

Off-roading with a purpose - From the files of Benjamin Battles



Over the weekend, I attended the Tennessee Gambler 500 Redemption run in Crossville, TN - a checkpoint based off-road rally. But that’s not all, because, along the way, the goal is to pick up as much trail garbage as possible. The event, organized by Mason Dixon and his team, is a Friday, Saturday & Sunday race. This is my experience:



Friday: We departed Chattanooga around 2 PM local time for the hour and a half drive to Crossville. Once on the road, I managed to snap some rollers of our rigs. Casey and Matt drove their highlighter green “Civuck” and Jake Willard of Slightly Mangled was behind the wheel of his white Civic gambler. About halfway there, we stopped for fuel to make sure everything was still attached to the cars before we ascended the mountain to Crossville. At the gas station, we met Nathaniel in his lifted Miata. We immediately befriended him and invited him along on the trails for our journey.



We arrived at camp around 3 PM local time (time zones are fun) to unload our gamblers. There were already nearly 100 cars in the field when we showed up to the event. We were greeted with familiar faces, including Mason, as we picked our spot as close as possible to the mud pit.

Once everything was unloaded, we immediately started making new friends and greeting old ones at the gate.



One of our best comrades, Ben Huffman of HRG Engineering brought his shop car, aptly named “Garbage Can”. We spent the majority of the weekend with him and all of our other friends from HRG.



As I walked around camp, it quickly became obvious that there were going to be some “not so capable” cars mixed in with the lifted crowd, which is in the spirit of the Gambler 500. ‘Run what you brung,’ so to speak.



As night fell on our camp, the majority of gamblers had shown up and we all made our way down to the mud pit; a multi-acre, specially made pit for this event by the property owner, Austin, who is just as much a part of the action as all of the rest of us. He kindly brought his tractor out to tow drivers if they became stuck, which only adds to the confidence drivers had to just send it through the slop.



I called it a night after about midnight and went to sleep in Jake’s Sequoyah. Our only problem was that we never turned on the car. The weather was well below freezing and windy. Everything was frozen, including our extremities. Our sleep was uncomfortable at best, partly from excitement, and mostly from the cold.



Saturday: In the morning, I was awake before most of the camp at 5:45 am to shoot sunrise shots of some cars in our group. The sun was perfect both days for photography.



Around 7 am, we got a convoy of about 15 cars and hit the road to the trails. On the way there, we stopped at a curve in the road where garbage was EVERYWHERE. All total, over 35 contractor trash bags were filled with trash - all in about a 200 yard stretch of road. When we finished, no trace of trash could be seen anywhere. It looked as untouched as the Southern hills once were.



We made a trip back to camp to unload all of the garbage into our dumpster. Mason rented an industrial dumpster for the weekend for everyone to put their collected trash into. We completely filled it to the top, it overflowed with trash collected from the trails.



Once all of the trash was collected and disposed of, we immediately hit the trails. We split into two groups, which narrowed ours down to about nine cars.



After an hour, we stopped at a hill climb. Many cars attempted, but only one Jeep successfully made it up and back down, that we could see.



We then trekked our way to checkpoint “top of the world” and had a quick bite for lunch. Justin and I collected firewood for the evening here as well, remembering last night’s fire... which sucked. We weren’t about to have literal cold feet for two nights in a row outside.



We drove down the mountain and had some leader cars sprint up the next trail just for fun. One of the cars veered off the trail and needed to be towed back up. So again, we stopped for some fun. There was a much smaller hill climb area that we hit and everyone took a stab at the “hardest” one. Unfortunately, Jake encountered an issue that required him back down the hill. When he did, a tree root ripped a hole in the sidewall of a tire. Luckily, we had several spares to choose from, as well as spacers. So, after two spacers and one re-beaded spare, we were off once again.



While we waited on Jake to change his tire, Nathaniel, Todd, Aaron, and I found a nearby field to spin some donuts. We had an absolute blast shredding in the mud. The photos and fun were some of my favorite memories from the trip.



After the fun, we regrouped and headed for “the hard way between 5 and 6,” which was another hill climb. Most of our group could not make the climb, however, Todd and I climbed it with his 4Runner. We decided to turn around halfway up at a stopping point due to it being “too dangerous.” To be fair, we were on all seasons, not something like mud-bogger tires.



Instead, we took advantage of a nearby water basin to get some cool splashing shots of the cars.



After this, the sun began to set and we headed back to camp for more of last night’s events. I was exhausted, so after seeing a few cars slam into the mud pit, I passed out in the Sequoyah, once again cold and tired.



Sunday: Time change, so 6:45 am came around, along with more sunrise shots at camp.



Aaron and I cooked “breakfast,” which included hot dogs and pizza that Aaron purchased the night prior at a local corner store.



To start our day, we headed down to the mud pit with the Civics. Alex brought his lifted Civic hatch and actually towed Casey, who got stuck... twice.



Once we had our fun, we got a group together and headed to the bonus checkpoint “free car wash.” Epic shots followed.



Once everyone made a couple of passes fording the water, we headed back to camp for the long-jump competition.



It was at this competition that we met David Milligan and his crew representing Ranger Road. They are a nonprofit that helps veterans get out and enjoy activities, such as the Gambler 500.



Jordan, one of David’s friends, took their Ford Taurus and SENT it to secure the long jump victory. Everyone had a blast.



After the long jump contest, we decided to pack up and head home. We said our goodbyes and hit the road.



What an experience. The Gambler is something I recommend for any car enthusiast looking to have a good time with their friends. Self-described as a “low budget Forza Horizon”, it really is a world apart from reality. I hope to attend more in the future.

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