Another day of race action at the UROC RockCross arena here at the Off Road Expo in Pomona, CA. It was a very nice today with temperature in the mid-seventies. The track was nice and wet this morning, which was sure to make things a little more interesting.

Ms.Cotton Rodd jumps her Maxxis rock racer over the top

One of the first races was between Cotton Rodd and Johnson. Cotton and Randy Rodd were up late yesterday working on fixing a ram-assist that broke on Saturday. From the looks of things, they had worked out the problem and were ready to race. Off the line the racing was side by side, with great energy and gear grinding action. Unfortunately Cotton Rodd had some problems again with her steering and was out of the race. Johnson took the win.

Steve Hastings in his Tri-County Gear Jeep Wrangler

Hastings came out next in his Tri-County Gear Jeep Wrangler running a 4-cylinder motor. Ben Hanks came out to challenge Hastings in his Maxxis rock buggy running a V8. It was a very close race. Hastings was pushing his Jeep Wrangler to the limit trying to keep up with the purpose built rock buggy of Hanks. There was even a little bumper banging out on the course between these two. Hanks came through victorious over the last vertical obstacle at the end.

(AUDIO Interview)

Ben Hanks tells us about his race and RockCross

In between races I did have a chance to talk to Ranch Pratt a little about how this weekend has been going for UROC, and he seemed to be happy with the support and attention it was getting from the crowd. This weekend was solely just to test out the format of the race. No points were kept, nor were the bracket style eliminations enforced.

Stephen Benny had a great rockcross weekend

In the second round at two o’clock the first race was between Stephen Benny and Ms.Cotton Rodd—who had been working on her rig during the last two hours to get it back in race ready condition. Off the line the both lunged forward at an amazing speed for this type of vehicle. It was side by side race action between Rodd and Benny. The winner of this race was Benny.

Next was Brad Lovell in his Fabtech rock racer against Steve Hastings in his modified Jeep Wrangler. Off the line Lovell got the hole shot, but Hastings caught up and past Lovell on the first obstacle. Approaching the second obstacle fast, Lovell took the lead—but then high-centered on the second vertical rock obstacle. Hastings kept running as hard and fast as his Jeep Wrangler could. Lovell got off the rock and continued racing the rest of the race flawlessly. Lovell took the win.

Some side by side action between Cotton Rodd and Creighton King

The last round of the day at 4 o’clock brought out a huge crowd. The race kicked off with Cotton Rodd vs. Creighton King. Creighton King likes to get his tires nice and sticky before he races, so he lit-up his Maxxis tires. The crowd went crazy. Ready to race now, Rodd and King lined up. Off the line it was pretty darn close, but King had a little of a lead on Rodd. Side by side on the first rock obstacle, Rodd and King raced hard and fast. There was some bumping between these two going over the rock corrie. Racing around the track for three laps King in his LT1 buggy and Rodd in her LS1 buggy were chirping those Maxxis tires and giving the crowd a great show. First across the finish line was Ms. Cotton Rodd and her man Randy Rodd.

Creighton King crossed the line after Cotton Rodd, but he wasn’t done giving the people here at the UROC RockCross Expo a show. He took it big and did a 360-burnout which lead to him rolling his rig. Luckily both King and co-driver were okay.

Next up was Lovell in the Fabtech rockracer and Ben Hanks in the Maxxis rockracer. It was a very tight race all the way around. Both ran hard and fast, but no mistake were being made this time. The race was so close that coming across the finish line they called it “too close to call” a winner. Since it was a no point’s race, it was okay.

The last race was between Brandon Johnson in the #133 powered by a Mustang 5.0 motor. He ran up against Steve Hasting in his 4-cylinder Jeep Wrangler. This time the judges decided to give Hastings a head start since he had a power disadvantage. Johnson raced to the first rock obstacle and caught up with Hastings passed him. After crossing the rock corrie and heading up the second rock vertical obstacle, Johnson got a little over his head—he rolled the rockracer. Johnson was okay and has turned back over on all fours. Usually this would have been a DNF and Hastings would have won.

The excitement and adrenalin pumping in both these machines and their drivers is incredible. With that said, the UROCK Rock Cross Expo closed off this weekend with an incredible last race, and a whole new appreciation of where the sport of rock crawling is heading.

UROC will be having three RockCross events in 2007. For more information please visit www.uroc.com