2009 Top Truck Challenge - Shaken & Stirred

Latham

Day 2 Event 3
The Mini Rubicon
What it is: This wretched course is approximately125 feet in length and contains a variety of California's finest axle-bending boulders. They are strategically placed to challenge even the saltiest rockcrawler and throw the uninitiated into catatonic shock. This year, we created even more chaos by incorporating four deep crevices across the direction of travel.

How it works: Each competitor has 20 minutes to crawl, winch, or flounder as far as possible. Penalties in the form of seconds are added to a competitor's time for infractions such as stopping, winching, etc. Competitors who completed the course were ranked by elapsed time, while those who did not finish were marked as DNF and ranked by distance traveled.

Eulberg

Sheeley

Finish Line Quotes
* "When we walked through it I was thinking, holy cow, whoever built this was in a bad mood."-Tracy Graf
* "Once it started going up and over we knew it was done. I tried to hit Reverse and save it, but it was done."-Leroy Latham
* "Tough. Definitely tough. But we did better than I thought we would do." -Addie Sheeley
* "They're certainly bigger than anything I've come in contact with in my time."-Scott Sidwell
* "I hate getting hung up. It irritates me."-Jamie Eulberg
* "Waiting your turn to go, it just kills you. Your guts are churning and you just want to go."-David Green

The Play-By-Play
Eulberg's CJ-7: Entered the first crevice with 2:29 on the clock. Entered the last crevice with 4:25 on the clock. Clean run, very little drama.
Graf's X-Chassis buggy: Fourth competitor. Had a little trouble getting onto the course compared to the previous competitors, but then blazed through everything, arriving at the last crevice with only 7:00 on the clock. Winched though the last section.
Green's diesel buggy: Fastest run of the event. Co-driver exited the rig as soon as they got to the rocks. Cleared the second crevice with 2:10 on the clock, the third crevice with 2:22 on the clock, and the fourth crevice with 2:37 on the clock. The team never winched and accrued only 2 seconds in penalties.
Jerome's TJ buggy: Ran with 5 psi in the Baja Claw TTC tires. Entered the second crevice with only 4:23 on the clock. Blew through the rest of the course to earn an elapsed time of 6:01 after accruing 19 seconds in penalties.
Kahlstrom's Power Wagon: Got to the first crevice in 3:50. Made slow but steady progress down the course by methodically winching rocks into the crevices. Unfortunately, this strategy consumed a lot of time, and they timed out 103 feet into the course.
Latham's buggy: With only 4:13 on the clock, they were at the last crevice. While attempting to climb out, the rig rolled onto the passenger side. The team sprung into action and had the rig back on its wheels in only 3 minutes. Finished the course, but due to a broken hydraulic steering fitting, they went out-of-bounds just before the finish line while winching, resulting in a DNF at that point.
Sheeley's FC-170: Fought their way through the course and were tipped precariously to the passenger side a couple of times. Got stuck in the third crevice with about 3 minutes left on the clock and opted to spool the winch cable all the way to the bulldozer. Timed out with the front of the rig wedged in the third crevice.
Sidwell's Ranger: With 4:24 on the clock, the rear diff was hung up on a boulder, and the driver-side rear wheel was in the air. With 8:30 on the clock, the team was trying to get through the first crevice. The team chose to end their run shortly after, due to a slipping transfer case chain. They also bent the rear pinion brake rotor.
Smith's F-350: Second competitor. Stopped short of the first crevice to winch a boulder out of the way. Got stuck, so with 13:29 on the clock they used the rear winch for a backward pull. With 2 minutes remaining on the clock, the trucks front wheel's were in the first crevice and they were trying to winch boulders out of the way. They timed out a little over 28 feet into the course.
Williams' FJ Cruiser: First competitor. Co-driver piloted the rig in this event. With 10:30 on the clock, they were stuck in the first crevice and were attempting to use the truck to pull a boulder out of the way, in Reverse. Eventually they moved the boulder, but then the truck got stuck and couldn't move forward or back. With three minutes left on the clock, they were attempting to winch another boulder out of the way. Timed out a little over 27 feet into the course.

Sheeley

Day 3 Final Event
The Tank Trap
What it is: Tank Trap is a quarter-mile-long valley that climbs 195 feet in elevation from start to finish. It's loaded with natural obstacles like the Canyon. This area is only about 100 yards in length, but it contains enough obstacles that it could be a stand-alone event. The Canyon boasts steep, slippery rock waterfalls that thwart traction, and it has sick, off-camber sections bordered by sheer rock walls that almost guarantee competitors' rigs will bend sheetmetal. But wait! We up the challenge level even further by digging seven massive, deep holes and then we fill 'em full of water. The result is an event with unrelenting obstacles that come hard and fast. Every inch of the Tank Trap is designed to test team and machine.

How it works: Each competitor is given 30 minutes to get as far as possible. The only rule is that a competitor must travel through the marker cones when they appear. Rankings are by overall time or distance traveled if DNF. Because of its intensity, the Tank Trap is worth double points. This makes it strategically important to the competitors because it can help extend a lead or gather much-needed points.

Finish Line Quotes
* "Very challenging. There's some nasty stuff in there, man."-David Green
* "We just tried to keep the wheels moving so we didn't dig ourselves in."-Brett Jerome
* "The obstacles come at you so fast, boom, boom, boom, as soon as you're done with one there's another one right there in your way." -Doug Kahlstrom
* "It's a lot tougher than it looks on the videos. You get up in there in person and you have to climb those sidehills and hook the winch straps up, you have no idea how much work that is and how hard it is." -Scott Sidwell
* "I would do Tank Trap again, but I wouldn't want to fall backwards again."-Wayne Sheeley
* "The hole in the Canyon that we fell into... you don't see that on the video."-Leroy Latham
* "It wasn't as hard as we expected. But we are pretty awesome."-John Hughbanks

The Play-By-Play
Eulberg's CJ-7: The co-driver exited the vehicle with 2:12 on the clock and began the process of winching out of Water Hole 2. With 6:15 on the clock, the team was in the Canyon winching, and the engine was stalling regularly due to a detached vacuum line. With approximately 9:00 on the clock, the team spooled out too much winch cable and it detached from the drum. The team chose to run the rest of the course with no winch. They cleared the Canyon with 17:40 on the clock and entered Water Hole 3 with 18:50 on the clock. With 27:21 on the clock, they were stuck in Water Hole 6. They eventually timed out in Water Hole 7.
Graf's X-Chassis buggy: With about 1:00 on the clock, the rig was flopped on the passenger side, due to too much speed and a rear steer error in the Canyon about 50 yards past Water Hole 2. With 7:30 on the clock, the rig was on the winch cable and back on its wheels, though highly off-camber, and the team had re-fired the 427ci V-8. With 9:20 on the clock, the vehicle rolled over again a few feet further in the Canyon. The team chose to end their run with approximately 11:00 on the clock.
Green's diesel buggy: Cleared Water Hole 2 with 1:10 on the clock. Began winching in the Canyon with 2:45 on the clock and winched for about the next 5 minutes. Once out of the Canyon, they easily completed the rest of the course in a little over 2 minutes with no winching.
Jerome's TJ buggy: Fastest run of the event. Flew through the course with no winching. Cleared Water Hole 2 with 1:00 on the clock, exited the Canyon with 3:00 on the clock and entered Water Hole 3 with 4:20 on the clock. Co-driver never exited the vehicle.
Kahlstrom's Power Wagon: Entered the Canyon with 1:45 on the clock, Water Hole 3 with 3:05 on the clock, and Water Hole 5 with 3:45 on the clock. Had to winch out of Water Hole 6. Winched up the final hill, and disconnected the winch cable with approximately 9:15 on the clock. No body damage due to "spiderwalking" up the canyon walls.
Latham's buggy: Entered the Canyon with 1:08 on the clock, began winching in the Canyon with 1:48 on the clock and cleared Water Hole 3 with 9:45 on the clock. Blew through Water Hole 4 with 10:30 on the clock and finished the course a hair over 3 minutes later.
Sheeley's FC-170: After several attempts to climb out of Water Hole 2 the team was considering winching but the driver wanted to try it one more time. The rig flipped over backwards and came to rest on its top in the water. The team was quickly removed from the vehicle and the recovery team had the vehicle out of the Trap in about an hour.
Sidwell's Ranger: Winched out of Water Hole 2 with 6:00 on the clock. Couldn't make forward progress in the Canyon and chose to end their run with 30 seconds left on the clock. Damage report: bent tie rod, and bent driver-side front four-link bars.
Smith's F-350: Made it to the Canyon with only 1:30 on the clock and continued forward progress with no winching. With approximately 4:15 on the clock, the rig had rolled onto its side in the Canyon. Somewhere along the line, the bolts in the rear steering failed. The team chose to end their run.
Williams' FJ Cruiser: Blew through the canyon with no winching and entered Water Hole 3 in about 6 minutes. Broke a driver-side front axle hub in Water Hole 3 with 8:00 on the clock and began winching. Winched through Water Hole 6 with 16:18 on the clock. With 18:30 on the clock, the team was spooling out the winch cable to climb the final hill.