The Rock Garden
The Rock Garden is just plain nasty. It is a collection of huge rocks of various size sprinkled about with no apparent good line through any of them. While some rocks are small, there are also plenty of huge ones. If that wasn't enough, there is a small hill to climb right off the bat. Then if you make it to the end of the Rock Garden, there is a large ledge, with a large pucker factor, to traverse. The Rock Garden would definitely not be a piece of cake, and to make it even tougher, our penalty-point system would be in place. Every time a driver came to a complete stop it cost 1 penalty point; backing up cost 2 points; a person exiting the vehicle cost 5 points; using a jack or winch cost 10 points per vehicle length; and not using a cable weight while winching cost another 10 penalty points. And just to make it interesting, a 20-minute time limit was instituted.
Kevin Walden, a local boy from nearby Indianapolis, attacked the rock course in his trick '68 International Scout 800. With 2 ½-ton axles and 44-inch Boggers, he was able to cruise through the course to a victory. | 
The '90 Ford Bronco II of Steve Vinciguerra from Benton, Pennsylvania had some problems in the rocks. He tried an alternate line and got hung up on a huge rock. Then the Bronco II started to overheat. The winch was put into action but with no fairlead, the cable dug into the side of the housing. Finally, Steve called it quits when it was apparent that he couldn't make it any further. |
The big tan '79 Chevy K30 of Cody Bloodworth was making good progress through the Rock Garden--especially considering that neither Cody nor his spotter had ever played in the rocks before. For a couple of good old boys from Longview, Texas their spotting and coordination in the rocks was impressive. They made it far enough for a fourth-place finish before running out of time. |  |
Dustin Carnes from San Angelo, Texas and his '91 Suzuki Samurai were making good time through the garden, especially for a rig shod with 35-inch tires. However, the combination of the last ledge and the short wheelbase proved to be too much and the Suzuki went over backwards. Nobody was hurt and the Suzuki clawed far enough through the rocks for a third-place finish. (See Previous and Following Images) |  |