WE Rock Finals 12th – 13th August 2006 Milbrodale NSW
Harley and Micka hammer it home to take 4th place!
In a season that has had far more ‘downs’ than ‘ups’ the boys from Rock Hammer Racing decided that enough was enough. Since taking over the reins of the buggy some 7 months ago, Harley and Micka’s river of luck had run well and truly dry. Plagued by ignition and fuel problems, along with the dated front end geometry and equally as poor braking, the boys felt as though the jam had been stolen from their dohnut – and the cinnamon sugar was gone too! So when the lobbed in to Rock Hammer HQ to get stuck into another session of ‘fix-the-bloody-buggy’ their faces looked longer than the soup at Asia House Chinese restaurant. That’s when Rock Hammer IT guru and chef extraordinaire, Dangerous Dave ‘Manky’ Newman piped up with his latest alcohol induced idea. “Let’s run it on gas,” he beamed…or was it Jim Beamed?
Manky then went on one of his usual manic jibes (if you can imagine comedian/actor Robin Williams hyped up on Peruvian marching powder with 200 cups of coffee, and in fast-forward, you’ll be close to what we witnessed) about the wonders of gas-fuelled engines and kept harping on about some mob called Gas Research Australia. As it turns out, that mob are an awesome team and their Cooper’s Plains store in Brisbane, run by Ian Wade, were as excitable as old Manky himself. A few phone calls later and all of a sudden Harley has the Rover EFI unit separated from the 3.9l V8 and the Rock Hammer buggy was on its way to ‘Taxi Nirvana’. The custom fuel cell also had to make way and the temperamental (at best) Rover ECU was given the ‘thumbs down’ by Manky, who at this stage was doing his best Julius Caesar impression. “What we need is MSD Ignition,” was all he said as he started pulling and cutting at wires like an octopus playing a harpsichord.
Steve from Hot Rod and Custom Electrics was then summoned to work his magic, yet again. He had already sorted out the old ‘wiring’ – which looked more like Madam Medusa’s hair…on a bad hair day – and now he had to make sense of the MSD Ignition and rev limiter which were sourced from Summit Racing, in the good ole U.S.of A.
The Gas Research Australia crew had created a custom throttle-body and machined the manifold for Harley and Manky to bolt onto the 3.9, and then it was up to Micka to source a new throttle cable and fabricate (Micklicious style) a mount and heat shield for the new gas bottles. This was all falling into place – a little too easily – and the boys were waiting for the hurdle to appear.
Appear it did. The good people down at Motson’s, who were given the task of dyno tuning the newly gas-fed Rover V8, were unhappy with the ‘Captain Horsepower’ exhaust that was fitted, so the buggy had to be picked up and taken over to our very good friends at Brisbane Exhaust Centre…for the 3rd exhaust system in 7 months. Their task was to bring the decibels under the 103db level that OH&S rules govern; otherwise the engine could not be tuned. ‘Lucky Phil’ from Brisbane Exhaust set about redesigning the exhaust so that it would meet the standards required, and provide more room for the all important gas bottles. Phil did this without a hitch and the buggy was back off to Motson’s to be tuned to perfection.
With the buggy back from the dyno and the new exhaust just begging to be tested out, the Rock Hammer crew headed out to the old stomping ground at Ormeau for a day of fun. Tagging along were ________ from Gas Research Australia and his mate in his stocko Hilux. The engine was running superbly and Harley and Micka looked as though all of their Christmases had come at once. The buggy started first time, every time, and not once did it have the idling problems that had caused such grief in the past.
Manky had done good. Gas wasn’t just for taxis and BBQs.
All was going well until the wretched centre-bearing in the two-piece rear drive-shaft broke, again. Made from cast iron (and looking like an Aero chocolate bar), the casing of the centre-bearing was never designed to handle the stress placed on it in the buggy. This had been replaced before and the boys knew it was a weak spot, but with a limited amount of knowledge about this particular part, all they could do was replace it with a new one. That was until Harley stumbled across Howie Engineering. These guys are real engineers. You know the air shocks that the Rock Hammer buggy rides on? These guys pioneered them. So with the problem of the centre-bearing literally in his hand, Harley went to see _____ at Howie Engineering who created an absolute monster out of solid steel. This thing is so strong that it broke the welds on the mount designed to hold the old cast iron one, rather than breaking itself.
So with all of the demons sorted, the Rock Hammer Crew, complete with the new bling trailer signs courtesy of John at Iguana Signs and Concepts, headed off to Milbrodale in NSW.
Day 1
Four courses were set out for day 1. Tony Robinson from WE Rock Australia had definitely done his homework. This was, after all, the Finals. A1 looked like being fairly easy to complete, but true to any rock crawling course, it’s the position of the cones that make all the difference. Tony had managed to place the cones in such a way that really only made it possible to hit them. Either that, or run out of time and DNF. Without the right combination of tyre size and horsepower, that’s exactly what happened to Harley and Micka. Actually, that’s what happened to most of the competitors on A1.
A2 was an excellent course. A couple of drop-offs and a tricky climb over a truck sized, off-camber rock with a nasty ramp over to finish. Harley and Micka had to wait while big Mick Garner in the Mog-Rover recovered the Wombat in the Homeless buggy and Micka used the extra time to suss out the right lines. Gates 1, 2 and 3 were easy. But after crawling up the off-camber rock, which claimed many other buggies, the 37” Mickey Thompsons just didn’t provide the belly clearance needed to drive the break-over and finish the course. Another DNF.
A3 was strewn amongst a giant rock garden that looked more like an impact zone in the Afghan mountains. House sized rocks dwarfed the buggies and the bonus lines were more like tickets to heaven. With 2 courses already DNF’d, the boys decided to play it safe and just finish the course. This they did, and then it was on to the daunting A4 course.
A4. Well…what can you say about A4? Just how many roll-overs were there? The start gate was on the top of the hill with a 60 degree climb up and over a crevice. The cones, of course, were placed perfectly if you wanted to hit them. If not, then you had a battle to get around them. Harley was ‘in the groove’ on this course and the awesome traction that the Mickey Thompson Claws possess was used to its limit. On the other side of the climb was a 60 – 70 degree descent with a 1.5 metre drop-off for the bonus line. Needing to get back some points, the boys decided to take this one. Then it was all down hill through some trees and onto the highlight of the weekend. The next bonus was a 2.5 metre vertical drop-off leading down to soft ground that fell away from the rocks. Nasty. Looking back on it, the boys agreed that they should have taken it at more speed, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. With Micka down below waiting, Harley edged the buggy ever closer to the drop-off and as he let the front end slide off, he jumped on the loud pedal in an attempt to drive out of the impending endo. With his butt-cheeks clenched tight enough to crush a diamond, Harley went into one of the most spectacular end over rolls of the competition. With the dust no where near settled, Micka arrived to help Harley out of the buggy and with 4 minutes remaining, the boys set about getting the buggy back on its wheels. A squirt of adrenalin hit Micka’s stomach and Harley’s guts were swimming in the stuff as they monstered the 1600kg V8 buggy back onto all four wheels and finished with a -26…the 2nd best score for that course.
They had survived Day 1, and were pumped and ready for Day 2.
Day 2
Bright eyed and bushy tailed is definitely not how you would describe the boys after Saturday night at Camp Rock Hammer. Micka arose at 6:30 to find Steve still awake, and four other bodies lying prone around the fire. What had happened he wasn’t sure, but there was one hell of a day ahead, and everyone was going to need coffee…bad. The celebrations of a good day at the office had run a little over time, and some seedy eyes were looking through some really ordinary looking heads as Micka passed through the camp sites.
A final look over the buggy showed up some damage from the big roll. One of the high-steer arms had bent and two of the retaining bolts had sheered and with only 20 minutes before the start of play, the mig welder had to come out for a quick fix.
B1 was basically the A1 course run in the opposite direction, with a few minor changes to the positioning of the cones. The boys had finished Day 1 in 6th position so the emphasis now was on completing the courses. The first gate looked easy enough, but the slope of the rock face meant that taking the lower side cone was just about a given. Realizing this, Harley and Micka didn’t waste time trying to miss it and concentrated on the remainder of the course. They clipped another cone at the next gate and after some tight maneuvering, a judge called a cone that must have touched the wheel with a contact area no bigger than the corner of an atom. With that course out of the road, the boys moved on to B2. B2 was the course that brought Rock Hammer Racing into contention for the final four shootout. Touching just one cone, that I think everyone got, Harley fought for every point and inched his way through the maze of rock to score a 5. The Mickey Thompson Claws were awesome amongst this terrain and you just know that they are going to grab when you need them to. That’s just what happened in the final stages of B2 when Harley had to make a hard left turn and climb a 5 foot undercut rock face to clear the last gate.
B3 was a reverse of the A4 course that produced all of the big roll-overs. After making their way through the trees and soft dirt, the Rock Hammer boys were then faced with the throttling climb up the huge slab of rock, at about a 60 – 70 degree angle. Harley needed 3 attempts to get the hulking buggy up, but when he did, the Mickey Thompson Claws stuck like the proverbial to a blanket. At the crevice above, the dwarfed assassin, Tony Robinson, had mercilessly placed the cones in a spot that would all but ensure carnage. Some of the highly favoured teams had barrel rolled down the hill after attempting the gate, and others had taken the cones just trying to get through. Again, Harley’s determination and the excellent communication with Micka through the Eartec full duplex comms, saw the Rock Hammer buggy make a clean run through the final gate and on to the finish line with a score of 0.
This left Rock Hammer is a promising situation. Peter Antunac, the eventual series Champion, had just one stage to run and needed a score of -25 or better to qualify for the top four shootout. If not, then Harley and Micka were through. Pete pulled out all stops and attempted the 6-7 foot high vertical climb for the bonus points. It was here that it all went wrong for the OPW buggy. With 40” tyres and custom built diffs on Hummer portals, it’s no wonder that Perfect Pete ran out with the title, but on this occasion, it wasn’t his day. He DNF’d the course and Harley and Micka were in.
Shootout Course
The dwarfed assassin must have taken his evil pills that morning, because the shootout course was pure darkness. This course really tested every competitor, and the lack of experience in the Rock Hammer crew was evident. Finishing 4th meant that the boys had to go first, and what a spectacular attempt it was. They had the line for the drop-off right, but the execution was way wrong. This, coupled with the weakened steering arm, saw Harley come down the drop-off and roll-over hard, breaking the swivel housing and ending any chance of advancing their position. It was game over. One futile attempt was made to roll it back over, but when the swivel housing and knuckle parted company, the boys knew it was over. Realistically though, there was too big a gap to make up for 3rd place, and 4th place in the National finals of the most hardcore rock crawling comp, on 37”tyres, was good enough for the time being.
