Crawl for a Cure 2015
Hosted by BPC Chassis and RC Country Hobbies
Rollins Lake, Grass Valley, Californina
November 7, 2015
I don’t know if it’s because I’m getting old (which I am) but, lately it seems like cancer is becoming common around me. Two of my RC buddies, Mike and Elio, have recently beaten cancer, so when I was asked by Elio to attend the Crawl for a Cure, I was all in.
Mike and I packed up our scalers and headed out to Rollins Lake, Grass Valley, California. I have been to this lake before for a couple RECON G6 events, so I knew the location was a great one for some fun scale action.
I spotted this Samurai as soon as we parked. I have a soft spot for small trail rigs, so this one got my attention.
Elio was ready to rock and was sporting his cancer awareness pin.
A pretty good crowd was already there and many more were expected as over 100 drivers had preregistered. It turned out that 178 drivers showed up to support the Crawl for a Cure event, awesome!
Some coffee and doughnuts were waiting for drivers at the registration booth.
Drivers got a great swag bag. There was a raffle ticket for an Axial SCX10 Dodge Power Wagon as well as a lunch ticket, stickers, Pit Bull coupons, and a sweet 5.5mm wrench. The wrench was my favorite part. It’s now my official brake bleeding wrench. Whomever made/donated these things, thank you.
The swag bags also contailed these cool little registration stickers to show you were entered for the C4C event.
I spotted a couple trailers that Elio built and donated. He’s been making a lot of these things to keep busy during his recovery. He also donated some to the Axialfest 2015 swag prizes. Did you win one?
I wandered a bit before we started and saw these kiddos eagerly waiting. This is one of the best parts of scale adventure; it’s family friendly.
TG Squared came out and had samples of their 1:1 and 1:10 leds on display.
I noticed this interesting Honcho at the Two Guys Trail Gear booth…
…upon closer inspection it was a Nukizer715/Honcho hybrid. This thing was really cool.
Elio brought out his military gear to display. He built all of these things.
Even the Ma Deuce was hand made.
Another Nukizer body was put to use. These bodies were popular.
He even built this all terrain military stretcher called the Mule, are you kidding me? King of Scale, indeed.
Elio seemed to be everywhere. Here he was harrassing Fast Eddy from Fast Eddy’s Bearings. This was a change, since Eddy is usually the one doing the heckling.
The crowd kept growing. Did I mention 178 drivers showed up?
Rigs were lined up in anticipation. Hey, look, another NuKizer back there.
Soon Mark Bettencourt got on the mic, and we got this party started.
The trail led us down towards the water’s edge.
My RECON G6 Deadbolt worked flawlessly as always.
Lines were a little thick at the start.
I think people were distracted by this cat playing down by the water.
This guy wanted to pet it, but his dad told him that stray cats were dangerous.
Here’s my RG6 Deadbolt rolling through some Autumn leaves.
It’s always good to see the ladies out scaling.
Pink and Green dropping in.
The color combo actually worked really well.
There’s that cat again. Wait a minute, that’s not a cat.
Adam Dean was out running the Vanquish Wraith he won at Axialfest 2015. It was looking good in the pink and black.
Mike busted out his Wraith Spawn for it’s inaqural run. He was impressed with it’s performance.
This was a big drop off this ledge. It made driving smartly important.
It was nice to see siblings out having fun together and not fighting. They were rocking those pink ribbons.
This Deadbolt driver seemed a little nervous about this climb. Can you see the two handed death grip on the steering wheel?
Since Mike and I were driving in the fun run, and not scored class, we decided to take a lunch break and let the lines disipate a bit. I spotted this beast on the way to the car, overland ready.
Mike and I busted out our adventure stoves and cooked up some fine Mountain House meals.
Hey look, there’s that Samurai hiding behind Mike.
After lunch, we headed back out. Here we ran into a crew running their Wraiths.
We also saw this grandfather putting a schooling on his grandkids.
His granddaughter did her best to keep up.
This young guy stopped to pose with his Jeep.
I could have used a drink from that cooler. I used all my water making Mountain House meals.
These two were stopped for a little trail repair. That’s why it’s important to bring your tools and parts out on the trail.
After several hours of driving, some of the particpants took any opportunity to rest as they could.
The Comanche is one of my favorite bodies. It looked good running the Dingo flares.
This crew wasn’t messing around. They brought a whole screw kit along.
I told you the trail was long. This lady grapped a quick cat nap before completing her run.
Oh my, are those new Vanquish axles?
This EXO buggy was sporting some Axialfest 2015 livery.
I had to put this guy’s picture in because I made him squat down and pose for this picture.
The Cables of Carnage made a return. I haven’t seen these since the Axial West Coast Championships. Oh, sweet memories.
The raffle booth was busy selling tickets.
And for good reason. There was tons of sweet prizes.
I had my eye on those Freq-E-Skinz P40 Warhawk Wraith Wraps, and I don’t even have a Wraith. They were just really cool.
I was digging this Mighty FC Jeep. I might need to add training wheels to mine. The 2.2s look good on there.
As drivers finished, we all awaited the raffle.
Mr. Bettencourt started with the Axial SCX10 Power Wagon.
Adam Dean was the lucky winner. I rubbed my raffle tickets on him. He’s one lucky guy. He also won the Vanquish Wraith at Axialfest 2015.
Everyone started checking their tickets as the raffle got under way.
This guy scored a sweet mini EXO from Hoyfab. Even came with a scale radio, what?
These two nervously checked their tickets.
He was one of the lucky Pink Zonkerd Trailer winners.
This youngen was the winner of the other C4C Zonkerd Trailer.
With the huge turnout, the 2015 Crawl for a Cure was a big success. Lots of fun was had while raising money for the American Cancer Society. If you didn’t make it this year, make sure you add to your calendar of events for 2016. Next year will be even bigger and better.
How the Crawl for Cure got started by Tabatha Bettencourt
In 2007, my close friend (Carmen) was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. At the time, she was 37 years old, only 1 year younger than myself. She was a mother to 3 boys (Fabian – then 12 years old; Daniel – then 8 years old and Aidan – then only 1 years old). She was diagnosed as borderline stage 2-3 and the doctors felt that her cancer was advanced which they forecasted her to live approximately 2 years. Carmen’s will to live and fight had other plans. Even though Carmen’s cancer spread, Carmen would not give in, she refused to be a “cancer patient”. During her nearly 9 years of battling cancer, Carmen endured years of surgeries, radiation, chemotherapy and various drugs all with the goal of treating her cancer and hoping to be “cured”.
Immediately upon learning of Carmen’s cancer diagnosis, we all immediately wanted to know, what can we do to help. I had never attended a Relay for Life event, but I had seen the purple ribbons in town, saw the posters in various store windows and I knew that this was a cause I wanted to be a part of. Team WFAC (Walking for a Cure) was formed. Our first year, we had no idea what we were doing, but just being a part of cause and event that focused on all of the things that we were so passionate about was comforting. We have participated in American Cancer Society, Relay for Life every year since. We have helped raised (Team WFAC) more than $100,000 in 9 years. This was all done by donations from family and friends and team fundraising events.
My husband (Mark Bettencourt) wanted to find a way to expand the awareness of Relay for Life (American Cancer Society) and his favorite past time (RC Rock Crawling). In 2013, we held our first event (Crawl for a Cure). We had no idea what kind of participation or interest we would have. Our first year exceeded our expectation. We met cancer survivors, caregivers and heard many stories of people who like ourselves had been touched by Cancer. Everyone helped us to raise money but more importantly we formed a bond not only over our favorite past time, but how so many of us had common cancer stories and how we all wanted to help.
We have continued the event and are in our 3rd year. Every year we reach more people that want to be a part of this event. Last year we had approximately 150 drivers who participated in this event and we raised $5,000.
On September 17, 2015, my friend Carmen lost her battle with cancer. She left behind her parents, siblings, husband of 22 years, 3 sons (20, 16 and 10) and many friends who loved her (me being one of those). Cancer sucks!! We will continue to find ways to raise awareness and money for cancer research so that one day no one has to be afraid of hearing the words, “you have cancer.”
Again, thank you for your interest in our event.
Tabatha Bettencourt