Swamp Buggies

A

wild ride of Florida small

buggy races.

Then racers who really know how to chill out first on four wheels in Colorado. Then on two,

it's a full throttle ride on the rocks of a

rock and roll challenge.

And Jeepers young and old go to camp.

We're crisscrossing the country in search of off road action.

Hey, everybody. I'm MEREDITH. We

and this is off road action. The show that pegged the rev limiter on Mother Nature's toughest terrain.

Our first stop is as far off the concrete path as you can get your Everglades National Park in Naples Florida.

The Everglades is a tranquil place where birds frolic and alligators roam in the still of the Florida swamp

three times a year. That piece is shattered when Florida Sports Park hosts the swamp buggy races.

The drive one is just awesome.

It is

a thrill of

a lifetime.

There's no roller

coaster, no dragster, no,

any kind of

machine out there that can turn you on

like

a,

from its humble beginnings in 1949 swamp buggy racing is now part of South Florida's racing heritage.

We live breathe eat swamp

e racing. It's the only place that they race these things. People up north and from other parts of the country have never seen anything like this. You get a little bit hard to clean

drag racing, circle track and all, you know, put into one. You know, it's really exciting. It is pretty hard core

hurtling through 18 inches of water side by side.

Hard core is an understatement. You're in the buggy, all you can see is straight ahead. You really don't have a peripheral view. But if he's right there and he's coming up on you, you can see him. And then when you know that, you

know, you got to put a pedal to the metal and go

and the two and four wheel drive classes have pedal. We're running about 840 horsepower and we're blind to the water somewhere 0.70 80 miles an hour. So there's no room for air. You make a little bottle and they guys blow by you.

It is extreme.

30 years ago, Randy John's race career was cut short back when I was 18 years old. I raced a couple times. Second time I ran, I flipped over and my dad wouldn't let me race anymore after that. That was the end of my racing career. He returned to the swamp four years ago to race the top gun machine.

You get the bow,

you can't get rid of it.

Randy didn't return alone enlisting his wife Laurie to pilot Lady Liberty having her in this race with us and doing this can't complain about how much it costs.

And his son, Tyler Mans the controls of the patriot. The families don't work together very well all the time, but

we usually do. All right.

With only one day of practice, this event will test the fortitude of the John's family today. Saturday is the only day you get to practice right before Sunday. So if you tear something up or it's not right. You gotta do all your adjustments today.

You break something tomorrow, you're pretty much done. It's very intense. It's very nerve wracking

and it's a full time job trying to keep up with all these buggies and keep them working.

Things turned sour early when Laurie had problems in the first practice session.

We don't seem to be shifting very well

at

all.

After blowing the gears in his first practice, it didn't get any better for Tyler on his second run.

Check that gear. That gear is wrong.

A

gear is wrong. Let's go.

Jack it up. Check it. It's got, it's gotta be wrong.

It's not 18 to 1. It, it's gotta be a

15 to 15 grand.

Yeah, there's something wrong. I put the gears in upside down.

I did that myself. Just blew $1000. I know like that.

That was a lot of money.

Well, when you put the gears in upside down,

I got a name for that. It's called dumb ass. No, it don't bother me because he put so much work into it. You know, he's trying to look after all three of our buggies. It's a simple mistake. Anybody make it been kind of a frustrating day because we've had problems. A lot of people don't make it around a track today and they're, they're just as aggravating as good as we are. So, go home, work on them tonight and

hopefully we make up for it tomorrow

on race day. Expectations weren't high.

We hope we can keep it all together long to get around the track to win 10 grand. They would have to keep it together and survive the single eliminations.

Laurie was the team's first casualty but Randy wasn't disappointed.

Got the

bug. She wants to race, she wants to win. She wants to be a competitor in the quarter finals. Randy fell, leaving the family's fortunes in Tyler's hands. The 22 year old didn't crumble under pressure as he knocked off some of the world's best.

I'm not

in the final big feature race. A last second surge past seven time champion Eddie Jesser gave Tyler the victory.

We

first after

yesterday, the only place we had to go out, we couldn't go down

along with the fame and Fortune. Tyler's win earned him the traditional jump with a swamp buggy queen.

Oh, it is that,

that

if you dunk,

you won it all, you did it,

ladies want to be the next swamp buggy queen. Better bring your gator appellant.

We've got a whole lot more coming up on off road action.

Tire studs are the ticket to good traction that these four and two W

I

plus intense rock racing. A Jeep Love

Fest and more. When off road action continues.

Welcome back to off road action

from the steamy swamps of South Florida to the frozen lakes of north. This next group of guys don't store their eggs for the winner. They strap on some bad ass tires and hit the ice

in the Colorado Rockies means race time for the, our gang four wheelers.

This is extreme

throwing on the studs and spikes. They rip up Georgetown Lake.

Just a thrill living on the edge factor sliding around there and just having fun.

Some people consider it pretty crazy. It's a lot of fun though. Something to do in the winter. It's extreme. It's, it's different. Where else can you go and race on a lake with what we do with these kind of tires. It's a rush and it's, it's tight man. The competition's awesome

for two months. They compete in the bolt class for a spot in ice racing's premier event,

the cheater invitational

kind of like, you know, the granddaddy of them all. They race the top eight men in points and the top eight women in points and they just combine them into one class, 16 people and they all race for one traveling trophy. There's no money involved. It's just prestige. Just to say that you were the best, best. There was the best of the best. It's a real honor to be chosen to race in this event. You got to earn your way in. It gets more and more competitive every year. It gets, it's awesome.

They call them bolts or cheaters. And in the big race they are running the spike studded tires.

Some people run

anywhere from

80 bolts in their tire to up to 125. Basically, no limitations on what you can do. You just can't protrude more than an inch and a half past the treads.

A

lot of people think that you can just go out and buy them at the store. They're all handmade. You have to buy a tire scuff off some of the tread drill holes, sharpen the bolts and put them from the inside out.

And then we run a tube and a liner inside them. A guy wraps up a lot of time in the building. A set of tires. I probably have 100 hours in building tires.

It's a lot of time, but necessary to get the grip.

Things happen so quick whenever you, uh, turn the wheel it turns with the bolts on, you know. So it's a, it's a, it's such a fast reaction but it's, it gets you right there. I mean, it's an adrenaline rush. So

that's why we do it.

The attraction there is just unbelievable and it's just, just a thrill.

Oh, yeah. When we start getting sideways, it feels good right here

as defending Invitational champ, Mike Palmer knows it takes more than tires to win the big one to win a race like that. You've really got to uh, maintain concentration. Keep your focus. Once you get out of the groove you're done.

He's grooving in his custom built ice buggy.

A

first class ice buggy is probably gonna run you about $25,000.

It's basically a 1951 Willie's frame Chevy motor. It's 421 cubes. It's a 400 small block with a three and 78 stroke crank shaft in it. It's got about 602 horsepower and feels good

when the rules changed. Three years ago, Mike made the switch from the leaf springs.

The suspension is pretty important out here. Like I'm sure it is in any racing.

This is a Q A one coil over that I run on it with the hyper coil spring. It's real good. It holds tires on the ice. If you're not on the ice, you lose

time

when the track gets really rough in the bolt. That's when you'll see the advantage, it'll, it'll skate through them and,

and the tires will, they planted to where the leaf spring guys will be bouncing and lifting tires a lot in

this part of the Rockies wind can gust past 100

MPH. So Mike built a wing. I feel that anything you can get up there is going to give you a little down force. Even though we're not hitting real high speeds,

the wind is just, has got to pin us down. Some palmer kept it pinned in the Invitational and dominated the two at a time for race elimination,

got pretty choppy towards the end. But this thing, it really glues down good when it gets choppy. And I think that's what gives me a pretty good advantage over a few of the guys. You're kind of restricted when you're running the course. But when you can go out and do what works, feels good.

You know what else? Feel good. A shot of something warm after a full day in sub

zero temps.

Now from one frozen lake to another, we're traveling 1000 miles east to America's dairy land,

Wisconsin in the winter time, home of snowy farms where cows are revered.

But once a year, the picturesque lake Kokang

is transformed into a sadistic racers paradise.

This is now assembled to

the greatest ice race competition in this country today. 59 teams came to race this three hour epic in subhuman conditions.

The windshield. Hello

here

guys.

It was 32 yesterday and that would feel real good right about now. It doesn't matter. It don't matter if it's 20 below. We'd all still be out here How are you feeling a little chilly?

Unless these ice men want to eat snow, their tires better be up for the challenge

last year. We were in contention and the tire came park. It's all tires out there. I mean, you can take somebody that,

that's a, you know, a mediocre rider with great tires and somebody that doesn't, you know, it can ride really good with tires ain't quite as good. It don't matter. It's all on the tires. The studs are kind of, kind of interesting. They are inch long. Uh And now we're doing some experiment with inch and quarter long.

Uh, which I mean, by the time you're done building the tire, there's a lot of work involved because you gotta, you gotta stuff the tire with another tire inside a street bike tire w out one

and, uh you just screw it from the outside in and

a

whole

bunch of

them.

Actually,

Rhiannon Lucetti is a newbie when it comes to roosting snow and she loves it.

I'm a road racer

but it is totally different. It is way, way, way more fun,

way better to get the bike down and sideways. Just get a foot out

secure even though you're breaking it

loose

while this race is only her fourth on ice. She wasn't intimidated by having to run with the boys. These guys are fast,

they're dangerous.

You can't survive in

Wisconsin without

being a tough

girl. There's no way

you just can't do it. You got to brave the cold, you got to brave the boys, you got brave it all.

She was taking on the boys aboard the old school at TK.

The AC K is a good bike.

It's a big thumper that just,

it rips. It's big, it's heavy. You got to muscle it around. Talk about tough guys out here.

That's a tough guy bike.

Her race strategy was just as tough,

but when you go out

sail, just go and you're going to warm up right away. It keeps the elbows out, just whack anybody that comes by and

it

gives you a good jolt of warm fuzzies inside

with all the proceeds going to the steel shoe fund. These racers don't do it for the money,

they do it for that warm fuzzy feeling.

It doesn't matter. It, it don't matter if it's 20 below. We'd all still be out here.

We'll get out there after about 20 minutes today and be sweating.

Smiling ear to ear.

There's nothing like riding on the ice

when off road action returns. Mash, the skinny pedal and hold on for dear life.

Rock racing at the rock and roll challenge. Stay tuned.

Now, we've shown you lots of rock crawling and desert racing, but put the two together and you have a sport that's hard on the equipment and requires no fear

with a day of speed events and a day of technical rock crawling, the rock and roll challenge pushes man and his machine to their absolute breaking point.

Money will motivate anyone. This is a hardcore.

They make

push vehicles limit.

You gotta get everything out of it.

It's too extreme. It's way too extreme. There's nothing you can explain about it that the extreme it is

all out, you know, hardcore, bring an extra

pair of underwear.

The first day is woods racing, which is just against the clock. A lot of hill climbs and that type of thing.

The average fans they love the, the hill climbs and the, the woods racing, you know, because it's speed and throwing mud and rocks.

There's no bottom to the rocks, not just the big rocks, it's loose rocks too. It's, it's like being on a field of marbles trying to go uphill.

It's hard to get hooked up and go. You got to get the momentum going and carry through it

and, uh, the bigger ones, they're, they're gonna, they're gonna upset the Apple cart

pretty bad stuff when you're running these hills at speed.

Not only you got rocks, but you got the trees and they're right and you hit a rock wrong it, throw you right into a tree, rocks and trees aren't enough to intimidate these racers. Adrenaline gets going, getting hard, you just stand on it and go,

you know, I'm a competitor, you know, I wanna be first every time

and if it takes running into a tree or a rock and it causes a little damage.

You know, that's part of it to be able to bounce off everything out there on the course and then actually cross the finish line. You know what I'm saying? Without hitting anything or tearing the front wheel off and

you've accomplished something.

20 competitors came out to Hot Springs, Arkansas where the only vehicles not allowed were mall cruisers and Barbie Jeeps. The great thing about these guys, the majority of them have built their vehicles at home for sport for having a good time. They're not building these in big fabrication shops or big motor sports companies. It's not NASCAR.

There's a lot of these are built in a garage at home under the shade tree outside.

Good old Southern ingenuity. It was under the shade tree where they were doing repairs there. Quite a bit of carnage.

E

it's rough. It looks like it was the drive shaft broken. And what these guys do is they come out here and they, they think they, they got it. You know, they got the real, the best they can be and then they just break

wasn't expecting it to be that bad. Not only are they educating themselves about what their weakest points are in the rig

that they can also come back with a better attitude and, you know, I, I can go home and make it better and then bring it back and, and do it again. You gotta build your rig, right? You know, if you got a good, tough vehicle and they can take the abuse,

you just have a blast.

This year, Bill Bailey is taking the plunge and is in the process of converting his former daily driver to an off road beast. My Jeep is a 97 Jeep Wrangler TJ. They call it, I pretty well replaced everything from the transmission back. It's got an Atlas crew transfer case,

Uh Dana 44 front

axle, a

high opinion furry nine inch in the rear, the Detroit locker, front and rear and of course, all the tubing fenders last year, my fenders took a beating. So I got tubing fenders now

and a good roll cage

about the only thing that

is custom made is the front steering.

You know, it's half inch wall tubing just because you hit a lot of rocks and I was bending the, the stuff that I was buying, you know, so I had to have it made

and I've been it too. It's a lot of trial and error. I went through several different sets of shocks and springs and,

and trying to lengthen and shorten the control arms just to get it to climb the steep hills. Right. It hasn't been

and it hasn't been easy. But with the win in the small tire class bill knows his hard work is paying off.

I'm planning on doing it now until I'm too old to drive.

It's something that I used to be into drag racing and,

and that was fun. But, uh, this, it's amazing what kind of thrills you can get going two miles an hour. It's just a blast. I've enjoyed every minute of that

week.

Can you believe my buddies haven't broken anything yet?

Now, if you don't own a two buggy or have a big budget, then we have the vacation for you.

Only one requirement. You got to be a jeer.

We'll pitch a tent at Camp Jeep. When off road action returns after the break,

you got to admit Jeep owners are a rare breed.

They love their trucks so much. They go on vacation together

three summer days. Camp Jeep hosts thousands of families for a weekend of nonstop adventure. Fun

camp. Jeep is mainly made up of just enthusiast. We work hard all year. This is our family vacation. We love it. Oh, it's great

ahead of the blast.

We

from the skate park to the adventure tower. There were adventure activities for the kids to love.

It's fun just to

go out there and like

be messy and all

that.

It's just so nice around here. Like everyone's so polite. Those with a driver's license have their ticket to bigger toys. Keep it real

testing out. The newest line of Jeeps from the obstacle course and mud

pit

to putting the pedal down on the road America racetrack

this weekend was all about getting out and going for it. Jeep style. My first camp Jeep, really good experience so far

around Elkhart Lake. Jeep set up 12 off road trails ranging from scenic to difficult folks pushed their rigs as hard as they saw fit.

A lot of people don't get to use their Jeep and this is a good time to come out and use it.

My favorite part is

the trail

rides.

We enjoy them most because we don't do that except at Camp

Jeep.

Yeah, it's my dad's Jeep. So I'm not worried about anything

new be and

Souser was a little too excited at getting dad's tires dirty,

put your hand in the vehicle.

You've got some of the novices who get out and they really don't have a clue. They don't know how to set the vehicles up and they get hung up.

They're the ones that are really green and really impressionable and that's what we're all about trying to teach them the proper ways of healing,

not just rip and stuff

and you let the clutch all hit it

hard.

We're gonna have to strap them. Well, you're the first one who has to get strapped.

What do you say?

I don't know, embarrassed

and only learn by doing it.

It's all part of the experience.

I'm tired buddy.

Since the first Camp Jeep, 14 years ago, companies like Garman have used this event to showcase their newest Jeep accessories

is excited about bringing a new portable navigation device that's waterproof. Has the ability to do. Downloading map capability

to Jeep

for the uh for the outdoor

skyjacker is one of dozens of aftermarket companies that wouldn't think of missing camp Jeep. Anytime we have a chance to ride with the Jeep enthusiasts, we want to ride, we wanna hear what they have to say. We want to be out and enjoy with them

outdoor adventure with so much to do and only one weekend to do it. No one went home, disappointed.

All the activities,

just the camaraderie, the people. And I love it that there's no smoking, no alcohol,

people are behaving. They're all terrific. It's just a good fellowship. A good family out here.

Speaking of smoking, I think my buddies here smoked a few tires on the rocks today. What do you think?

My thanks to them for being here and especially to you for tuning in.

Remember, two wheels are for, if it's got a throttle we're on it.

I, me

twice keeping it off road.