1999 Warn National Rockcrawling Championship

WARN 1999 National Rock Crawling Championship
Johnson Valley, California

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'99 WARN National Rock Crawling Championship VIDEO
Over 60 participants push their 4x4s to the limit and beyond in the Devil's own rock garden in pusuit of the coveted "King of the Rocks" title. 101 minutes of action packed video by OFFROAD EXPOSURE.

rcc99jva.jpg (6040 bytes) Bob Hazel and Homer Van Zant really know how to throw a party for the extreme rock crawling bunch. Even with the cold weather on Friday and the wind on Saturday and Sunday, I think everyone, except maybe the spotters, had a great time. The spotters were too busy during the event to have fun and too tired after. Throwing and moving big rocks and almost getting run over from time to time, is not my idea of fun.

rcc99jvb.jpg (7991 bytes)
Bob and Homer talking it over during the "Dirty Dozen" finals

I met Craig Stumph and family which includes Craig's wife Lisa, sons Dallas, Jacob, and Mike and daughter Susanee, in Filmore Utah to make the trip down to Johnson Valley California where the Rock Crawling Championships were to be held this year. With all the times I had changed my mind about going, wife Linda ended up staying home due to work schedules. She is still mad.

Craig let me know he was going as soon as he got the paperwork back from Bob Hazel earlier this year and wanted me to come along. At one point, I thought I might have to spot but managed to weasel out of that job. As it turned out, Dallas, Craig's oldest son, did an excellent job spotting for Craig and gave the crowd a chuckle from time to time on the intimacies of a father son relationship during stressful situations.

Looking over the rigs at the motel parking lot in Yucca Valley, was a bit intimidating. There were some monster rigs and 2 Snipers. They looked like dune buggies genetically altered and on steroids. Every vehicle entered had to be street legal and licensed in it's home state. I think there might have been some of these rigs close to legal inspection limits, to get licensed.

Thursday from noon until 5 PM there was a tech inspection and sign in. All contestants were asked to install decals of the sponsors on their vehicles as part of the sign up. Warn, being the main sponsor had of course the largest decals that went on the hood. Those that did not have a hood had to improvise. At 6 PM there was a drivers meeting at the local community center where a lottery was held to determine the starting numbers of the competitors. Craig drew number 26. Bob Hazel gave a presentation on how the event was to be held, safety issues and then a question and answer period.

There were to be two trails run on Friday, with even numbers on one trail and odd numbers on the other. Then the same trials were to be run on Saturday with the groups switching trails and reversing the order in which they ran Friday. Craig drew number 26 which put him in the middle of the group each day.

Line up on Friday morning was in the middle of Means dry lake bed and left for the trail heads promptly at 7AM. The even trail was "Wrecking Ball". This trail proved to be the toughest not only by the scores but by the fact more winch deductions were taken on this trial than on "Claw Hammer" which was the other trail and the one Craig drove on Saturday.

A brief explanation on the competition rules is in order here. The trails or courses are set up in sections, which are judged separately. Each section has from 5 to 7 "gates" each with a letter "A" gate first and "Z" gate last. And each course had 6 to 7 sections. The competitor is given 20 points as he goes trough the first gate. He then gets 2 points for each gate that is cleared. 1 point is deducted if forward progress is stopped for 5 seconds. 2 points deducted for going in reverse. If he knocks a gate over he loses 6 points and going out of bounds is disqualification for that section. 14 points are taken away if recovery equipment is used. In other words, if there are 5 gates and he gets through without stopping, going into reverse or winching and does not knock down or go over a gate he gets 30 points. Oh, one last thing, there is a time limit. Depending on the section, you are given 5 to 7 minutes to get through.

Craig got off to a great start on the 1st section scoring 24. Then the trouble started. 2nd was made in time but with all the stops and reverses only a 4 was scored. Then came the wall on #3 which up to this point only one vehicle had made without winching. No surprise here. Even with advice about making a ramp from Frank Currie, there was not enough time to build it properly. Craig and Dallas timed out on this and the next section.

The team of John Currie and Jeff Waggoner drew number 28. This put them just in back of Craig on Friday and in front on Saturday. It was a real pleasure to watch this team "do their thing". Last years winner of this event was John's spotter and the running joke was "Rookie" embroidered on Jeff's team shirt. John and Jeff had a problem on section 3 the first day, but still managed to finish 2nd after 2 days. This with one of the smallest tired vehicles entered. Running 35's against vehicles like the Snipers with 44's made one think the Currie Jeep had some sort of anti gravity device to get it over some of the huge rocks. But after watching this team, I knew it was the incredible skill that both John and Jeff possess that made the TJ work so well.

The first day was long. There were still competitors on the course as the sun was starting to set.

Next up was the "Claw" course. This trail looked, according to Craig, much more fun than the "Wrecking" course. The TNN "Trucks" TV show was there and mounted a camera to Craig's roll cage during one section. Look for their coverage of the event the first of next year. I have to admit I have never seen the show but it stops the Stumph family whenever it is on. Mike, the youngest, could talk about nothing else the rest of the trip. Except maybe getting a Currie hat. Craig and Dallas had found a groove and posted the 8th highest score on the "Claw " course for the day. Over all Craig and Dallas ended up in 20th place. The Commando held together both days and only blew a front hub and tire on the last section of the first day.

These courses favored big tires and lots of clearance. The Snipers of Avalanche Engineering proved to be the winning ticket this year in Johnson Valley with them taking first and second place.

Here are the final results for the "Dirty Dozen" which ended up a bakers dozen that competed on the 3rd day.

1st place went to the Mevers/Trudeau team in a steel colored Sniper

2nd place went to the Roumore/Barber team in a silver Sniper