Moon Rocks |
ZUKIWORLD
Online visits the RCCA Goodyear/Skyjacker Rock crawling Nationals in Reno, NV |
Story/Photo
Jason Hutchison Editor: Eric Bewley |
RENO, NV -We were planning our yearly
trip to Easter Jeep Safari when we learned of the RCAA (Rock Crawlers Association of
America) event in Reno the weekend before Easter Jeep Safari. We couldn't miss this
opportunity to spend some time up close and personal watching one of the fastest growing
off road sports.
| Reno itself is a great little town. All the perks of
Vegas surrounded by great 4x4 country. We headed north on I445 out of Reno to see just
what this was all about. As we rolled into the event we realized how big of an event this
was going to be. There was people everywhere and 4x4s to go with it. The road to Moon
Rocks OHV area is dusty graded road that leads to a rock out cropping of naturally eroded
sandstone like rocks surrounded by soft sand and sagebrush. Minus the grueling wind that
sent 40 mph dust storms ravaging through the course it was a spectacular day of sunshine
and blue skies with an occational dust storm. |
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So the purpose of our trip was to focus on the Suzuki
based vehicles but we couldn't help but notice just how cool all the rock buggies were so,
well we took pictures and some movies of all of them. Hope you enjoy them cause we sure
did.
| The first Suzuki guys we ran across was the Spidertraxs
guys, Eddie Casanueva and Tom Kingston in their new XTS mid-engine full coil sprung buggy.
This was one of the few mid engine buggies we saw. Spidertrax is reknown for building some
to the coolest aftermarket Suzuki products on the market and their new competition rock
buggy is a shinning example of their innovative design techniques.  
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The Karnivore Hummer H2 concept buggy from Avalanche
engineering needs no introduction. Jon Gilleland and his team had a crowd watching them on
every obstacle. Jon and his spotter was one of 3 buggies we counted that actually
conquered the radical uphill B7 obstacle. |
New with in the last couple years to the
sport is famed off road Baja racer Walker Evans in his front and rear independent
suspension Chevy pickup. We totally dug the suspension and Walker is running the new
40" tires from Goodyear. It was really great to see an off road legend still
competing and enjoying off road sports. Thank goodness we didn't loose him to Golf!
 
| Jon Bundrants rig sports an interesting power plant
VW/Porsche powered. We thought we had seen everything. We are hoping the Volkswagen
marketing scheme of "Drivers Wanted" applies for Jon's buggy cause we guarantee
we will be first in line. |
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The second SpiderTrax team buggy was
pilot by Jason Gibney with Jason's dad as the spotter. These guys make a great team. We
got some great video of Jason piloting the STX buggy through some tough obstacles that
yielded several rollovers that day. Make sure you check out the video too.
   
The only full frame samurai that we ran across at the event was this one piloted by the
team of Dean Polluch and Karl Munford of Cedar City Utah.
  
  
 ZW
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