9th Annual Spring Fling – April 2012
The Spring Fling was held at a new location this year- Uwharrie Stables. Even with the last minute change in location, the event was a huge success.
Most members showed up on Friday to make a weekend out of the event. Some members stayed at the Arrowhead campground and local cabins as well. Friday night, it got chilly for those in tents but the weather overall was perfect for camping and wheeling for the weekend.
Saturday morning we lined up into two groups; modified and stock. Scott Roberts and Doug Johnson went through and verified that all vehicles met the mandatory minimum equipment checklist. After a quick drivers meeting the two groups headed for the trails. On the way to the trails we noticed that Carolina Trail Blazers was getting ready along with another large group at the Outpost. We figured that it was going to be busy on the trails but it ended up not being bad at all. The modified group headed for Daniel. There were several places at the hill climb where we spotted individuals up the difficult obstacles but everyone made it up under their own power. At the switch back, Carl Barclay’s Bronco died. After some diagnosing it was determined that his fuel pump was not working. Keith Douglas took Rick Hufham and his son Cody out of the trail system to go retrieve a new pump for Carl. Carl stayed with his vehicle to remove the faulty fuel pump. The rest of the group moved on. The rest of the trail went fairly smoothly for everyone. We got to the intersection of Rocky Mount and Slab Pile at 11:30. The group sat around had some lunch and was ready to head out 12. The group waited for the stocker group until 12:15 and decided to move on. The group went up Rocky Mountain loop towards Kodak rock. On the ledge several hundred yards down from Kodak the group came to a hault. Derek Woudstra got over the ledge but then was not able to turn his steering wheel to the left. After checking everything out we figured there was something wrong with the steering box internally. Daniel Davis came to the rescue and forced the steering wheel and everything worked fine. The group proceeded on- but a new steering box is in Derek’s future. The group had some time so we went down Saw Mill, Slab Pile and up the steep climb on Dutch John. At this time it was best that the group head back to camp for the 4×4 games..
After the stocker group got back we began the 4×4 games. This year we had 5 games and at each game the participant would receive a poker card for the Poker Trot game- (5 Card Stud). The first game was the Smooth Operator with good laughs watching people jump out of their vehicles quickly to grab the golf ball and place it back on their hood to continue the game. The next game was the RTI ramp. This is purely a vehicle test and less of a test of the driver. The next game was another test for the vehicle- Slow Craw. This is a test to see who has the slowest vehicle- 4 Low, 1st gear. Longest time wins! The fourth game was more about driver skill- Turtle Race. In this game the driver rolls in neutral and attempts to stop close to a line without going over. The last game had nothing to do with vehicle or offroad driving ability, but it provides a lot of good laughs- Remote Control offroad buggy racing. Randal Holmes offered up his RC buggy for a timed course. A big thank you to Randal Holmes, Craig Scibetta, Shawn Conver for helping out with the games.
After the games, the group gathered around the tent for dinner. Scott Roberts took advantage of this moment and had a quick Quarterly meeting. The main thing to discuss was the “Roll Cage” day that we plan to have in the future. Ken Carter and his assistants- John Herr, Ralph Graw and Kevin Carroll put together an awesome dinner. Food included; hamburgers, hotdogs, potato salad, pasta salad, mixed salad, corn on the cob and potato soup. There was more than enough food for everyone. Thank you cooks!!
After dinner the winners of the games was announced. Smooth Operator- Karl Williams RTI Champ- Scott Roberts Slow Crawl- Carl Barclay Turtle Race- Carl Barclay RC Champ- Scott Roberts Poker Trot- Daniel Davis Overall Winner- Dan Larsen
Thanks to 4 Wheel Parts we had a lot of good prizes to give away during our raffle. Justin Griggs was the big winner of the night. He walked away with a 8000 lb Winch, two tow straps and a remote control car. Going to the Uwharrie workdays definitely paid off for him!!
The Raffle was followed with cake- be careful when you order a cake. They will give you exactly what you ask. We got a cake that read “See and See” “Four buy Four” “2012 Spring Fling”. It should have read “CNC 4×4 2012 Spring Fling”. Oh well, everyone had a good laugh and it tasted great. I am looking forward to the Fall Fling.
See you on the trails, Scott Roberts 2012 CNC 4×4 President