This is an article from a new friend of ours, Kidd Kaos. Check it out. Photos courtesy of Saul Grinberg at KYNETICPHOTOS.COM

On Saturday October 13, 2013, I had the pleasure of attending and competing in the the first annual South Florida Scale Crawlers Fall Crawl TTC, held at the SFSC course at Markham Park, in Sunrise, FL.

The Competitors

The Fall Crawl is a challenging three leg competition that took competitors and their crawlers through their paces as they worked their way through the winding course, built by the club members over the last year.

The first leg of the course was the trail run/ frame twister; a very difficult course involving rock climbs, swinging bridges, and switchbacks.

Teams had to navigate the course as quickly as possible, while being guided and timed by an assigned trail boss. This course was quite deceiving to the outsider looking in.

Once inside the course it was amazing to see the route that had to be taken as the trail run continued on, even up and through the trees. As drivers finished this leg of the competition they found themselves facing the ominous hill climb.

Javier Nieves Navigating the Course

Cheri Pelletier Troubleshooting Issues

The second leg of the course began as the last crawlers pulled out of the trails. Each team went one by one along the marked course on the massive hill, which had switchbacks along the 20ft ascent.

The club held nothing back when they marked the route, making drivers test their skills as they navigated over rocks and past washouts. Many of the drivers found themselves falling time and time again, and scurrying to get back in place.

This leg of the competition proved to be the make-it-or-break-it section for most teams. The hand of god rule came into play multiple times for most causing their overall team times to greatly suffer! As teams crested the summit, they had to navigate a tight path along the top marked by flags while being careful to stay in bounds. Then they had to descend along another set of switchbacks, and round the base of the mound as they headed into the last part of the hill.

This part was an extremely steep climb with tight turns and more tricky washouts.Finishing this part of the competition was a rewarding experience for most teams while a few competitors had to accept the dreaded DNF.

Before the final part of the competition, teams enjoyed free pizza that was provided by House of Power Hobbies, a local hobby shop located adjacent to the park. Everyone relaxed a bit and wound down as chatter filled the air with discussions of successes and failures. Teams laughed and joked around until the officials started the call for the last leg; the mud pit.

Lining up for the Mud Pit

The club worked endlessly to get the mud pit together digging a 25 ft trench that ranged from eight to twelve inches deep. As the competitors worked their way through, the course club members were running back and forth to a nearby canal with five gallon buckets filling the trench.

As the teams lined up there was nervous chatter from new competitors about running a mud pit for their first time. The seasoned guys reassured them it would be okay. Then the fun started! As the first teams entered, they found themselves in a watery line with a semi soft bottom. The key was exiting quickly but making sure not to hit the trail markers. As the teams moved along, they found that the first one through had it much easier because the bottom became softer and the lines that were being cut made navigating the thickening mud more and more difficult.

The day wrapped up with an awards ceremony. 1st place received an Axial Jeep Rubicon kit, 2nd place received a Spektrum dx3e radio, while 3rd and 4th place received gift certificates for House of Power Hobbies.

The Big Winners
(from left to right)
Mike – PJ – Rob – Jerry

The day and competition was a great success for South Florida Scale Crawlers. As competitors left they made compliments to the club for the challenging course, and for the excellent day that had been offered.

KK

All photos credited to Saul Grinberg at KYNETICPHOTOS.COM