kmboren
Recovering XJ owner anonymous
- Location
- Southern Utah
Nationals! This past weekend was the final official event of the WEROCK season, it is where the East and West coast come together and battle it out and was by far the biggest event of the season.
Day 1. Katelynn drew the smallest chips number which meant we were up first all day. This isn’t usually a problem but these courses were big this year. The ProMod class, which is the class we are in, always has the hardest time finishing these courses, and so you know it’s bad when the single seat rear steer buggies aren’t finishing courses. First course of the day we ended up coning out. It was a frustrating way to start the weekend but we learned a lot after that and kept our scores lining up with first and second place the rest of the day. Ended day 1 sitting in third place, around 40 points out of first, and around 20 points out of second, with fourth and fifth right on our tails. We were happy with where we were sitting considering we didn’t finish a course.
Day 2. Since we were up first yesterday, today we were last which meant we got to watch everyone do the courses, and today was the day we wanted to do that. I thought these courses were rough day 1, day 2 was on a whole other level. One by one we started finishing courses and doing pretty dang good on them. We watched closely on what lines worked, and what lines didn’t, and what cones we needed to try to avoid, and what ones were a waste of time and we just needed to smash and get through. There was so much strategy. We only almost rolled twice, but luckily Katelynn was able to gas out of it and finish the courses clean. Last course of the day, was the one that had us the most nervous. It didn’t help that the first three vehicles from our class didn’t finish the course either. But we went out and played our game, shot two huge walls, luckily our car likes to climb. We ended up finishing that course, being one of only two ProMod cars to complete it. Somehow throughout the day we made up just enough points that put us into second place with third five points behind and only the shootout to go. Now the shootout isn’t a regular course. It starts out that way with four gates, but then whatever time we have left after the gates, we get to go to bonus land, now this is just a bunch of bonuses set up that I can go up or down. We were able to watch third place, who has been leading the competition all season, and all we had to do was match whatever he did to stay in front. He ended up doing the whole course, and hitting two bonuses. We did the same thing and even did a third bonus, which I almost ended up rolling but saved it last minute. This secured our second place and put the pressure on first. Now let me take a second to say, currently sitting in first place is the one and only Jesse Haines. Now when you think of the person that has dominated all of the classes at WEROCK over the years, Jesse is the name you think of. He has been competing in this sport longer than Katelynn has been alive, and not only competing but he has designed a large portion of the chassis that compete, and created numerous other parts in the cars. He even was the designer of our car. So to end the weekend only a handful of points behind him was an absolute honor. Out of all the years we’ve been competing I have to say that this one has by far been the most rewarding and for that I am so grateful.
I am proud of Katelynn and we did amazing on the 2nd day. On day 2 our total scores were better than the other competitors. We were surprised we caught up that much but it was such a fun day. To place 2nd behind Jesse is a win in our book.
Day 1. Katelynn drew the smallest chips number which meant we were up first all day. This isn’t usually a problem but these courses were big this year. The ProMod class, which is the class we are in, always has the hardest time finishing these courses, and so you know it’s bad when the single seat rear steer buggies aren’t finishing courses. First course of the day we ended up coning out. It was a frustrating way to start the weekend but we learned a lot after that and kept our scores lining up with first and second place the rest of the day. Ended day 1 sitting in third place, around 40 points out of first, and around 20 points out of second, with fourth and fifth right on our tails. We were happy with where we were sitting considering we didn’t finish a course.
Day 2. Since we were up first yesterday, today we were last which meant we got to watch everyone do the courses, and today was the day we wanted to do that. I thought these courses were rough day 1, day 2 was on a whole other level. One by one we started finishing courses and doing pretty dang good on them. We watched closely on what lines worked, and what lines didn’t, and what cones we needed to try to avoid, and what ones were a waste of time and we just needed to smash and get through. There was so much strategy. We only almost rolled twice, but luckily Katelynn was able to gas out of it and finish the courses clean. Last course of the day, was the one that had us the most nervous. It didn’t help that the first three vehicles from our class didn’t finish the course either. But we went out and played our game, shot two huge walls, luckily our car likes to climb. We ended up finishing that course, being one of only two ProMod cars to complete it. Somehow throughout the day we made up just enough points that put us into second place with third five points behind and only the shootout to go. Now the shootout isn’t a regular course. It starts out that way with four gates, but then whatever time we have left after the gates, we get to go to bonus land, now this is just a bunch of bonuses set up that I can go up or down. We were able to watch third place, who has been leading the competition all season, and all we had to do was match whatever he did to stay in front. He ended up doing the whole course, and hitting two bonuses. We did the same thing and even did a third bonus, which I almost ended up rolling but saved it last minute. This secured our second place and put the pressure on first. Now let me take a second to say, currently sitting in first place is the one and only Jesse Haines. Now when you think of the person that has dominated all of the classes at WEROCK over the years, Jesse is the name you think of. He has been competing in this sport longer than Katelynn has been alive, and not only competing but he has designed a large portion of the chassis that compete, and created numerous other parts in the cars. He even was the designer of our car. So to end the weekend only a handful of points behind him was an absolute honor. Out of all the years we’ve been competing I have to say that this one has by far been the most rewarding and for that I am so grateful.
I am proud of Katelynn and we did amazing on the 2nd day. On day 2 our total scores were better than the other competitors. We were surprised we caught up that much but it was such a fun day. To place 2nd behind Jesse is a win in our book.
