W.E.ROCK Grand National Championship

W.E.ROCK Grand National Championship 2007

The W.E. Rock grand nationals were kicked off in the small town of Spring Creek Texas at the Spring Creek off-road park. This weekend the energy was not the only thing on high; the humidity was up there too. Some courses were surprisingly small and very technical. One of the crowd’s favorite courses was A3 which had a massive mud pit at the bottom. When this course had a competitor there was always a crowd around.

The first day of the competition was packed full of non-stop action. Tracy Jordan took A4 by storm using rear steer and making his way up the rocks with ease. He ended his beautiful run with a 4. On B3 we had Terry Dagen, of monster energy, with his first run for the weekend. He made his way up the rocks and managed to squeeze through the trees. Terry’s first score for the day was an amazing -1. Bruce Zeller of Mad Rock Racing made it through his first course, A3, with no problem. The only obstacle that appeared to be a problem was the giant mud pit at the bottom which made it very slippery on his way back up. Although it appeared to be threatening this didn’t affect Bruce whatsoever; he finished with a 14. Up next on A3 was Shannon Campbell of Monster Energy, with Shannon’s spotter Nick still out with a broken foot. Lance of Pirate 4×4 would be filling his place. Shannon had a little trouble getting his rig over the first pile of rocks but got his rig over and was ready to take on the mud pit. Shannon and Lance then decided to use the spotter strap to help Shannon avoid the mud pit altogether. Lance hooked the strap to the rig and wrapped it around the tree pulling the rig to the side of the rocks so Shannon missed the mud pit by a mile. The run was not only creative but well executed. Shannon’s score was a -4.

On B4 Becca Webster, of Red Bull energy, had a bit of trouble but still made the finish with a 39. Cody Waggoner, of Detroit Locker, was as calm and cool as ever on A2. Cody made his way around the circular course and hit one cone to avoid getting wedged in between two trees. Cody backed up to start over and on his third try he made it down and around the small canyon finishing with a 10. Lee Smith on course B1 struggled to make it atop the wall. Upon seeing this the spotter then decided to use the spotter strap to help the driver over the wall. On his fourth try the front passenger tire got hooked around a tree, but unhooked just as easily. This rig had some serious trouble making it up the wall. Try after try as he might the time ran out with no finish. The next competitor on B1 was Halstead Frost. On their first try they floored it trying to make it over the wall but had no luck and ended up hitting a cone and staying on the bottom. It seems like all the rigs that tried this wall gas it up on the wall, land just to the right on the wall and slide right back down. They decided to give it one more try; this time it proved to be successful and they finished the course with a 20.

From Todd, of Desert Fab, showing the giant mud pit who was in control to Shannon Campbell, of Monster Energy, breezing through courses as always, the second day was as eventful as the first. One exciting moment for the day was on A2, Rob Stapleton tried to make it up and over the rocks numerous amounts of times when a fire decided it would try and stop him. The small fire was put out and Stapleton continued to finish the course. Another fire erupted and this time it was much larger. The fire was put out yet another time and he decided to call it quits on that one. The shootout was also very exciting as always. For the unlimited class we had Ken Shupe and Brad Styles in fourth place, Matt Deas with third, Jesse Haines in second, and Shannon Campbell of course in first. Shannon did an outstanding job this weekend and deserved the win. In the pro mod’s we had Todd McCullen of Desert Fab take fourth place in his brand new beautiful rig, third went to Rusty Bray of Maxxis, second was taken by Terry Dagen of Monster Energy, leaving first for Brian Errea and Joachim Schweisow. In Modified Stocks we had fourth place go to Buzzy Bronsema, Dan Patterson in third, second was held by Troy Bailey, and first place went to Derek West and Ritchie Keller. For Formula toys we had John Scheidhauer in fourth, Matt Messer in third, John James in second, and Hobie Smith walked away with the win.

We would like to congratulate all of the winners in every class, and each and every driver for a hard worked season. Congratulations to everyone who made it to the Grand Nationals!

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY WHITNEY SWEET