"PYRO" TAKES 1 st PLACE at THE 2001 HAWAII TOP TRUCK CHALLENGE !!!!!


Photos by Lorelei

It was a Great day at Kualoa Ranch, the crowd was in excess of 2000 people, there were about 30 mud bog racers, 25 TTC entires and the monster truck from Maui Off Road. The TTC event consisted of a 30 degree RTI ramp, rock crawling course and mud bog pit. The day started with the 30 degree RTI ramp competition, I was able to get the best ramp score in the event at -955- out of a possible -1000-. I would have done better but my shocks were completely extended and would not let the rear droop farther(I'll fix that). The day before I removed most of the limiting straps on the rear suspenion which I think was the deciding factor at doing good on the ramp. The ramp was somewhat uneventful with the rigs lined up and waiting their turn, ramping and then going straight to the rock course, until . This big block CJ went up on the ramp, stopped and put in neutral(auto), he was reving the motor to keep it running when it popped into gear and lanched over the top of the ramp and rolling onto its side. No one was hurt(but the CJs windsheild) and it turned out to be pretty funny. I wish I had a photo but wasn't fast enought to get one, it was pushed back on its wheels in seconds(only took 3 Big locals one push).

The rock crawl consisted of a rock pile about 25 feet wide and 100 feet long with no gates(?). Scoring is by giving each competitor 20 points at the start and deducting penalty for: stopping for more then 5 seconds-2 points, reversing-4 points, use of tool-10 points,use of winch-20 points, ect,,,. I met a very cool guy named Dave a few days before the event(I met alot of very nice people, Joey & Chris, Mike, Steve, Fabio, John, Guy and many others). Dave drives a '97 TJ that was also entered in TTC, neither of us had a spotter so we agreed to spot for each other for the rock course. I made sure I was almost last in line so I had time to spot for Dave who was about 4th in line. It was laid out fairly flat for the frist half but with a few large holes, then two big holes right in front of two large boulders in the center of the course.

Most drivers choose to avoid the largest rock in the center and got hung on the smaller of the two. I figured I'd take the line over the big rock and see what happens. I got on top of the rock and the weld front diff made it impossible to steer to the left and I slid off the side of the rock. I hit the rocker steel hard , powered up and skidded over. The second half was alot of medium size boulders set side by side with large holes between them. If you went into a holes, your axels were stuck on rocks, which happened to many drivers. I was able to clear the course with no point deducted, started with 20 point and finished with 20 !!!!! If more then one team mde a clean run, the amount of time to finish was taken into account. Mine was 1 miuute 16 seconds.

The TTC Mud Bog was set for later in the day after the unlimited mug racers. There were a few that got stuck in the center of the pit and dug some very deep holes in the bottom. At one spot I'd guess it was about 4' deep with a ledge after the hole that rose up about a foot. It was this ledge that stopped many rigs. I hit this spot and almost stopped but sawed the wheel back and forth, hit the gas and luckily got going again. My time through the pit was 10.97 seconds. Unfortunately I only have photos are of before and after the bog right now but I'll post more when they are available.



The Maui Monster from Maui Off Road

There's Joey's red YJ with Warn Black Diamond suspenion and Atlas T-case, need to watch out for him next year.

There's Dave's green TJ lined up for the bog

I have more photos to post, so check again in a day or so