As always the town of Goldendale, WA gave us a warm welcome over the holiday weekend.  And unlike last years hot weather; we had great weather on Saturday.  Even with the wind and chill factor on Sunday it was still a fantastic weekend!  The event ran smoothly and courses were tough, technical and challenging for everyone.  It was a great balance of uppers, downers and side-hilling obstacles.  Cody and Jim did a great job maneuvering through trees, climbing up loose boulders and going from silt-dirt to rock! 

Usually front engine vehicles have an easier time in Goldendale, but it would seem this event was for the rear engine "Moon Buggies".  Jason Paule, who has won this event the last two years, did a great job finishing in 4th place with an awesome  fill-in-spotter, Mark Berger. (Mark is filling in for Travis Wadeson while he is recovering from a recent car accident).  Tracy Jordan surprised us all bringing his Toyota Land Cruiser Competition Rig and had a rough start to his day Saturday.  I believe it was Tracy's first course of the day, A4, where he caught on fire and rolled over.  And Shannon Campbell was in the lead going into Sunday's event until he started his buggy up and blew a rod on his first course, closing the door on his chances for finishing on top.  In Goldendale there is no making up points with any mishaps, you are either on your game or you're not.  And it seemed that Team Waggoner was on their game the entire event!

Keeping it consistent throughout the weekend Cody and Jim completed each course with minimum penalty points.  With Cody, a.k.a. 'Bones', (thank you to Mike at Houp Photography for the new nickname), being 52lbs lighter he was able to hop out of the buggy to help stack rocks with Jim.  'Roxanne' seems to like carrying around a lighter load too.  

The top 6 teams ran through the Shoot-Out with only Jason Paule completing the course.  "Mr. King of Rear-Steer" shows why he is a tough competitor to beat.  Others came close to finishing and put on a great show for the spectators.   Because the other competitors didn't finish, it gave us enough of a point gap to secure our first place position before even running the Shoot-Out.  Cody and Jim still gave it their all, but ended up getting stuck between a rock and a tree about halfway through the course.  Good times!!!!!

Events that are set in locations like Goldendale are the best "REAL" Rockcrawling events!  Having an event held in a familiar 4x4 setting might encourage spectators to become future competitors.  It's amazing what a couple orange cones can do to a hillside that will spark the curiosity in a fellow wheeler.

Lindsay