Introduction – Part II
Yes, it has been awhile. Anyways, we left off with me contemplating starting a professional rock crawling career but there was one BIG problem, I didn’t have a competitive buggy. Well that all changed while browsing Pirate4x4.com because I found a Campbell Ent moon buggy for sale in California. A little background on Campbell Enterprises. Owned and operated by one of my heroes Shannon Campbell, this shop pumps out some of the most competitive buggies the world has ever seen. When I saw a CE buggy for sale and for that price, wow, I think I was dialing the number before I was done reading the post. Days seemed to turn into minutes and all of sudden I am driving to California with an empty trailer, knowing that it won’t be empty on the way back.
This little orange buggy (fyi, you are going to notice that I REALLY like the color orange), was incredible. LS1 (Corvette) powered, tough chassis, low center of gravity; this buggy made me feel like I was unstoppable. This buggy and I traveled the country together for two seasons and it never let me down. It was the car that propelled my rock sports career and put me on the map. In 2005 it would ever earn me my first check as a driver; a measly $250, just enough to cover the entry fee into the XRRA event. It might have been only $250.00 but it might as well have been a million to me. The next year, the buggy (now named Catter) and I would dominate the XRRA series. Never placing worse then 5th we would lead the XRRA in points and top 5 finishes for 2006. Not bad for a college kid going up against his heroes. Sadly though all good things come to an end. At the end of the 2006 season I decided to sell the Catter in favor for a new race car, one that would be faster, quicker and more my style.
2007, the year of changes. With the Catter now with its new owner, I was embarking on a new journey, the joy of building a car from scratch. I had dumped the single seat buggy in favor of a front engine, two seater car. I was building this for the up and coming Pro Modified class in WeRock. Dubbed as the NASCAR class of rock crawling, these vehicles had to resemble an OEM style car; mine was going to look like a Jeep Wrangler. This car had a whole different attitude and it was appropriately named Murphy, short for Murphy’s Law. These vehicle would become the thorn in my side for two years but Murphy and I, with all of our disagreements, would go from state to state, event to event, putting on a heck of a show.
2009 is here and Blackstar is back at it! King of the Hammers and a whole new buggy designed to go fast, crawl and do it all in style. Be sure to check out my next blog to get the scoop on what we have in store for the 2009 season.
Until then, keep the rubber side down!
