After day one of the WeRock rock crawling competition in Hannibal, MO we were in 3rd with a score of 7. We had a bad thunderstorm Saturday night so I knew it was going to make the courses interesting on Sunday. We ran the reverse running order, so on our first course we were second to last.

C1 Course

This course started out with a hill climb up through gate 1. Everyone ahead of us had to really use their throttle to make it up this hill, so my plan was to do the same. I wish I had better luck. We tried for 9 minutes to make it up this hill and almost rolled the rig twice. For whatever reason, we could not make this hill. We didn’t even make it through the first cones. Score on C1 course: 40. And just like that, we are now in 4th place.

C2 Course

This was the course that had the larger than life rocks that swallow rigs whole! We started on a rocky hill climb up through gate 1. We had to back up once and use the gas to bump the front end up and over. Once we were through, it lined the rig up perfectly for the bonus line of gate 2. We also heard air leaking and saw we bent a rim. It wasn’t bad enough to stop running the course, so we went with it. This line had huge holes so we had to make sure we were lined up perfectly for this. Halfway through this set of cones, we were so far on our passenger side that I could’ve reached out and grabbed the cone. How the rig didn’t tip over, I have no idea. We just stayed with it and once the driver’s side tire cleared the tip of a rock, the rig settled back on all 4 and we were through gate 2. We had to go straight for the banner tape and then burn the front end around to line us up. Gate 3 was a 2-foot drop off a rock and then we pulled back down on flat ground, driving the Jeep in reverse through the finish gates. Score on C2 course: -6.

C3 Course

For this course, there were 2 ways to go through gate 1. You could go to the left for the regular line or go to the right to go through a bonus. We chose the bonus. It took us some time to get up the bonus line but with some gas we made it up, although we wasted a lot of time. Once we got to the top, we had to make a sharp right turn so we could get the right line to go down through gate 2. Once we were through gate 2, we were running out of time and didn’t get a chance to try gate 3. Score on C3 course: 38.

C4 Course

It was our last course for the weekend. By this point, our radios had completely quit working so we had to do this old school – yelling. The first set of cones was on the side of an off camber rock. We had to gas it up and over to make it through. Once we were through, we had to burn the front end to the passenger side to get us in line for gate 2. This gate was on top of a rock ledge that we had to go down and immediately start cutting the wheels to the driver’s side. Once we cleared gate 2, we had to pull down but not completely off the course. Once we thought we had enough room, we decided to back through gate 3. We were literally inches away from hitting gate 3. I kept the wheels locked to the driver’s side and waited for the cue from Aaron to gas it in reverse to miss the cone. Mission accomplished. Score on C4 course: 3.

For the weekend, we finished in 4th place. Nothing major is broken and we have 4 weeks until the next rock crawling competition. I also ordered new radios, so we’ll be set for next time.

WeRock Hannibal, MO