Scott Ellinger |
Chris Moeser |
Jim Hall |
Ferris McCollum |
Brian Waddell |
Robin Hood |
Stephen Watson |
Eric O'Sullivan |
Bob Kelly |
Mike Kasmarek |
Yes folks, once again it's time for the Top Truck Challenge. Like the players in some WWF super match, our competitors traveled far and long to meet in one location so they could duke it out to see who was the best. They came ready for battle with some of the trickest and weirdest rigs out there. Of course, you already know about the rigs of Top Truck Challenge because we featured all of them in last month's issue.
As always, we headed to the Hollister Hills SVRA in Hollister, California, to put the 10 rigs through five days of Top Truck torture. The carnage was high, as axles snapped and driveshafts blew apart, but in the end, there was one rig that was able to survive and finish each event with the most points, earning ultimate victory at Top Truck Challenge 2001, sponsored again this year by 4Wheel Parts Wholesalers. For those that didn't win, there was still the honor of being among the Chosen Few to compete. Plus, the whole deal was plenty of fun, and that was how Top Truck Challenge started in the first place.
To get a first-hand look at all this fun on your very own television, check your local listings on Fox Sports East and West, Action Sports Network, and the ComCast Cable Network. And to obtain your copy of the Top Truck Challenge 2001 video, see the video ad that follows our Top Truck Challenge coverage.
Days One and Two
The Top Truck Challenge starts off fairly easy for our competitors. For the most part, they don't even have to get dirty. Our judges, however, spend their time running around taking measurements to figure out who has the most ground clearance, the tightest turning radius, the best approach and departure angles, and who can get the farthest up the RTI ramp. After all the measurements are taken, the judges crawl in, around, and under every vehicle, using their trained eyes to figure out who did the best job of building his vehicle.
With all the measuring and scrutinizing done, it is finally time for the competitors to fire up their engines and navigate the twisty paved roads through the hills of Hollister for the ride-and-drive portion of Top Truck. Each judge rides in every vehicle to see how the rigs can handle the pavement, with the idea being that all rigs should be able to drive to the trail.
Finally, things get exciting because it's time for the acceleration and braking portions of our competition. We take over a runway at Hollister Airport and the competitors blast down it under the stopwatch to determine who is the quickest. Good brakes also are important, so we run the rigs up to 40 mph and have their drivers slam on the brakes to see who has the best binders.
Once we're finished at the airport, we head back to Hollister Hills SVRA for the Tow Test. Here, the contestants are attached to the heaviest object we can find [Ho-ho-ho, did we ever find a heavy one! --Ed.] and we see how far they can drag it up a hill before coming to a stop.