The BFGoodrich National Rock Crawlers Championship

DATE: November 20th, 1998... LOCATION: The high deserts of Las Cruces, New Mexico... This is the beginning of a three day challenge that will soon prove to the whole world who the best and most formidable rock crawler really is. Will it be Heath Biggs in his Scorpion MK1? Soni Honeger in his tried and true Rock Spider? How about Shannon Campbell in his famous rock buggy?, Ned Bacon in the renowned Killer Bee, or will it be someone that no one has ever even heard of? Who ever it will be, these folks came from California to Indiana and everywhere in between for this event.

Vehicles of all types showed up to try and beat the toughest, steepest and worst rocks that mother nature could dish out. The rigs that entered varied from a full size 79 Bronco with 44" tires, to the Scorpion MK1, to Toyota FJ40's, to all sort of Jeeps and hybrids imaginable.

In the first two days, there were 51 entrants that were split in two and sent off to two different canyons. The interesting part about the trails is that no one type of rig was best suited for any of them. Sometimes long wheel based rigs did better than short rigs, but the next gate required a short wheel base with a tight turning radius. It was very interesting to see how these veterans used (abused?) their rigs to overcome these extreme obstacles. No matter how good the driver or vehicle were, everyone experienced some type of damage! After day two I decided to personally rename the competition "The carnival of carnage". This was the most abusive and destructive competition I have ever seen.

Once on the trail, the contestants were lined up for the daily runs. A judge would typically yell "GO!" and off they went. Normally, the spotter would take off on foot and run towards the obstacle to prepare it for the rig. Preparation would begin by stacking rocks, laying spare tires in holes or propping up Hi-Lift jacks for the rigs to drive over. Sometimes this worked and sometimes it didn't. A few spare tires were spewed out behind the rig as the driver got on the gas to try and conquer the obstacle. Did I mention that this was a timed event? Some runs were quite graceful and offered less damage where others were more brutal. Rollovers, flat tires, mangled sheetmetal, busted U-joints, shattered hubs, bent driveshafts and much more were pretty typical. For the most part, the drivers who stayed out of the throttle did better, achieved lower scores and had less broken parts. Additionally, those who were more graceful and got to a point where there rig would go no further usually pulled the winch cable out and winched themselves out of the bad spots. This seemed to be the winning combination.

Day three was the final competition for the top twelve rigs, dubbed the dirty dozen. It seemed that the first few obstacles proved too tough for a few rigs, as the competition was soon reduced to ten. The trail chosen for the final day was a dry wash bed filled with truck sized boulders, loose rock, and ten foot tall, off camber ledges that left vehicles literally hanging from winch cables. The most productive and best scoring teams on the final day used a combination smooth driving, great spotting, and the common sense to know when to spool out the winch cable. As expected, there were some spectacular moments. A giant CJ-5 ended up rolling off a ledge and wowing the crowd, Ned Bacon chose to crush boulders with his front bumper rather than drive over them, and others proved that with enough horsepower, a Jeep could be driven up, through, or over anything. In the end, Jeff Waggoner proved that a well-built and superbly driven CJ-7 could beat any purpose built, high dollar rock crawler, and take home the trophy, the money, and the title of 1998 National Rock Crawling Champion.