|
 By
Harry Lewellyn
It's
kind of like football. The QB gets all the credit, but it's
the linemen that protect him so he can make great plays. As
spotter for
Team Waggoner Racing,
Mike, "Commando"
Berard "tunes, grooms and interprets" the course so driver
Cody Waggoner will look his best.
Spotters move rocks and timber, wade through water, issue
directions, and generally keep the driver on track. They
are constantly under wheel and face the ever present danger
of the buggy rolling on them as happened to one spotter at
the W. E. Rock event (no injury) in Goldendale, WA (find
spotter left).
It's like
two brains, driver and spotter, controlling one body, the
buggy. With both feet and hands running the transmission,
transfer
case, gas and brake peddles, cutting brakes and the steering
wheel, it takes two to tango on these challenging courses
regardless of who's behind the wheel. The one I like best
is, "4WD, Cody." Hey, it's pretty darn easy to lose track
of things as simple as 2WD versus 4WD and I saw it happen to
several drivers.
 Having
been satisfied with the initial
tests, this was the first Staun internal, dual bead lock
competition event for Team Waggoner: Goldendale, WA.
W. E.
ROCK
Cody
has struggled with W. E. Rock events, but he has improved
every time. With 6th and 4th place at prior events, he was
very pleased with his 3rd place at Goldendale despite a flat
mid course! Team Waggoner was only ONE point off 2nd place!
"The
crowd told me I had a right rear flat right at the base of
B4's last obstacle," Cody said, "and I was concerned!" B4
proved to be the most challenging obstacle for the entire
weekend. Day one, only 3 competitors completed this
difficult gate and Cody was one of them with a rear flat
(remember, extra weight transfer weight/stress on the rear
flat and its bead lock)! On day two, only 6 made the last
gate of B4. "I think Staun kept both beads on the rim.
Mechanicals pop the inner bead and you're struggling for
traction," Cody continued. Despite the abusive
wheel-spinning, rock-hopping, buggy jarring demands, the
Staun bead locks survived completely intact.
If you
know me, you know everything was thoroughly analyzed down to
looking at the stitching, literally thread by thread. It
was scuffed, but otherwise looked perfect. My engineering
mind wanted to keep it rolling to see what it would do, but
my marketing half said, "Replace it dummy! Don't take a
chance in competition."
TEAM WORK
Mike
and Cody make a great team. Having watched buggies struggle
with their next obstacle, they chose a lesser traveled path
and set the route for the balance of the day!
Instead of taking a pretty severe drop straight out of the
starting gate, they chose to take a reverse penalty, queued
up more head on and the 7 or 8 foot vertical drop was a
marshmallow. Others had paid the price until Cody and Mike
showed them the way.
Team work is
the name of the game in rock crawling championship, trail
rides or otherwise. Drivers: Keep your eyes on the
spotters. Without them, you lose! Spectators: Keep your
eyes on the spotters. Now you see the whole team. They
work very hard for little glory. Thanks, Mike, and all of
the spotters for doing such a great job!
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