Jesse Haines Recalls WE-Rock Western Finals

Last weekend the Donner Ski Ranch in Norden, California hosted the final event of the We-Rock western series. The Donner Ski Ranch has been a favorite location for fans and competitors for over a decade. It was also the only event of the season that would take place on natural terrain.
 
We came into the 2011 season with high hopes, but we've suffered one disappointing loss after another. Two of the 3 previous We-Rock events were lost in the shootout, and the other event saw a huge comeback fall just short. All three events resulted in 2nd place finishes.
 
The event started off well as the first course ended up being one of the toughest of the weekend. After a crazy bonus drop off we were hung up in a near vertical position for quite a while. Once freed from the drop we raced to the finish and crossed the finish gates just before time expired. Only 1 of the other 11 competitors was able to finish the course. We continued to run consistently all day, but we finished day one 6 points out of 1st.
 
On day 2 the difficulty of the courses was stepped up considerably. I always feel like that's an advantage for us because that's when the rear steer becomes a huge benefit. We jumped into first after 1 course, then dropped back a few points after the next. On our 3rd course we were the last team to run. Going last is almost always an advantage because you get to watch the other teams run and see what you want to do differently. This ended up being one of the rare times that going last was a disadvantage. There was a bonus climb at the start of the course, and there was a pile of rocks stacked up to help make the climb. Earlier teams were making the bonus, but it got progressively harder as teams stacked rocks then kicked them backwards in front of the climb as they attempted it. By the time we were up it was a mess. We stacked rocks and tried the bonuses line for 6 minutes before we had to give up and attempt to run the rest of the course (the whole course!) in 4 minutes. We flew through the 1 and 2 gate without issue. As we attempted the next bonus gate I got in too much of a rushed and tried to start turning before I was at the top of the climb. I ended up dropping off a 10 foot wall on my roof. We couldn't recover and weren't able to finish the course.
 
Usually when you don't finish a course it pretty much takes you out of the running for 1st. We dropped 43 points behind the leader with 1 course and the shootout remaining. It was looking pretty unlikely that we'd be able to come back from a deficit like that. The last course seemed to be the hardest course of the day. Before we ran, the best score was only 29 points. We brought our A-game and low scored it with a 5, 24 points better than anyone else had done all day. At that point we were now only 19 points behind going into the shootout. The shootout was the toughest one of the year and featured 5 bonuses. That was great news for us because we had some ground to make up. By the time we were up, the 3rd place team had just made a great run and finished with a -10, the low score at that point. Picking up where we left off on the last course, we started out by making the 1 gate bonus that no one had cleared yet. After we cleared the 2 gate we did another bonus that no one had cleared. Next, we were through the 3 gate cleanly and then the 4 gate bonus that only one other team had successfully completed. We had time for one more optional bonus climb and I shot up it on the 1st attempt making us the 2nd team to get that bonus. Now all we had to do was drop off the back side and out the finish gate. As I was approaching the drop off the car got hung on the belly much sooner than I expected. My spotter told me to let the front winch out so I pushed the switch to release the front winch, but it didn't seem to help. I kept working the car forward, but as I did it kept pivoting to the right and I needed to go left. It didn't seem like I should be pivoting so bad in that spot. Eventually all 4 tires were off the ground, and I had to rock the car to get it freed up. Every time it slid forward off the edge off the drop it pivoted farther to the right, but it eventually dropped off the ledge. When the front tires hit the ground I was stopped with a 10 foot wall directly in front of me. The rear tires were still perched on top of the drop and the far wall is about 75" away. There was no where for me to go and time was running out quickly. To put things in perspective, I could drive forward less than 3 feet before the front tires hit the far wall and the car was still straight up and down. After about 20 seconds of sitting in that position while trying everything I could, the car ran out of gas. That was it. Considering how the rest of the season went it was a fitting ending. We were on our way to a -36 for the shootout, but actually dropped back to 3rd when we didn't finish the course.
 
While we were recovering the car out of that position I realized the front winch wasn't releasing when I pushed the switch. That definitely explains why I became hung up so bad lining up for the drop off. The one good thing to come out of it was the fact that the crowd was going crazy about our shootout run. Once again we got a ton of compliments on our shootout run and how we ran all weekend. There is little doubt that we've become a huge fan favorite this year which helps make up for the heart breaking losses we've had this season. As far as We-Rock goes, there is still one more chance at redemption this year. The We-Rock Grand Nationals are the last weekend in September in Tooele, UT. In less than 2 weeks we're back at Donner for the Cal-Neva finals where we have a shot at the series championship.