UKRCRC Nationals 2008 - pics and report

[Webbage]

I attended my first event at the weekend, and where better to start than the UK Nationals! Getting there involved getting up at 5 am and a couple of hours in the car to get to the place (miraculously we DIDN'T get lost either!!).

The Nationals were held at Bracken Rocks in Derbyshire, which is a private competition site usually used for motorcycle and mountain bike trials. It's a perfect spot, with camping on site and lots of ROCKS.

The event was very well organised, with 2.2 and Super Class competitions taking place over the day on two courses each. Usual rules applied (5 min limit, points accrued for reverses, roll overs and repositions, points take off for each gate passed). We stood at the bottom 2.2 course for the morning session and were hooked from the start. Loads of people I've told about it said it sounded a bit dull, but it damned well isn't! It's pretty intense watching them crawl, scramble and twist across the rocks. I enjoyed it a ton!

The competition was certainly stiff in the 2.2 class, with many experienced operators with some really sweet rigs.

We also wandered up to one of the Super Class courses to watch the supers tough it out. The course looked nigh-on impossible from where I was standing! It soon proved difficult, but by no means impossible, as we realised why they call it Super class. Insane rigs with everything going to make them crawl rocks. The feats they pulled off were immense, climbing almost vertical faces, twisting in all sorts of mad directions. Great stuff.

I had a great day and so did the guys I was with, and I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank the organisers, competitors and all the people involved for making it a really fantastic even. The sun even shined all day, a total miracle on the UK!!

So now I'm going all out to build a comp rig of my own. It's gonna be a blast, I know it is

Photos from the event are posted here:

http://flickr.com/photos/pixel_mason/sets/72157606149671185/

 

[slowngreen]

sounds fun man, congrats. i bet it was a good spot if it is used for trials, those things are crazy in them selves. nice pics too.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I told you that the comp fever was going to set in, sir "I just wanna bash around and have fun, I'm not into competing" lol I'm just giving you a hard time, but congrats on making to trip to nationals, many of us would LOVE to be able to make it to nationals. It's about a 3 day drive from where I am, but I may fly out.

 

[Webbage]

I told you that the comp fever was going to set in, sir "I just wanna bash around and have fun, I'm not into competing" lol I'm just giving you a hard time, but congrats on making to trip to nationals, many of us would LOVE to be able to make it to nationals. It's about a 3 day drive from where I am, but I may fly out.

Yup, even though the weather's dodgy, at least the UK s small enough to drive across in a day

I think I said something along the lines of 'not into competing to *with my current rig* I did say from the get-go I'd build a proper comp rig if i wanted to compete and that's what I'm still after doing :

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Did you meet any more crawlers from your area while you were at the big comp?

 

[Webbage]

Did you meet any more crawlers from your area while you were at the big comp?

Yeh I met a guy and his g/f from about 30 miles up the road from us, which was cool. We exchanged details and are hoping to meet up at some point for a crawl about

 

[CharliesTheMan]

Cool, maybe you can take his girlfriend on the rocks...















in rc terms of course!

 

[Webbage]

Now, now, enough of that

Got to get my barrow out and some plastic sacking and start making my test course (well more of test heap) of rocks and logs in the back garden tonight, got planning permission for it from the folks.

EDIT:
Hmm, I think I just hit an idea for a really simple chassis to fit around the existing tranny... watch this space

 

[hpinitromt]

nice post, great pics!

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I just took a few minutes to go through the pictures, and I'm so jealous of your rocks. I haven't fened for rocks so bad since... Well we'll leave that to your imagination but it was a rough part in my life. Excellent pictures, you did a great job and the quality is remarkable, what camera did you use to take the pics?

 

[slowngreen]

i had a few years of rock abuse myself, but now i find a nice pyle of rocks to be just as addicting to me now, but these ones are good for me.

 

[Webbage]

Thanks Charlie, I use a Canon EOS400D DSLR. If you have a stroll through my other Flickr libraries you can see other stuff I've taken with it, the motorbike racing ones are pretty sweet too

the UK has it's fair share of nice rocky bits, of just about all types and locations. I'm sure the US has plenty of nice rocky bits too, in fact I know it has, I've seen plenty

I guess being out in the south east you are a bit short of rocks. All the crap that wears off the rocky bit of the US tend to get dumped on the south and east coasts, after all.