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West, Styles Shramovich, Harper, Take Top Honors
After a rainout in Dayton, the W.E.Rock Eastern National Series, found it's way up interstate 75 to
Jellico. The familiar home of rockcrawling for many years Jellico would again host the 4th Annual
Jammin' @ Jellico. The weather forecast for this event did not look promising, and with the threat
of showers hanging around anything would be possible. A total of 37 teams would enter the event in
four classes. The teams would unload at Woodson's Mall in LaFollette for tech inspection. The teams
would begin the process of bench racing. A buzz would be in the air as former Last Comic Standing
contestant and host of Discover Channel's Adventure Guy, Dave Mordal, would be moving around the
parking lot checking out the best of W.E.Rock East. The crew from Discovery would be out in force
to cover the event. However, the weather would be the major topic of discussion. Isolated showers
were in the forecast all weekend, and the teams were preparing for what looked to be another likely
round of W.E.Rock East Muddy Rock Crawling.
Rain on Friday night would bring the first hits of mud to the course. The teams knew when they
unloaded off the trailers for the start of Saturday's competition that they were going to have
their work cut out for them. The competition level this season has been close in all of the
classes. The teams knew that just making it through an extra gate could be the difference between
sitting at the front of the field, or playing catch-up on Sunday.
The Formula Toyota class is a spec class. Their rules don't allow for much lee-way and with the
adverse weather, the tire selection, could be the deciding factor in where the teams would sit in
the end of the day. Wes Harper would shoot out into an early lead after making a competition on C1.
The entire field of 5 F-Toy's would fail to finish both obstacles C2 and C3, but it would be David
Wine and his yellow F-Toy that would stun the field with an almost perfect run on C4. His score of
1 point would put him in front of Wes Harper by 14 points at the half way point. John Scheidhauer
would find himself in 3rd. Wes Combs would finish 4th on Saturday, and James Scheidhauer would take
5th.
Like the Formula Toyota class tire selection would be paramount in Stock-Modified. The very strict
rules of Stock-Modified would bunch the field up, and the only real variable in the weather would be
the tire choice. Kyle Bruso and his lime green Jeep would be the only driver to finish an obstacle.
His run of 19 on C1 would give him a commanding lead over the rest of the stock field. Bruso would
find himself with a comfortable lead of 21 points over Bill Durham and Kelly Young who would tie for
2nd. Paul Hornung, Kurt Shramovich, and John Terhune would be one point back of Durham and Young in
a tie for 4th. Ricky Artes would find himself one point back of the 4th place tie shotgun on the
field in 7th.
Pro-Modified would find themselves running on the "B" courses on Saturday. Tire choice would not play
as large a role in this class, but like the F-Toy and Stock tire choice would be vital to performance
on the course. Completion of the courses would be the word for the day, and the teams at the top of
the field were able to fight their rigs through the finish gate. At the half way point Derek West
would find himself in a familiar position at the top of the leaderboard. His consistent finishes
through the day would give him a 22 point lead over Shannon Campbell. Shannon would be the only
driver to actually complete all four of the courses, but slick conditions would really test the
driving skill of the 2007 Unlimited Grand National Champion. Rusty Bray, Danny Roher, Chris May,
and Mike Cole would round out the top 6. Mike Hale would jump in as substitute driver for former
Jellico winner, Drew Goldie. Mike would bring the rig home in 7th just 16 points out of the
shootout. The race for the shootout was going to be close, and appeared to be a race to the wire
on Sunday. Gavin Lewis would be in 8th at half way just 18 points out. A.J. Condon would be just
20 points out of the shootout at halfway in 9th. Mike Greenwalt would take 10th just 21 points out
of the shootout. 2007 Jammin' @ Jellico winner Ken Blume would find himself in 11th. Following him
would be Lou Levy, Bunny Rose, and Mike Thompson to round out the field.
The Unlimited Class would be a two way dog race for the lead. The first half of competition
would be a battle between the seasoned veteran and championship points leader, Brad Styles, and
young driver Carl Shortridge. Brad Styles would jump out to a commanding early lead after
destroying the field on A1, but the steady foot of the man they call the "Wild Nut Express" would
take the lead after A4. Shortridge and Styles would only be three points apart going into the
second half of the competition. Alan Woodson would take 3rd, but the gap between him and Brad
Styles would be 49 points. However, the race for 3rd looked to be a hard competition. Jake
Gochenour would pull up in 4th just 9 points off of Woodson's pace. Chris Barton, in his first
start, would find himself in the thick of things. He would wind up just 17 points out of 3rd in
5th place. Darren Casada would hold up 6th place. The race for the shootout looked to be a close
one with Tom Campbell, and Bill Barton just 10 points off of Casada's pace. Alan Rich, Brian
Milsap, and Adam Carter would round out the field.
Saturday was soaked by ran, but Sunday was totally different. The clouds broke up, and the sun
would come out for the second day of competition. The difference was night and day in the
composition of the course. What was low traction on Saturday, now had traction. This change
in the weather would in turn change the dynamic of the event. Scores would drop as teams would
complete courses. Now the strategy changed from making it through the next progression gate, to
finish with as little mistake as possible.
The Formula Toyota class would see their scores drop off. The race for the win would be a
tight race. Wes Harper would overtake David Wine after his run on C3. Going into the final
obstacle a three way fight for the win would be under way. Wes Haper would hold a ,1 point lead,
over John Scheidhauer, and just 2 points over David Wine. It was anyone's race. In the end, Wes
Harper, would be victorious with a run of -10. John Scheidhauer and David Wine would both put up
runs of -9. Wes Combs would take 4th, and James Scheidhauer would finish in 5th.
The dry conditions played right into the hands of the Modified Stock teams. Kyle Bruso continued to
hold on to his lead, but a hard charging Kurt Shramovich would overtake Bruso after C3. Kurt
Shramovich would hold on through C4 and would take the win in Jellico. Kyle Bruso would finish 2nd.
Jon Terhune would hold back technical gremlins and would hold on to finish in 3rd. Paul Hornung would
keep his Suzuki together and would finish 4th. Kelly Young, Bill Durham, and Ricky Artes would round
out the field.
Derek West would lead the Pro-Modified field through the half way point. However, Sunday would
bring a race. Shannon Campbell drove across the country from Arizona to East Tennessee for this
event. He took the win in the abbreviated Dayton event. He wanted to go two for two in Tennessee
this year. Shannon and Derek would race all the way to the shootout. At the end of regulation
Shannon would hold a slim, 9 point lead over Derek West. Chris May would take some very calculated
risks through the day on Sunday, and would find himself sitting in 3rd at the end of regulation.
Rusty Bray would fall from 3rd to 4th at the end of regulation after a couple of miscalculations
in his strategy. Mike Cole would continue to hold on to 5th place at the end of regulation.
However the story was the 4 way race for the final shootout position. Drew Goldie returned to the
seat of his Jeep Cherokee for the second day of competition. He would waste no time and would put
big runs on the board. Not to be outdone; Mike Greenwalt, Lou Levy, and Gavin Lewis would put
themselves in position to overtake Drew Goldie for the final spot in the shootout field. In the
end, Drew Goldie would hold on to the position by 2 points over Mike Greenwalt.
In the shootout, Drew Goldie would not make the start and would finish in 6th. Mike Cole would get
off to a good start, but suspension failure would leave him taking 39 points for the shootout and a
5th place finish. Rusty Bray would put up a big run and would take -8 points. He would pull into a
tie with Chris May in the provisional standings. Chris May would anwser the challenge for Bray and
would take -1 on his run. Chris May would secure his place on the podium. However, all of the
attention would be focused on Derek West and Shannon Campbell. A total of 9 points would separate
the two drivers. Weather would move in and both West and Campbell would have to run the course
in wet conditions. Derek West would have a big run and would finish with a score of -21.
He would hold the provisional lead over Shannon Campbell by 11 points. The pressure was on,
but that was not anything new for Shannon Campbell. However the rain would take it's toll on the
Arizona driver. On a run up the bonus hill, Shannon would put too much throttle in his climb and
his rig would take a tumble off the hill. Shannon's run was over, and his win was gone. When the
dust settled, Derek West, would be victorious at Jellico. It would be Derek's 2nd win of the season
in Pro-Modified.
The Unlimited class would see the teams of Alan Rich, Brian Milsap, and Adam Carter not take time
on Sunday. There were three races going on between the 8 teams. There was a two man race for the
win between Brad Styles and Carl Shortridge. The race for the final step of the podium was between
Alan Woodson, Jake Gochenour, and Chris Barton. The final race was for the final qualifying spot in
the shootout between Darren Casada, Tom Campbell, and Bill Barton. At the end of regulation Brad
Styles would retake the lead over Carl Shortridge. Going into the shootout the two teams would be
separated by just 18 points. Jake Gochenour would find his rhythm on the rocks and would overtake
Alan Woodson for the 3rd going into the shootout. Alan Woodson would fall to 4th after putting up
strong runs on Sunday. Chris Barton would keep a steady throttle and would finish regulation safely
in 5th place. Darren Casada would have his hands full of Bill Barton for the final spot in the
shootout. Both teams would be neck and neck, but it would be Casada better line selection that
would give him the little push he needed to hold Bill Barton. Casada would hold his place by just
2 points over Barton. Bill Barton would just miss the shootout and would take 7th, and Tom Campbell
would finish in 8th.
Darren Casada would have a major breakage on Battleship and would take a DNS in the shootout. Chris
Barton would put in a spirited run during the shootout. The young driver was just feet from the
finish. He rig appeared stuck, but one last hit of the throttle brought the crowd to it's feet.
His rig would break free and with just seconds left Barton would finish the course. The young driver
would take 5th for his efforts. Alan Woodson would take a DNS after mechanical problems. Jake
Gochenour was secured for 3rd and would put in a nice run for the crowd and would take his place on
the podium. The race was on for the win. Shortridge or Styles was going to take the win. Carl
Shortridge would put himself in position to take his first win after putting a a run of -20 on the
board. He would have the provisional lead by just 2 points. Brad Styles had to finish the course
with a score of -3 to win. Styles would not only take the challenge laid down by Shortridge, he
would take a run of -16 on the course and would take his 3rd win of the season. Brad Styles would
take the win in Jellico, and would only prime his chances at the 2008 Eastern National Series
Championship.
Related Links:
Event Story |
Itinerary, Directions, Weather |
Jellico Event Poster |
Eastern U.S. Series |
City of Jellico Official Website |
Official Scores
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