Cooper Carries Rock Crawlers to Podium Finishes
Full Article and Photos at YourCooperNews.com

Cooper tires carried two teams to podium finishes in the tough-as-nails sport of rock crawling during last weekend’s Cooper-sponsored All Stock Nationals Aug. 29-30 at Hannibal Rocks Off-Road Park in Hannibal, Mo.

Fresh off a win, despite a severely leaking transmission, in the regional RROCK Series two weeks before, RubberBelly Racing placed second. Team Digger
placed third.

Although they were fan favorites, both of the Cooper-sponsored teams
stacked up as underdogs compared with their more experienced, better-known, oft-winning competitors.

RubberBelly driver Jake Good, for one, gave his sturdy, dependable Discoverer STTs partial credit for his strong showing.

“They were great!” said Jake, 31, whose day job is working as an engineering technician for a Kansas City, Mo., civil engineering firm. “We haven’t had any problems with our tires in two seasons of running them. They’ve never let us down. They work great, whether it’s muddy or dry. Sidewall strength is usually a big issue on these sharp rocks, like at Hannibal, but ours have held up remarkably well.”

Cooper is corporate sponsor for Hannibal Rocks Off-Road Park in Hannibal, Mo., where the RROCK regional series of W.E.ROCK stages its events.

Drivers and their spotters, standing outside the vehicles and helping them navigate, completed four white-knuckle courses on Saturday and another four on Sunday. Sunday also offered an extra opportunity for knocking off points, through a final shootout course where drivers could shave up to 40 points from their score.

Competitive rock crawlers try to keep points as low as possible by accurately navigating through obstacle courses marked by boulders, cliffs and trees. Drivers start a course with zero points. They receive a point for every reverse. Running over a cone – which marks the course boundary and sets its difficulty – means a
10-point penalty.

Entering the final shootout, RubberBelly Racing ranked 55 points behind the leader. The pressure was on, since failing to complete the shootout cost teams 40 points and teams were bunched just 25 points apart.

Despite the long odds, Jake and his team pulled it off in bonus lines to edge out Team Digger and capture second place.

The podium finish, coupled with the tires’ rugged good looks and sure-footed performance, had onlookers asking about Cooper tires.

“We do get a lot of interest in the tires, because Cooper is not as common, currently, off-road,” Jake said. “So everywhere we go, there are always great compliments like, ‘I didn’t know Cooper made a tire that looks this well or works this well.’”

He thanked Cooper for making the win possible.

“We couldn’t do it without the team members that we have,” Jake said. “We have a great core group that keeps it going, and without sponsors like Cooper Tire, we couldn’t be as competitive as we are.”

Jake and RubberBelly Racing are taking time off from active competition for the next few months, until next spring’s 2010 RROCK Series season kicks off.

But while he’s giving his striking red competition vehicle, a heavily modified 1996 Geo Tracker, a rest for now, look for Jake, his wife and two kids in their Bronco family four-wheeler, crawling across cliffs in off-roading meccas like Moab, Utah.

-- YourCooperNews.com