37's I think, and Unlimiteds. There were a number of short "obstacles" set up off of Coal Road, mostly under 100 years each. Their difficulty ranged from extremely difficult on up. Each competitor had to run five obstacles. Some of these courses were used by several of the vehicle classes, but with different gates required.
The first driver in the Stock/Modfied competion was Candi from Rock Dawgs, who Aaron practiced with last weekend. On her first run, she had a difficult time with the first 10 feet of the trail, and it just got worse. About 30 yards down the course, her spotter put her into a bad position and she rolled her jeep a full 360. That put her out of contention for that obstacle, but she kept on competing. To show how tough the day was, even with the rollover, Candi ended the day in second place among 13 in the class.
We saw rollover after rollover, in each class, on many of the courses, and in all cases the vehicles were back in action for their next run. Even the shiny red Cherokee that did a 270 roll down hill into a tree on top of a boulder, smashing his side window and severly damaging his roof and side panels.
Aaron and Don did really well on the courses, even though they had a rocky (!) start. No rollovers, and they pointed out (excessive time or too many gates) on a most of the trails. But they aced one of them, keeping their overall score the lowest among the class.
We had a great time watching Aaron and all the other competitors. Chris Klee, Nikki Sample, Sean from BMJA, Jen (Aaron's girlfriend), and I were there to cheer on Aaron and Don. We also cheered on Wayne from UpNOver and his driver, Bob.
I wish I could go back up for day two on Sunday, it promises to be an other awesome day. Congratulations, and good luck, to Team Mall Crawler!