S.A.M. 4x4 Films

[Jackson]

<b> Vernal Utah UROC 2005 Journal Summary
Complete Review of The Vernal Utah UROC competition</b>
The weekend started out with a drive into Vernal from Salt Lake--with a little persuasion from Josh Ayers AKA HARDCORE!! we got to Vernal in one piece. I was excited to hang out with the Carnivore crew don't get me wrong, but Vernal, Utah didn't sound like spring break in Cancun. We pulled up to the hotel to find Rod, Johnny G's manager, and Johnny G rushing to Rods new "bling,bling" truck. We were 10 minutes late to the showing of "Dukes of Hazard" at Vernal's only theatre. We had some good laughs and all of us enjoyed the show. With a fun night on the town, it was time to hit the hay to prepare for our next day of rock-crawling, and for me chasing around on the rocks with my camera.
With some sleep under our belts we pulled into McDonalds around about 9 and got some breakfast and then headed out to scope out the course about 10 miles east of town fortunately Josh had the lowdown on where the place was, and we made it and parked without a hitch. We got the trucks unloaded, bathed ourselves in sunscreen and prepared the trucks for the days beatings they would endure.
With everything in line we went to scope out the course to see what cone monstrosities Ranch and Mark had created for the teams. The course had been laid out in to 8 obstacles, with the Super-Modified trucks running on 4 obstacles on one side of the course and Modified class trucks running on the remaining 4 sides of the course, and the next day they would swap, with changed up gates and courses. I had two words to describe the lines that day: Steep and Tight. For me, an avid rock crawling enthusiast, but never a rock crawler driver (save my stock Jeep, but somehow I don't think that counts), every time I look at the course for time I think to myself, "How the hell are they going to drive up these things?" But rest assured they found a way.
Obstacle 4 the left most obstacle’s start gate featured a crazy myriad of cones right after the rock face that lead your up to a sharp L turn to a steep bonus or a almost just a steep incline leading to a monster 15 foot craggy drop, almost on top of a bunch of rocks.
Obstacle number 3 was a climb up a sheer face to a no-room 180 pivot and to probably the steepest down slope of the 4 obstacles. Drivers had a choice of either taking allot of backs at the pivot point to get faced-forward on the drop or backing down the slope. The end of the run presented another impossible angle and a cone most people sacrificed.
Obstacle number 2 was kind of a conundrum.http://www.langeoriginals.com/samfilms/UROCvernalvideo/johnnygobstical3.wmv It was a sharp right turn onto an almost impossible to reach ledge and if you make it up that into a wrap around that had the drivers about as off camber, and puckered as possible. Here was the deal with number 2 though; there was a bonus line worth -20 points that was physically impossible to crawl up without a winch. So that is exactly what everybody started to do, it's a -20 point bonus line and a 30 point deduction if you use a winch, and with progression points on the gates that makes for a pretty sweet score for that obstacle, granted you can make the last few gates at the top of the hill. This loophole was unknown to the Johnny G who was one of the first few to be up on this obstacle. To be honest I can’t really recall what obstacle number 1 was like—you’ll have to review the clip.
Day one of the UROC started off kind of rough for team Carnivore as a result of the to winch or not to winch situation, Nate and Josh had a couple of bouts on obstacles, and rolled through the finish gate on obstacle 3. As a result of the roll a bearing housing weld in the right front axel snapped of its weld and the team went into pit mode. It always amazes me to see John and Nate replace an axel or fix something on a car in half an hour that would take me 2 days of hard study in a manual, and a headache. Johnny G and John kicked ass on obstacle three. Nate and Josh were one of the only teams to stomp on obstacle 4. Parker Garrett and Matt Wooley were called out of bounds by the line judge on obstacle 4 on a controversial call that had everybody pretty upset. It was and out of bounds that wasn't really marked and nobody said any warnings but was called on Matt Wooley so it had to be called on everybody.
The competition day ended fairly smoothly around 5-6pm and we all went back to the trailers to find everybody crowded around a "Dirt Sports" Magazine who is a big supporter of the UROC events. I went around with my camera rolling to find out what the big deal was, and inquired of everybody who was on the cover. Josh told me to guess and I said they probably put his hairy ass on there, but Matt Wooley of Outer Limit had a monopoly cover shot. This was basically the coolest thing ever, to be on a cover shot of a magazine! Congrats Matt.
We loaded up the machines and went on our merry way back to the hotel to get cleaned up and to hit the town. We went to a great restaurant in Vernal where we all gorged ourselves on scones and various beef products; it was a great meal, thanks Johnny G! With some food in our bellies we were restless to tear up the town. Those of you who didn't grow up in a small town or live in one; I am going to break a few things down here. Small town weekend nights consist of driving up and down main street, with your truck, and a couple of dirt bikes or ATV's in it (I think we even saw a scooter in the bed of one truck) and clearing your headers, up and down the main drag. Who were we to question the ritual, so we got out our camp chairs in front of Josh's expedition, and sat on the main-drag waiting for the action? The action didn't come fast enough so we got out some magazines and newspapers, and then I think we just started to look old. With not a whistle, honk, or a holler from the Vernal girls, we decided to call it a night. We got to the hotel and went back to check on Rod, who had had a wild day of his own, over the porcelain throne as a result of some bad road food.
Day 2 of race events started an hour earlier so we were up at 6:30 and getting ready for the day. We ended up at McDonalds for breakfast again this time an hour earlier, and were met by the guitar sounds of an old man around 70 plucking away at folk songs on his guitar. I saw a couple of old guys that were obvious regulars with their McDonalds coffee mugs, that were all sitting adjacent to the musician. I got my yogurt parfait and large OJ and sat and enjoyed the ambience, when to my joy and surprise one of the old men got up and started dancing a soft shoe to one of the songs. Josh said to me “You gotta go get your camera!” And that was all the encouragement I needed. After a ballad of “California’s a Whole New Game” we begged for another fast song. He obliged us with a fast paced song and halfway into it Josh started dancing in the middle of McDonalds and asked one of the elderly women to dance, she at first declined saying “I have a bad knee!” but who can say no to Josh, she was soon up on the dance floor and swinging with Josh. Another elderly lady then stepped in and wanted to dance and Johnny G was quick to join her. Who would have guessed that we would have a hoe-down at McDonalds at 7:30 in the morning in Vernal?http://www.langeoriginals.com/samfilms/UROCvernalvideo/dancing.wmv
We got to the course to run the other side obstacles 5-8, the Carnivore team posed for some pictures. Johnny G told Allen, Mount Logan’s photographer that he could warm up the K2 on some rocks outside of the course. Allen looked like a kid in a candy store and gave the truck a good warm-up.
The 4 obstacles that we were to run the second day were ominous. I don’t think that there were as many steeps but the cones were so close together that made maneuvering very tight. The first (obstacle 5) obstacle brought you up a steep miniature lion’s back, to sharp left that bottomed out to flat sandy ground and then up an almost straight up 12 foot ledge to the gate.
Obstacle 6 brought you up a similar face as the second part of obstacle 1 dropped you to skirt around the rim of a serious money pit. Once you were around the money pit, there were a few sharp turns on before the ending gate. This obstacle wasn’t about making all the cones it was about which cones you were going to take to not roll.
Obstacle 7 is another one that is a blur to me.
Obstacle 8 was one that the cones were laid so tight together that you had to be the luckiest mf on the planet or skinny and a good driver to get through. Nate rolled over on this obstacle and turned it back over. Joel Randall dominated this run, rock crawling with just grains of sand between him and the cones.
After everybody got through and the points were tallied they announced drivers for finals: Berger, Campbell, Paule, Scherer, Randall, and Tracy Jordan; A few of the same old same old and a couple of new faces. Tracy Jordan went out on the course and made a run that was hard to forget due to the fact that he rolled through the finish gate, http://www.langeoriginals.com/samfilms/UROCvernalvideo/tracy%20roll%20through%20finish.wmv had to slow it down, but he really did break the plane of the last gate before he took the cone, that guy can drive. Joel Randall came out and represented with a great run. But the most humorous part of the finals had to be when Paule/Wadeson duo went for a spotter ride and ended up with about 5 different spotters. It wasn’t like they were trying to hide it either, they had navy seal hand signals, and spotters on every point of the mountain. Quite amusing. The weekend ended with a pretty awesome BBQ hosted by UROC. We all scored some free T-shirts and got to see some antics as the final awards were given.

Thanks to everyone for one of the best weekends ever spent in Vernal, and thanks Johnny G for the gas money!!
_________________