We would like to welcome our new and returning partners
for the 2009 season.
New for this season are:
Winchline.com
has come on board and will supply a new stronger
winch rope as well as a new high performance spotter strap.
Reed's Auto Parts
stepped in and provided a low mileage supercharged
3.8 Liter V6 motor to allow the team to retire the old drivetrain.
SWAY-A-WAY
shocks hooked the team up with a set of new coilovers to improve the
handling of the rig.
Returning this season is:
Griffin Thermal Products
has stepped up to supply cooling support for the rig.
Warn Industries with their
new 9.0R rockcrawling winch which weighs in at just 48 pounds.
Solid Axle Industries
is back helping keep the axles strong.
BFGoodrich Tires
is once again providing tires for the team.
Foothills4x4 is
helping with a facility and staff to help keep the vehicles
running smoothly.
East Coast Differentials
is helping out with axle machine work.
Randy's Ring and Pinion/Yukon
is once again supplying the axles shaft blanks.
Media Werk is back helping with sponsorship tools including
a demo DVD.
Carolina Driveline
is once again supplying drive shafts.
Simple
Green cleaning solution is non-toxic, biodegradable and
helps keep the vehicles
clean and easier to maintain.
PSC Motorsports Performance Power Steering
is still providing support with their great steering products.
OX USA is taking care of the axle u-joints with their
Dana 60 OX Joint.
Blair Built Off-Road
- Slickrock Off-Road is now known as Blair Built Off-Road.
Thanks to them all for helping keep the team going.
With their support and new changes to the rig, we look forward to
putting on a strong run to winning our 4th East Coast title. |
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Check out our Sponsorhouse page.
Mike has signed up on Sponsorhouse.com so check out the
page there.
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Rig Changes for 2007 and New Rig being built for 2008.
With the 2007 competition season fast approching, the rig
is getting an updated steering system to full hydro. Since
the sanctioning bodies now allow full hydro, we are working
with PSC Motorsports to convert the buggy over. This new system
will be combined with a new custom made knuckle and steering
arm to put a ram behind the axle on the passenger side of
the rig. This will eliminate one of the biggest problems we
had in '06 where steering breakage knocked us out of some
good finishes and possible wins.
For 2008, we have designed a brand new chassis and will start
construction around May with the rig making it's debut at
the first event in 2008. The new chassis will be designed
like the current on, but will be a full tube chassis. Plans
are to keep the new rig under wraps until the first event
or SEMA Off-Road, but this will be a top of the line build
as we are sparring no expense. Stay tuned for updates.
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Rockcrusher Manufacturing Rockcrawling teams take first
in both Super Modified and Super Trucks at UROC Pro Atlantic
event.
Rockcrawling teams sponsored by Rockcrusher Manufacturing
captured both the Super Modified and Super Truck class wins
in Portland In. The UROC Pro Atlantic event was held at the
tried and true X-Plex facility on Aug 25th and 26th. The top
teams on the East were there to fight it out and see who would
come out on top. In the end, Matt Deas and Jeff Rowland won
the Super Modified class with a score of 18 beating out former
World Champion Randy Torbett by 15 points. This was followed
by the win in Super Trucks by Mike Cole and Jeff Grande who
finished with -5 beating out 2006 WEROCK East Modified Champion
Danny Rohrer who finished with a 10.
From left to right:
Jeff Grande, Mike Cole, Matt Deas, Jeff Rowland
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|
 This
is a photo of our roll during the NEUROC event in Attica,
IN. This turned out to not be a problem because the rear tires
broke the plane of the exit gate, so we finished with only
one point. We really enjoyed this event mainly because we
got a chance to see how the new rear suspension was going
to work on hill climbs. We played around on some of the hills
the day before and were amazed at how well it did.
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 Sam
Silveira from Pirate4x4.com took this photo and was nice enough
to let me get a copy. This one was taken during the Pro/Semi
Combined event in Jellico. This obstacle is known as "Battleship".
We were able to climb it fairly easy, but each time we would
get turned to the left, which wouldn't let us get lined up
for the next set of cones. Since it was our second obstacle,
we decided to play it safe and take the regular line. This
meant we didn't get the bonus points but we only got a 2 on
the course, which was the only score that wasn't in the negative.
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 We
do practice whenever we can. This photo was taken at a place
we found that has a couple of rock piles that we play on.
They aren't real hard, but pretty technical.
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Here are a couple of magazine photos I have. The first
is from Petersons 4 Wheel and Off-Road. It was taken during
a trip to Rattlerock in the fall of 2002. Except for the body
damage, this was the way the rig looked when we first started
competing in it. The second photo is from the January '04
4WD & Sport Utility. It was taken at the last NEUROC event
of 2003. This was our first trip to a NEUROC event.
 
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After the UROC Extreme East finals, we wanted to take the
chance to try one of the hills on Full Throttle. This ended
up being an expensive descision. After rolling the rig on
the second attempt, we decided to try one more time. This
ended up with the driver flipping the rig over backwards onto
the stinger. This bent the frame and caused other damage to
the rig. After this, we put the rig on the trailer for the
ride home.
The next day we started looking at the rig to find what damage
the roll over had caused. 
The toll was: a kinked frame, motor mount broken off pass
side engine block, broken tranny to block mount, and a busted
bell-housing on the tranny. Not to mention the broken grill
and busted hood. After a little discussion, we decided that
now was a great time to convert the front to a 3-link and
air shocks. This would allow us to loose some of the front
frame to improve approach angles and eliminate the hangups
we get from the front spring hangers. Plus we would have the
ability to winch the front end down on hills.
After a call to Off-Road Warehouse, we had a set of Fox Air
Shox and heim joints on the way. |
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Well, the time has come to make changes for next season.
We have decided to get rid of the YJ tub in favor of full
skins. This will allow us to keep the rig looking newer since
the skins can be changed as often as needed. The plan is to
build an entirely new cage. To do this we removed the entire
body and current cage... more |
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Team
Update |
| July 5th - 6th WEROCK East
Jellico TN
Jellico was the third stop of the season for the East teams
and like usual the rain made into town the same time the event did.
This left the drivers with the usual technique of using lots of throttle.
Mike and Justin had started Saturday fairly well and were able to finish the
first course even though the rear brakes had quit. The secod was another story
they like pretty much all the other teams failed to finish their second course.
They were able to follow that up with a great finish on the third which put them
right in the hunt for the weekend. But the rain returned as they started the fourth
course and caused them to pickup another DNF. This bumped them back in the standings
but they were still running and had another day to go.
When Sunday morning rolled around the rain had returned but quit before the event so
it was decided to take a little time to allow the courses to dry out. The team started
out great and were able to finish all courses without problems. They even managed to
make the climb on Full-Throttle that destroyed the rig in 2004. This put them into
5th place for the shootout with a good shot at moving up. With the 6th place team opting
to sit out the main, Mike and Justin would be the first to tackle the course for the
Pro-Mod class. While coming down the first drop off Mike made a good save and thought
the run was going to be a good one, but at the very next set of gates it was found that
the bolt for the frame end of the front lower control arm had broken. This finished the
team for the weekend. They held on to 5th for the weekend which puts them in 6th place
in the series going into the finals in PA on Aug. 2nd - 3rd.
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| May 31st - June 1st WEROCK East
Dayton, TN
This was a new facility for WEROCK for 2008 and would prove to be a tough one.
On Saturday the team started out great by making a hard climb on the first course
look easy by walking right up but then they took a nasty roll coming off the next hill
and had to try and right the rig themselves. With a little bit of effort they were
able to get the rig back up and on it's wheels. Then tried to take the bonus climb and
ended up bending a rear link causing the rig to flop onece again. They were able to get
the link replaced but the replacement was pieced together and made it through the rest of
the day but put them back in 11th by the end of the day.
On Sunday the skies had opened up and the rain was pouring all day. After taking time to
see what the weather would do, the event was called because of the lightning so they finished
up in 11th.
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| April 26th - 27th WEROCK East
Hannibal, MO
The season once again started off in Hannibal MO and once again the
rain followed. Saturday was a little bit wet but not as bad as last year.
The courses were great and the team did well to finish all but one. The
changes to the rig worked great as it was much more stable and climbed much
better. Mike and Justin approached the courses just wanting to see how the
rig would do and they were able to do quite a few nasty drop offs without
problems. When the time came for the main event they were sitting in 3rd tied
with 2nd but losing on the tie breaker. When their time came to run the course
they attacked it and finished with a 19. This tied the 4th place team so they
knew that they had at least 3rd since they started with a one point lead. When
it was time for the 2nd place team to go they got hung on the first big rock
and had to work really hard to get off. In the end they finished with a 25
which moved Mike and Justin to 2nd. Now with just 16 points between them and
the leader they had a chance to win. The leader took no chances and finished with
a good enough score to hold the win by 9 points. So once again Mike and Justin
started out the season with a great finish.
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