We have to throw another congrats out to Jason Rioux , aka Sparky J, in Colorado for putting his XR10 on top of the podium again. Colorado held it’s 3rd round of their Winter Series this past weekend at Horsetooth Reservoir near Ft. Collins. Jason pulled off the win by 43 points, and was the only competitor to finish with a negative score. Way to do work driver!!
Scores
Team Axial Driver Jason Rioux recently took the win at Colorado’s latest winter series competition with his XR10. With 50 of the best drivers from Colorado in attendance, Jason still managed to pull off the win by over 20 points.
Axial driver Jason Rioux and his XR10
The final scores
Congrats Jason, keep up the good work!!
Colorado hosted it’s second annual “La Guerra en Rocas Rojos” comp this past weekend, July 17- 18, 2010. The location was near the infamous Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison Colorado. The terrain here is very unique to say the least, with more traction then most know what to do with. The weather forecast was calling for 104 degrees for the high temp on Saturday and about 100 degrees on Sunday. This made for a long hot weekend, but the comp itself was an absolute blast. The courses laid out were extremely fun to drive but also challenged every driver in some way, shape, or form. Here’s a few highlights from the weekend.
Friday night got started when everyone met up at Finishline R/C’s new location for a BBQ/meet and greet.
Finishline has many tons of rock right inside the store itself. Great for those really hot or rainy days.
There is even a truck pull course inside the hobby shop too. A few crawlers took a turn at pulling the sled.
Comp Day
RCCrawler.com was on hand providing live coverage to everyone that couldn’t attend. Jason and John were there first thing in the morning setting everything up for the comp and the live coverage.
The scenery in this area was awesome in-and-of-itself.
Competitors wait in line to sign up and see if their rigs pass tech.
Got vertical?
Go time!!
Each course was sponsored by various R/C companies. Cow R/C sponsored course #2.
Colorado driver Tom Barger.
One course had an added twist. For -10 bonus points you could stand in the “Vanquish Bonus Box” and drive one of the courses from the box while your spotter was on course telling you where to go – not an easy task. Most competitors were hesitant to try the box, so Steve from Vanquish said he would give a crisp $100 bill to the first person that completed the course driving from the box. Greg Sinclair was the first to complete that task and was one hundred dollars richer because of it. Congrats Greg.
Here you can see Colorado driver Dan Edwards trying his hand at the box. That just sounds wrong to me.
Here you can barely see the amphitheater in the background.
Axial team driver Jason Rioux on Course #1.
More random shots.
Top 5 shootout
Spectators and fellow competitors gather to watch the top 5 battle it out.
Shane Howsley (left) and Jon Wood (right) talk strategy before starting the finals course.
Jon Wood was in 5th place going into the shootout, so he was the first to run the finals course.
Jay Robinette working the finals course.
Bryan Crofts and his Hardline bodied rig.
Bryan stripped an aluminum servo horn on his steering half way through the finals course. Off course repairs aren’t allowed, so he had to try and fix it on course with the clock running. Bryan did manage to get it fixed and finish the course with little time to spare.
Shane Howsley dropping in.
Mike Rosenthal was sitting in the top spot after 5 courses, so he got to run the finals course last as a result.
The hardware everyone was fighting for.
The winners
From left to right 4th place Jay Robinette, 2nd place Shane Howsley, 1st place Mike Rosenthal, 3rd place Jon Wood, and 5th place Bryan Crofts. Great job guys!!
That wraps it up for this year’s war on the rocks. If you haven’t had a chance to make it out to a Colorado comp, you should try to plan ahead for next year. You won’t be disappointed.
The Colorado Club recently got permission to use one of their best comp locations to host a national level event. Located near Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado this spot is a gold mine of terrain that’s absolutely perfect for R/C crawling. I crawled at this location for years before re-locating to SoCal. The rock there has so much traction that your rig will seem to defy gravity on some obstacles. So, for me, it was awesome to go back and crawl this incredible location again. Especially since this was the biggest event ever scheduled to take place any where in Colorado to date.
The back drop………………….Red Rocks Amphitheater.
Gate placement was key throughout the weekend. If you couldn’t make a gate clean in your first few attempts, you needed to cut your losses and straddle that gate to finish inside the 4 minute limit.
Highlights from the 2.2 comp on Saturday.
Comp crawlers weren’t the only R/C’s on hand. There were a bunch a sweet scale rigs playing all weekend as well.
San Diego driver Nabil Jamali on the bottom course.
3rd Place finisher Tim Magee doing work with his SWX Berg.
Live coverage was provided by RCCrawler.com and RCShortCourse.com.
Shifters Bar and Grill was on hand keeping all the competitors well fed.
You could even gamble between your runs on the Roulette wheel. Actually, the Colorado guys built this giant Vanquish turntable/spinning wheel that was variable speed. You had to drive onto it, while it was spinning, miss the gates on the wheel, and traverse the gates in the right direction to make it clean. Needless to say it was very tough to negotiate, but an exceptionally fun obstacle.
Team Axial drivers Ed Rappleye and Brian Parker.
The top 5 shootout:
There was even an award for the guy who finished dead last, and it was bigger then the winner’s trophies!!
For this event to be the first big comp ever held in Colorado it was awesome. The event ran smooth as silk for both days. I really didn’t hear any complaints or issues the whole weekend. Everyone had a great time and left with a smile on their face. I will definitely be back next year for sure!! Congrats to Axial Team Driver Jake “King Bling” Hallenbeck for taking the 2.2 win.
While I was visiting Colorado over the Memorial weekend we hit a local car show. The show was at Shifter’s Bar and Grill in Commerce City Colorado. It had been raining most of the weekend which hurt the overall attendance, but cleared up in the late afternoon. There was a good mix of custom restored rides, rat rods, race cars, and even a few motorcycles. Shifter’s Bar and Grill hosts a handful of car shows each year that are worth checking out if you’re ever in the area.
This guy’s pimp hand was strong!!
Here’s a few highlights from the 1.9 comp this past weekend at the Westminster HobbyTown in Colorado. Courses were brutal to say the least. Tons of holes and diff hangers made it very difficult to negotiate the tightly spaced gates. I really liked the obstacle layout for all of the courses personally, and ended up 3rd overall for the day.
I took a trip out to Colorado over the long Memorial Day weekend to visit friends. Of course we ended up at the local HobbyTown for a crawl comp while I was there. Here’s a few highlights of the 2.2 comp.
Westminster, Colorado HobbyTown
Comp Area
“Cables of Carnage” leading up to the covered bridge
How steep can your rig climb?
Highlights from the 2.2 Comp
Axial Team Driver Jason Rioux climbed his way into the top 5 shootout at the end of the day.
