We took my orange buggy out there to test a few of the lines and am happy to say that the courses are going to work extremely well. I drove two of the courses (without any cones) and couldnt drive 4 of them (wasnt game to try too hard) and didnt play on any of the rest. In total there will be 8 to 10 courses depending on how we run for time over the weekend.
Now because we are really trying to push things along in terms of hard we are making the courses we felt that it is still necessary to prove some of the obstacles. Basically some of the lines that I thought looked really good drove a lot harder than expected although still possible. We learnt alot about the amount of grip that these rocks provide and how some of the offcamber sections will work. In my mind taking my rig out there and playing on a few of the obstacles is probably the most bemeficial thing that we could do in terms of making this competition a spectator success. The stuff we are going to make these guys drive will absolutely blow you away. These courses are technically just so much harder than the PUOSU event we held last year.
I had thoughts about running the unlimited full size class here but we have decided against this because we just dont have the terrain for them. We also decided to combine the Super Modifieds and Legends class vehicles for this event simply because I dont believe there is a big enough destinction between the rigs we have here at the moment and also we dont really have the numbers. Next year when the series points count towards the world championship we will definately have to split the classes. We may also decide to split them later this year depending on the numbers of rigs that get built.
To remove any advantage that Tony or Adrian have by seeing my rig on some of the courses we will make one of then run first on every course. Probably the only sort of advantange I see them having over anybody alse would be that they will have more of an idea of how much momentum (meaning throttle) some of the obstacles need to be driven. By making one of them run first on every course will allow everybody else that same advantage. In the actual competition my rig will be driven by Mick Garner (guy who competed in the Mog at BOTC). I dont see him having any advantage by me trying a few lines in my rig. Probably the only thing I could do is to change the setup on my rig to suit the courses better and Im not going to do that. Mick is going to do that on his own.
Doing the course design this way will guarantee that we will produce the most exciting driving possible and the best competition possible. And I think that this is a necessary thing at this point in time. It would have been nice if I could have gone down to Rover Park on my own and set the courses without driving them in a vehicle that will be in the competition. But at this point we need all the vehicle numbers we can get and Im not confident enough to be able to set extremely hard courses without driving some parts of them. The small trade off to doing the course design this way is that Tony and Adrian may have a slight advantage going into the competition although we are addressing that the best we can.
Tony would probably still win the event blind folded and Adrian is still going to roll his rig a few times so I dont think their advantage is going to change anything anyway
Sam
, has different tyres with different traction and its weight distribution is nothing like mine.
