Jesse Haines Steps Back in to His Unlimited Rock Crawler For a 2nd Place Finish

As the 2011 Rock Crawling season started I was in a familiar old car (my unlimited car from '07-'09), but I found myself with another new spotter. I asked JT Taylor if he would spot for me just a few days before the We Rock event in Tucson. JT said he had spotted before, but I think the last time he saw a rock crawling comp most guys were running leaf springs. It took us a while to get on the same page, and the first few courses didn't go as smoothly as I had hoped.

I thought I'd be able to get in my old car and it would be like I never left. On the first day I didn't feel comfortable at all and found myself struggling on things that should have been easy (not to mention I ran the first course with 10 psi in the tires). Surprisingly we were only 1 point out of 1st place at the end of day 1.

As day 2 started JT and I started to work well together, and we pulled off some great runs. Despite our problems on day 1, we went into the shootout in first place by a few points. We had a good run going and at the end I thought we were still ahead by a few points. I didn't try the last bonus that a few others had made and I drove out the end gate with over 3 minutes left thinking we had won. Rich came over and told us we lost by 2. It was definitely a disappointing 2nd place finish knowing that we walked away with a great chance to still win the event. I won't have to wait long to avenge the loss though.

This weekend the Cal-Neva Extreme rockcrawling season starts at Exit 28 Motorsports Park in Reno, NV and I'll be running in the Unlimited Class there as well.

Jesse Haines Video:  http://youtu.be/JzOtGF-86jA