Boston Crawlers - Purgatory Chasm - March 31st - Outdoor Event #1

Posted: 4/3/12

BC Event 1 - Purgatory Chasm - Race Report

April 1st was the first outdoor crawler event of the Season for BC. It was also the first time some people had seen a nationals inspired course design, and for some it was the first course they ever saw. We set 3 courses at Purgatory Chasm in Sutton Ma (Thanks to ranger Renee for setting us up with a Permit). The pro class courses each of ten gates and 5 bonus gates, and you had 6 minutes to do it. The sportsman courses were set on the same terrain and had a total of 6 gates in 6 minutes.

Course 1 Pro –
This course was spread out over pretty level terrain. It was early in the day and the rocks were still damp which made it more challenging. The tough gates on this course seemed to be 2 and 3. The second gate looked easy but when you got up to it you quickly found that the dirt and moss that you had to climb were very slippery, and if you were later in the run order you also found that it was very dug out. A lot of drivers opted to straddle this gate and save some time. Gate three was a tricky off camber climb. If you were able to keep your rig from dumping you could sneak through this gate, Rob and Brendan were the only ones to creep through. Gate 7 was not a bad gate until Brian ripped a chunk of the rock out pulling up the feature. It was still possible after this but it certainly made it more challenging. With any of these style courses time is NOT your friend. A few of the drivers found this out the hard way, missing the course completion by less than a second, others just barely pulled it out. Brendan showed us all how to do it on this course pulling down a -15 with 4 out of the 5 bonus gates.

Course 1 Sportsman -

The first course for the sportsman class was a bit of a refresher. It had 6 gates over the same area as the Pro course. Most of the drivers made short work of this course, it seems they didn't loose their edge over the winter. Gate three on this course was the one that seemed to get everyone's attention. No-one was able to run this gate clean. George was the big winner on this course with a final score of 0, nice work.

Course 2 Pro -
This course was a little more spread out than the first one, and covered a bit more elevation. It started off with 3 uphill gates, and then turned into a pretty stout drop. The and fifth and sixth gate made use of some tree features. Both were easy enough if you took the time to set them up. The second half of the course was a bit tighter but at this point time was running low. Gate 7 was a pretty steep uphill that had only one line. You had to hook the front passenger tire and pull the whole rig up. After 8 and 9 the finish was an off camber approach through moss and loose dirt, you had to hold your ground and try not to slide out and catch a gate. Rich showed us all how it's done in his stock XR-10 with a -19 on this course.

Course 2 Sportsman -
This course was a step up from course 1. It started with 3 uphill gates and and then worked it way around on the top of a large group of rocks. Gate 5 was the deal breaker on this course only one driver was able to defeat this gate without clipping it. George took the win on this course as well with a -1, but Kevin was close behind with a 2, and Dylan was right behind that with a 3.

Course 3 Pro -
Course 3 was set to really separate the pretenders from the contenders. It had the most challenging gates as well as being the hardest course to time manage. The course was 2 different styles separated by a "wormhole". Drivers had negotiate the first 6 gates through a maze of large boulders then drive into the wormhole, where the clock would stop and drivers would move their rig to the second part of the course. Time management and precision were really the keys to this part. If you came off line your rig would fall in between the boulders and took precious minutes to recover. Drivers who were escaped the first section with some time on the clock were greeted by an intricate section of off camber climbs and drops. In the end this course was the equalizer. Some ran it conservative, some rolled the dice to make up ground and some ran it just right to pull ahead. Eli timed the course well, passed up the bonus gates, but cleaned everything else for a -20, WOW.

Course 3 Sportsman -
The final sportsman course was set to bring out the "A" game in our drivers. The features were bigger and the course was spread out more. Gates 3 and 5 were the stumbling blocks for our drivers here. Dylan took the cake on this one and finished up with a score of 3, showing his dad George, who finished with a 5, whats up.

Pro Class Overalls -
There were a few upsets in the Pro Class. Rich showed up with his stock XR and left the WOT out of the equation. He drove smart and conservative and finished in the upper half on all the courses, with first place on course 2.Brian and Eli were battling all day. 2 points difference after course 1, only 6 points difference on course 2, and after the third course they were tied with -25 points for the day. Eli pulled the tie breaker with a Perfect run on course 3, Nice work. In the End it was Brendan who got the big win. We couldn't catch up with him after his lead on course 1. He finished the day with a -35 and had the guys tied at -25 wishing they had just not hit that one gate. Brendan passed on his prize to Eli who picked out a set of red links from Axial.

Sportsman Class Overalls -
The sportsman guys did great, especially considering that it was the first competition ever for some. In the end Geroge held his First place position from course 1 through the day. He finished with a +4 for the day. He picked out a set of orange links from Axial.

Thanks to all our competitors for coming out and for being flexible with the schedule due to mother nature. A special thanks to Axial for sending us some great prizes to give out to our winners.

Event Scores