Wasted Trails 4x4 magazine April 2014 Vol 11 | Page 6

Free 1 Year Anniversary Special Edition Misty Crice Women breaking Ground into Rock Crawling & Bouncing Alisha Rochus, recently had the opportunity to race a Bouncer for the first time in the Powder Puff, (a female specific race), thst was included in the American Rock Crawling Series, held at Hawk Pride Off Road Park in Alabama. A milestone for Alisha, coming full circle from attending her first off road event, to her first race. Alisha exclaimed “being in the drivers meeting and actually belonging there was the beginning of the awesomeness of that day”. Dean Lickliter, SRRS and ARC Veteran Racer had lent Alisha his buggy to allow her to gain some experience this year at a few of the races. “When Dean offered his buggy to me, you couldn’t slap the happy off my face!”. Just before the race, Alisha got the run down of inner workings of the buggy from good and personal coach ‘Plowboy’ Richie Keith. Having Richie as her personal coach from start to finish was “Awesome” he advised the first time racer “Don’t let off the gas once you get around the corner”. wanting to make Richie proud “I stayed in it” doing her best. She bounced around a lot and did not have the finish time she had hoped for, but, she thought it was “very important for me to get the feel for what being on the skinny petal felt like”. Alisha was more accustomed to hill racing anf those type of obstacles compared to rushing up this course and the obstacles it offered. She will do many things differently next time and is determined to master the skinny pedal. Not breaking anything and finishing her first race has been one of her biggest accomplishments thus far and she is very proud of how far 4x4 Nation has came as well. PowderPuff may have been Alisha’s first race, but, not her first off road experience. Growing up on a farm in Ohio, she spent muc [YH]