Red Clay Rally 2018 (every scratch is a memory)

T-minus 385 days

I first heard about the Red Clay Rally in May of 2017. My Tacoma was just 5 months old and bone stock. It sounded like an exciting event that I would enjoy.

I have an extensive off-roading background, mostly involving difficult trails in built Jeeps. A Time/Speed/Distance off-road rally intrigued me, and I felt that the Tacoma would be the perfect platform for my first one. I sent an email, only to find out that registration was full.

A month later I began hearing stories from the rally that fueled my fire even further. Around that time, registration opened for the 2018 version, and I was on the phone with some old off-roading buddies. It didn’t take long to find 3 of them that were willing to shell out the cash and commit to the rally.

In the months that followed, I began modifying the truck for better off-road performance. My 3 rally companions started working on their Jeeps to improve their on-road performance.


T-minus 12 hours

Our team met at my place Thursday evening with gear ready for 3 days of intense activities. We set off in a light rain shower toward Johnson City TN. Soon the light rain became a torrent as the wind blew us all over the interstate, but especially the jeeps. We arrived at check in a few hours later, picked up our T-shirts and got all the information for the next day. With rain falling and more forecasted for overnight, we abandoned the plan to sleep in hammocks in the parking lot and got rooms in a janky local hotel.






T-minus 10 minutes

The staging area parking lot was full of all kinds of overlanding and off-roading rigs, filled with all kinds of people. Zach, the organizer, held a driver’s meeting, and minutes later we were all in line waiting to leave at 2 minute intervals.







Mission Time +3 hours

I don’t actually remember how long it took to get to the first trail section, but there was quite a lot of freeway and highway driving before we got there. The trail took us through an active coal mine and up into the mountains. We knew that we should be keeping a pace, but it was only based on the information that “speed limits should be adhered to”. It was on this section that we caught up to our first team. This was also where we learned to not follow other teams. Aside from a couple of wrong turns and a little backtracking, we found our checkpoints with no issues.



Most of the off-roading portions of the route on day one were muddy and rocky dirt roads. Gas stops were pretty chaotic, as we would pass through small towns with only one station. The first teams to pull in were golden. Everyone else had a wait.






The last few hours of the day were spent on some fast dirt trails, with the climax being a hill climb at the end which led to camp. The difference between experienced drivers and highway overlanders became pretty obvious here. The hill was very innocent, but some exclaimed that it “should have been a bonus” because “it was so tough.”



Camp was incredible. The teams were spread out over a vast, bald hilltop. Shortly after we arrived, a rain shower passed through, and then we were treated to a breezy, beautiful evening. With Raggaetone beats softly thumping from the DMV Team camp, the sun set. We picked up our scoresheet to find that we finished 19th for the day. A change in plans was in order.

 

Mission Time +24 hours

Team 96 consisted of 2 Jeep TJs, a Jeep LJ, and my Tacoma.

Lance and his teenage son Brandon have a black 4 cylinder TJ that has seen many years of hard trails. They are always up for a good adventure but were worried about the long road miles in the Jeep.

David and his girlfriend Lilah were in the LJ. David had the route loaded on his Viewranger app and was my secondary navigator. David is down for anything involving off-road driving.

Nick and his wife Sara were new to the group. Nick got his TJ a year ago and has that “new wheeler” enthusiasm. He built his TJ in 9 months in preparation for the rally. His wife Sara is a photographer.

My teenage son and my wife were my passenger and co-driver. In 12 months, I added a suspension, skid plates, a winch and bumper, and tires to get ready for the rally. I have some navigational experience from adventure racing years ago and years of trail driving experience.

Day 2 started sunny. As we crawled out of our tents there was a herd of wild horses mingled throughout the quiet encampment.







We broke camp quickly to get to the staging area in time for
our start. Lance and Brandon took every last minute getting in and going, but we left on our
minute. All day long we passed in and out of tiny coal towns in Virginia and Kentucky.



The route took us on trails through some amazing reclaimed coal land that looked very much like a
western landscape. Navigation was pretty straightforward, and based on lessons learned the
day before, we were on a mission.





Our pace seemed fast, especially on trail. Our gas stops were quick and we ate as we rode. We caught and passed several teams throughout the day, and we were moving so well that we thought we might be a little early. In this rally, early penalties cost more than late penalties.



Our first big slow down of the day was a line of trucks at the foot of a decent sized hill. There
was a 2nd gen 4Runner stuck on the hill precariously close to rolling over. The recovery backed up traffic and spooked a few teams. Some chose to bypass that checkpoint, taking a penalty. Other teams went up one truck at a time. When it was our turn, I went first. Halfway up the hill I called back on the radio for the rest of the Jeeps to come all at once, as the hill was not an issue. In the next several miles, our team made up some of the time we lost at the hill. As we rolled into the last checkpoint at a new camp, we were excited to find out our score.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/QMSEN_Do3mU



As nice as the first campsite was, the day 2 campsite was completely opposite. It was boggy,
buggy and tight. After dinner, we picked up our score sheet and found ourselves in 6th place.
The buzz all around camp that night was section 1 on the next morning. There was no rule about prerunning, and one of the teams followed the first bit of the route before setting up camp. They came back with horror stories of a track only wide enough for a bicycle and brush with
limbs like spikes. The Tundra and 4Runner had the scars to prove it. That would be on the minds of most people that night, especially the ones who still make payments on their rig.

 

Been a busy week. I'll get day 3 posted up very soon.

 

The morning of the last day, the rest of team 96 and I woke up and packed camp early. On the previous day, the start point was at camp. On this day, the start point was almost 4 miles beyond camp. I never verified it, but I believe that many teams were still at camp at their start time. My team, the 2nd place team (the Tundra Team), and the 5th place team were all at the official start point at our start time, with no one else to be seen. The horror story from the night before was completely accurate. With a sinking feeling in my gut, I threw the Tacoma at the massive thicket and powered through… trying to avoid the worst sticks and branches, of course. There was much snarling and gnashing of teeth as the sound from scraping branches overpowered the radio in the Tacoma. A few miles later, we popped out on black top.






Keeping a steady and quick pace, it wasn’t long before we caught up to the 5th place team that left in front of us. We stuck with them for a while as we moved in and out of small coal towns and communities. We would lead a while, then give the lead back to them. One advantage of being out front of the whole rally caravan is that gas stops are much faster. Even so, it’s tough to keep momentum when your team gets split by a train. Those are some painful minutes to wait.






As the day went on, we entered a section of the map we called the “lollipop”. It was one way in and out with a huge loop a the end. The loop held the first of 3 checkpoints for the day. As we progressed through the tight muddy track, we found ourselves right behind the second place team, the Tundra Team.








They were moving painfully slow, as threading that huge Tundra through the narrow trees was a chore. When the chainsaw buzzed to life, we knew we might be there a few minutes longer than expected. All of the mud holes in this section were long deep bogs. I was really impressed with our Tacoma, as I never once got stuck. When we finally broke free of the trees, the Tundra team continued to hold a slow pace in front of us, even though we wanted to go faster to make up some time.









On our way back out the long 2 way section of trail, we ran into a jam up. One of the DMV Team’s rigs had rolled on the way up the mountain in the opposite direction that we were going. They were not injured, but the late model FJ was badly damaged. As we waited for them to pull the disabled rig up the hill, the Tundra Team took off in a different direction, searching for a bypass. Seconds later, the trail opened up in front of us, and we were back on pace. I was pretty sure the split allowed us to get ahead of Team Tundra. It was a many miles before we saw them again, when they popped out of a side road directly in front of us.









We proceeded in this order until we hit the final trail section where we found checkpoint #2. Our plan was to take the bonus route for an extra 45 points. At the first split, the Tundra Team paused and went right. This didn’t look quite right according to my map. After some team consulting and lots of horn blowing from behind, we took a left into the creek. By now, several other teams had caught up to us. My route on viewranger clearly showed to pass the bonus section going north and travel it southward. We knew that we would lose some positions by taking the bonus route, but the points would more than make it up.

 

Looks like one hell of a time!

 

That is when disaster struck team 96. The bonus route was a few miles long. We were looking for an obstacle called Holiday Hill as we hit bog after bog of water and mud. When we finally reached it, we were on the wrong side, the top side. We were deflated but not defeated. Back up the trail, around, down, and up in the correct direction got us to the bottom of holiday hill. As a team, we all drove right up the middle with no issues, and hardly any wheel spin. If only we had gotten the direction right the first time we may have finished in the top 3. My Tacoma really surprised me here. The locker and the Multi-Terrain Select was very close to the performance of a completely locked up vehicle.



Video edit of us climbing Holiday Hill. I brought up the rear in the Taco.


https://www.youtube.com/embed/QWw3vZ1rdsE?rel=0



One turn past the bonus route and we picked up the last checkpoint. All that was left was the hour long drive to the assembly point at a Brewery in Lexington KY. When we arrived, the only thing on our mind was turning in the scoresheet and snagging some of that pizza that had the air filled with heavenly aroma. When the winners were announced, we pushed our way up to the scoreboard to find that we had finished 12th overall. Not bad for a team of yahoos that had no idea what they were doing.​

 

Good trip report. I really enjoyed the read.

 

Yeaah...
Pretty cool!

 

Registration is still open for the 2019 edition of the rally, but I hear this year is supposed to be a tougher route for the vehicles.

I'd love to do it again but I have commitments. Maybe the year after...

 

What gps app were you using?

 

View Ranger, and it works great. I didn't want a monthly subscription for a GPS app, and View Ranger takes a one time fee for access to many different styles of downloadable maps. We only missed 3 turns the whole rally and saw it so quickly that we just pulled u-turns and didn't lose any time.

We ran it on a Samsung tablet, and one of the other rigs on my team ran it on a phone.

 

Awesome write up of last year's rally. 2019 was another wild experience and was quite the change in pace when it comes to difficulty. 2020 registration is open. We are working hard each year to give back to the trails we traverse. In 2019 we cleaned 669lbs of trash from the trails we hit. If anyone is interested, check out www.RedClayRally.com