Well I was fortunate enough to attend the 4th Qualifier of the Axial West Coast Championship this past weekend.
Having only comped 3 times previously with my berg and battling issues with my steering since day one, I woke up at 3:30am in the morning half asleep and half excited to get the fun underway.
Around 8am I pulled into the sand and made my way to the Epic rocks where the show down was to begin.
The rocks looked amazing, the sun was up and a bonfire was a blazing!
Top Drivers were spotted such as Bender and Scott Hughes from Axial, John Ripplinger the Maker of the Killer 300 CVDs and Top Finisher and Super winner at Motorama and his number 1 G.I. (AKA stepbrother, inside joke
) Dustin Siegfried.
After an always fun, well spoken drivers meeting from Brian Parker the competition began on what was some of the most epic, fun and challenging courses I've ever ran on.
I myself started out on course #4, after waiting my turn inline I turned the beast on and went into the zone, I managed to complete the entire course without a single penalty earning a smooth -20 for the first run of the day. First perfect run I've ever done, and at a large comp at that! It was truly an amazing way to start the day.
I then jumped over to course number 5, closely watching how other drivers navigated the course taking notes on what I liked and didn't like. This course was challenging but there was only one gate I was worried about which was a challenging drop down with a challenging gate location.
I plugged in the car and did what Parker told me to do, and that was, do work! I was doing another clean line up until gate 10, what I thought would be plenty of traction was now slightly covered in sand and water which I under estimated. I simply lacked the momentum needed to make it up the obstacle to complete the last gate. I hung on my belly where I was forced to use a reverse, I then flopped it on my lid in a section of flat sand that forces me to turn the rig over, one more reverse and boom I was through with a -13
Course 3 was next and this thing had a valley of death that required a wide truck and the use of all 4 sidewalls, everything up to this point was a walk in the park for the most part, but the last 3 gates were challenging. Luckily both John and Dustin were the judges and my personal coaches and cheer staff
I managed to make it pass the gates in the valley of death, but once pass I was wedged, with two very smart reverses and one forward and some good coaching, I squeezed backward through the gates and took an alternate route to the last gate where alittle bit of vroom vroom and the right timing made the last gate a breeze and I finished with a -18
Course 2 was next, I watched a huge number of guys struggle with this course and it had me very worried, but once the remote was in hand everything just fell into place, after taking a gate which I think 90% of the drivers did that day on a very challenging obstacle and one reverse I managed to finish the rest of the course without mistakes finishing with a -9.
Course #1 was another course I watched drivers struggle with. I decided to try some of my own lines instead of watching what others did and it really paid off. I noticed that the 6 minute time limit was a major hangout for most, so I kept that in mind. I quickly dominated the first 9 gates with ease leaving me 2 minutes for one very tough gate. The gate was in a very strange spot with a nice drop off below and a boundary as well. I could have taken the gate and finished the course, but I knew there were drivers with alot better scores then me, so I had to take a chance. With some uses of the digs both front and rear, and a few reverses I flopped off the edge and hit the boundary, adding 10 points I didn't want to my score. With 30 seconds left I knew I had to book it, I made it to the top once more and almost had it, but it just simply wasn't working and I flopped off the cliff again, this time, missing the boundary but running out of time.
Later, I watched Dustin, the winner of the comp, finish this gate in reverse and kept smacking myself wishing I found that line. He landed backwards just as I did off gate 9, but instead of turning around, he kept it in reverse and mastered the gate. It was beautiful.
Overall I ended up placing 7th which is way better then I ever expected, I may have placed better if I didn't play rough on my last course, but you only get better by trying new stuff. It was the funnest I've had at a competition to date!
I will have some video up in the next coming days, but below you can see my score and the places for everyone else who attended.
If I do that it will not be clocked because he does not offer the option.
