Boston Crawlers - Event #4 - May 17th

[BC-Brian]

Hey Everyone,

Thanks to the people that were able to make it up to Rafes Chasm on Sunday. IT was a great day for crawling. Sorry to those who had it scheduled for Saturday and could not make the switch to Sunday. Like I always say never trust the weather. When we canceled the comp it was supposed to rain all morning and up until 4:00pm, but we all saw how that worked out.

Congrats to Dan for Winning the Pro Class for the Day. He took home a Castle Creations Micro Sidewinder, A Cow RC Work mat, a canister of RC Car Cleaner from Losi, and a Cow RC bag to put it all in.

Since we did not have enough attendance to hold an official Shafty Class we decided to presented Steven with an Attendance Award/Improvement Award. This included a Cow RC work Mat and a RCP Crawlers Progress Chassis that we thought would replace his stock XR-10 chassis very well.

As for the courses...

Like Brendan said, Since it was a light crowd we decided to set some longer tougher courses. This place certainly has the terrain for it.

Course 1 started out with a simple looking off camber climb through gate one but ended up being a lot trickier than people thought. After that it was a quick drop through gate 2. Gate three had a very off camber setup that put your truck on the verge of tipping if you did not hold tight against a rock face. Gate 4 was another off camber up-hill with two approach lines, the hard way and the really hard way. Five and Six were a combination gate that you had to set up properly for before you could get through them both. Gate 7 was a pretty straight forward climb but you had to drop off the rock and re-setup for 8 or you would have a bad time. 8 was a craggy climb with a narrow line, you just had to hang to the right and hope for the best. 9 and finish were a set of double uphill gates, with the option to pop off after nine and get a very stout uphill bonus gate.

Course 2 was setup by yours truly. Gate 1 started you out with a climb up a high traction hill and then up into a V-notch for gate two. After that you had to motor down the rock face and set up for a very steep gate three. I had hoped that this gate would require you to get your truck near vertical, catch the edge with the front drivers side tire and then pull your rig up and swing through without catching the bottom gate. In reality it was a bit too tall. Most people tried to shoot it but only one got lucky and snuck through. Gate 4 left you with a choice 4b or not 4b that was the question. This was an optional gate, you could do Gate 4A on the left or Gate 4B on the right. Most people opted for gate 4A which was another tall gate that required you to hook your front drivers side tire, then your front passenger tire and pull through. It was tough but everyone made it through it. Gate 5 was up a high traction crystaline rock you had to setup your front end high on the rock and look for traction before you committed to pulling your rig across a gap. Those who were not hooked up well on their front tires went for a tumble. Gate 5 was a careful setup for a nasty decent. You had to take it slow and keep your tires on the ground, if not they were likely to bound around on the way down and tag the gate. Gate 6 was up straddling a small water spring in the rock. Not enough to damage the rig but enough to get the tires wet and make things interesting. You got a break on gates 8 and 9 they were straightforward uphill climbs. There was a bonus but that required you to get the truck up vertical and do a one handed (or tire) pull up the face of the rock. It was attempted a few times but only one driver made it. The finish gate looked relatively straight forward but you found out if you crawled it and did not keep momentum your truck would settle into a notch and put you at high risk of hitting one of the gates before you got through.

Course 3 was the Deal Breaker course. It was setup to follow a ridge about 5 feet off the ground. Gate 1 had you climbing the face onto the ledge with loose rock all around. Once you found the grip you had to hope the rocks would stay there until you got up it. The first couple drivers had a tough time with this gate but people seemed to figure it out after that. Gate 2 was a descent back down to the ground you just came up from. Relatively straight forward but took some time. Gate 3 was enticing, it almost looked like you could climb this ridiculous face to sneak through gate 3. If my memory serves me most people wound up going around for the straddle option except Steven, who managed to climb the face, only to tag the gate on his way out. Gate 4 was setup with a large rock right in the middle of the gate. You had to climb the rock, keeping your front drivers tire hooked on it and then push the rear end around while keeping it from falling off the ledge directly to your right. A couple trucks took a spill here and one fall took out someones servo. Gate 5 was setup on a massive off camber. Option one was to come around and setup to climb the ledge with one tire hanging off the top to compensate for the massive off camber and then "fall" through the gate. The other option was to approach it from the backside and make your way over the steep angle of the rock and down into the gate, this was the Easy way (not noticed by Driver #1). Gate 6 was up a smooth rock face, you had to burn rubber to get up to it and then ensure that you would not get your tire hung up as you went to progress the gate. After 6 there was another burly bonus option. A few people attempted it but no one was able to make it with the clock running. Gate 7 was an uphill gate with another feature smack dab in the middle. You had to pick a side to to slide off to and hope you didn't take out a gate. Gates 8 and 9 finally gave you a break, up until this point you had to work hard for every single progress you got. Finish gate was an uphill that had a narrow line, stay to the right to find grip and then pull it back to the left.

Hope to see everyone June 14th at Fort Wetherhill in Jamestown RI for Mini NATS and the last event of the Nationals Qualifier.

[BC-Brian]

Some photos from the event. Special Thanks to Deb and Steven for taking them.

Testing the new shafty


That's gonna leave a mark


One of the hero gates


Force5 showing some sidehill action


Force5 Takes him some goodies for his Pro Win.


Steven get the "Show up Award"