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A Weekend With QuadMasters.
Posted Sunday, June 12, 2005
By CHUCK TWEDT
What ATV challenges do you enjoy? Climbing over logs, rocks, working your way through a maze of turns, creeping over a bridge, plowing through mud or perhaps crawling over a junk car? My wife, Donnis, and I drove to Black River Falls, WI to spend the week end of June 4th and 5th with Quadmasters. We saw them all at the Quadmasters Challenge Event. Not only did we see them all; we saw them all at the same time. Contestants and spectators alike did not want the week end to be over.
It was a contest of skill as much as speed. Each challenge was outlined with a yellow tape. If either wheel touched the tape it was a penalty. Going over the tape and back were two penalties. Each penalty added five seconds to the time. Each challenge had a judge to record the time and any penalties. Each challenge was man made.
The challenges were each taken in turn. The first was a maze of twists and turns. One turn required the driver to prove skill in backing as they had to back to the next turn. Then through the pot holes, around the slalom, and back to the start over railroad ties. This was just a warm-up.
The second challenge was to cross over a simulated bridge and not drop off the edge. This required the driver to go in both directions with a turn around at the far end. The third challenge the driver had to prove their skill in pulling and backing a trailer. They hooked up, drove through a winding course, over rocks, logs and had to back the trailer into the starting position.
Next came the sand dunes. The challenge was to traverse the dunes, make several turns and back out in time to beat the time of other drivers. The big challenges were yet to come.
After the dunes the driver then moved on to the rock crawl. The key here was to maintain momentum to carry you over the large rocks without getting hung up on the large boulders. After the rocks came the logs. Logs were big enough to get hung up on, if the driver did not maintain enough momentum, both the rock crawl and the log run were two way streets. The driver had to go to the end then turn around and take the other side back to the start.
The most unusual and creative challenge came next. It was the urban crawl. A junk car with old tires piled around it. The objective was to enter the challenge from the front of the car, circle around to the back, turn, crawl onto the trunk, over the roof and down over the hood.
The final challenge was the always popular mud pit. With all the rain we had that week end; the mud pit became a mud bog.
As a spectator, I get bored at single challenge events. I can watch only so many mud runs or ATV pulls and I am ready to move on. Not so with the Quadmasters multiple challenge events. With all of these challenges happening at the same time, there was excitement enough for challengers and spectators alike.
After each of the classes was completed the times were posted. Drivers were all anxious to compare their standings. We had the opportunity to meet with many of the contestants personally. Were the divers enthusiastic? We met one that drove all the way from Winnipeg. He will be in Mansfield, Ohio in two weeks and at our event in Minnesota in September.
Granite City Trail Riders ATV Club is excited about hosting such a prestigious event in Minnesota at the Benton County Fairgrounds on Saturday and Sunday September 24th and 25th. For more information you can call Chuck Twedt at 320-274-5859.
The G.E.N. Group will be conducting ten of these events throughout the country in the coming year. The next one is in Mansfield, Ohio then on to Logan West Virginia and of course in Minnesota in September.
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