Stampede 2001
July 20 - 22
(Trip Report by Todd Zuercher)
Ten years is a long time for almost anything. But for the members of Arizona Classic Bronco, it doesn’t seem so long ago that we all journeyed out of the heat of the Phoenix area for a few days in the cool country in back in 1992. Truth be told, I don’t think more than a handful of the attendees at the 10th Annual Arizona Classic Bronco Stampede held July 20th-22nd outside of Flagstaff, AZ were actually at the first one held ten years ago. The Bronco community in Arizona is an active, although constantly changing, group.
The Stampede has always been held to celebrate the "birthday" of the club and the birthday party has evolved over the years. The first several versions were held in the north country in locations that were, shall we say, not conducive to four wheeling. Dirt roads were in abundance, but the need for the locking of hubs and shifting of transfer cases was definitely not present. All that changed in 1995 when the Stampede Committee decided to hold the Stampede at the Cinders OHV area near Sunset Crater outside of Flagstaff, AZ.
The Cinders is an unusual location. Imagine sand dunes with pine trees, if you will. The Cinders are more forgiving to travel through though and the summertime temperatures are much more comfortable than you’d ever find at Glamis or other desert locations in the middle of July. The Cinders are accessible by everything from a passenger car to a full-blown Bronco. It all depends on how far you want to go and how fast you want to get there!
Yes, it does look a little different. This wild Utah rig is longer than a normal Bronco!
This year’s festivities began on Wednesday of the week preceding the official Stampede as members fortunate to get time off work(or retired members) arrived to set up camp and get things in order for the weekend. By Friday, more and more Bronco-driving and Bronco-towing attendees rolled into camp. This year saw attendees from New Mexico, California, Utah, Colorado, Texas, and other states in addition to all the regulars from the Grand Canyon State.
After depositing a generous amount of money in the coffee cans for the Saturday night raffle, folks set up their camps and got ready for the Friday night run. Led by Doug Schulz, the string of headlights wound through the trees over cinder bowls and through pine studded valleys. A few times the group got separated but in the end, all the Broncos made it back to camp unscathed.
Saturday morning came early for most people as the hillclimb started at 8:00 a.m. Numerous classes of vehicles attempted to claw their way up the red and black-stoned lava bowl northwest of the main camp. Steve Harwood, in his usual fashion, set up the hilllclimb and flagged off the competitors in an ever-tightening contest to see who would be king of the hill.
The much-anticipated annual showdown between Gary Goss’ "Rumblebee"(nitrous) and Mike McCarthy’s blown beast did not materialize this year as both gentlemen were unable to attend (Mike was there part of Friday, but couldn't stay). However, the hillclimb never disappoints no matter who enters and this year was no exception. This year’s champ was Chaz Lightner, always keeping his 351W near the rev limiter thanks to his 4.3-geared Atlas transfer case.
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| Mens's Open Class Hillclimb Winner: Chaz Lightner | |
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| WOMEN'S HILLCLIMB | |
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| Women's Hillclimb Winner - Jessica ? - Driving Mark Ragel's Bronco | |
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After the hill climb, two groups left on the day runs for Saturday afternoon. The Cinders are different during the day, as you can actually see the elevation gains as you climb! One hundred mile-plus vistas greeted the drivers as they ascended the cinder hills beyond the valley where camp was located.
A few trucks protested to the frictional loads with overheating engines and hot automatic transmissions, but all again made it back to camp without incident. Mark Ragel and Randy Harral put on a good show with their trucks in the huge bowl where Rumblebee made a name for itself several years ago.
After a lazy Saturday afternoon spent in camp participating in various games such as the lug nut race, the dress-up game, and plenty of kids’ activities, it was time for dinner. Numerous dinner formats have been tried over the years and the pig roast held the past two years has definitely been the hands-down favorite.
A local caterer shows up on Friday and cooks a pig in a portable smoker for 24 hours. The quality of the meat showed they’ve done this a time or two in the past. After dinner, it was time for what everyone had been waiting for-the raffle! We once again had a fine group of prizes from a whole bevy of Bronco vendors to give away to the lucky recipients this year.
Raffle techniques were borrowed from the EBR folks and as a result, the raffle went much smoother this year than in years past. In addition to a great number of valuable prizes given to a large group of happy folks, we also had good attendance from vendors this year. James and Suzy Duff drove down from Washington in their new motorhome with Hi Ho Silver in tow.
The Creels from Wild Horses came over with Nightmar in their new enclosed trailer. Also in attendance were: Keith and Mike from ProtoFab, Randy Harral from Driven Auto Parts, and Chuck Atkinson from BCBroncos. The raffle ended before the sunset which gave attendees plenty of time to sit around the campfires scattered through camp and talk Bronco until the wee hours of the morning.
On Sunday morning, the Bronco faithful left in camp gathered in the "hillclimb bowl" for a group shot before many hit the road. The remaining group participated in the blindfold obstacle course and a few other games before departing. The last Stampeders left on Monday morning, leaving the camp as clean as when we arrived.
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This year’s Stampede, by most accounts, one of the most successful ever. About 80 Early Broncos attended this year-close to, if not, the all-time attendance record. The clubs coffers experienced a positive result and most of the success of this year’s event can be traced to our chairman, Mr. Joe Cayer.
Joe singlehandedly guaranteed the success of the 10th Annual Stampede and made it what it was. We hope to see you all in 2002!
