Rock Racing at Avalanche OHV Ranch, Final Event of the 2004 Season 

(Allison, Colorado) The final Avalanche Ranch Rock Race of the season was held the weekend of October 23-24, 2004 at the ohv ranch outside of Allison, CO. The Thursday and Friday before the event were cloudy, with snow at the higher elevations, so about half of the competitors that had verbally committed failed to show. But, they missed out, because Saturday morning dawned clear and cold, and by midday we were even able to remove our jackets. In fact, the entire weekend turned out to be a beautiful late fall weekend in the southern Rockies.

The Rock Race Series has grown in popularity this season, and it has proven to be possibly the most exciting type of four wheel drive off road racing event around. No cones, varied terrain, difficult obstacles and some of the craziest driving all combine to make Rock Racing the fastest growing type of event. The growing popularity has not gone unnoticed, next season the Avalanche Ranch folks will be partnering with CalRocks to bring you the racing, the first event is slated for Moab in the spring, the first race to be held off the ranch.

The trails at Avalanche OHV Ranch vary widely from forest trails with lots of dirt and rocks to more traditional hard core rock crawling, and there was plenty of both in this event. The 5 competitors were 4 of the regulars from the season and one young lady from Cortez, CO competing in her first event.

All the competitors finished, though there was plenty of carnage on both days, including a blown motor on day one that was replaced overnight. Several rolls, including one at the bottom of a hill in a very tricky location added to the excitement. The trails were tight and very twisty, the narrow vehicles had the advantage, but a longer wheelbase helped on many of the obstacles due to the steepness of the climbs. Here's the way they finished (top three):
This Race
1st place Josh and Paul
2nd place Crash (Harrison)
3rd place Mike Palmer

Season Overall
1st place Crash (Harrison Beene)
2nd place was a tie between Josh and Palmer and Josh won the tie breaker
3rd place Mike Palmer

Words cannot do justice to Rock Racing, so I'll let the pictures in the photo gallery do the talking. If you don't show up next year for the races, you are really missing out on the most exciting racing to come along in quite awhile.

For more information on rock racing or Avalanche Ranch contact Steve Rumore or Mike Weaver. Contact information can be found on the Avalanche OHV Ranch website, http://www.avalancheohvranch.com. And for info on next season with the new XRRA (Extreme Rock Racing Association) visit their website: http://www.xrra.com/.