Off-Road Catalina Island's Twisty Mountain - Straight From The Jachmann

The stage was set - we were on the twisty mountain roads of Catalina Island in our golf carts. As we were going into a turn, with pedals to the metal, both of us trying to get the best line, I was fortunately able to stuff my fierce competitor into the corner.

Let's backtrack a bit. Randy Lyman and Paul Carey of Randy's Ring & Pinion were in town. We had all gotten together to just hang out. Also with me were Mark Nobles, editor of 4 Wheel Drive & Sport Utility, and our group's sales manager, Steve VonSeggern.

Our journey started aboard the Catalina Express, the boat that jams to the island in about 50 minutes. On our way over, we did the usual: talking smack, bench racing, and so on. The unsightly green faces of passengers ready to hurl caught our attention, as did the schools of dolphins going big air. As our trip to the island was drawing to a close, so was the mounting anticipation for the golf-cart dicing.

I made it a point not to sign up to drive (I know my competitive nature), and I let Mark drive our cart. It was three-to-two in the carts - we definitely had the disadvantage. And after some sightseeing cruising, it was on! I took over the wheel, and in the cart next to me Randy gave me the I'm going to open a can of whoop-ass look.

We banged carts up the hills and around the corners, laughter coming from both carts. At one point, Randy's hands were coming across, grabbing at my wheel as we were feverishly fighting who would take the lead. Right after that, we stuffed them into the hill.

I said to Paul, "I guess Randy's not going to step up his ad in OFF-ROAD now."

We all just chuckled. Randy came back fierce, almost with a vengeance, as he passed us on the uphill around the outside - we were dropped. I couldn't protect my line. It was clearly the power-to-weight factor at this point; we had an extra guy in our cart. We thought Randy's cart had more horsepower, so when he stopped at a turnout, we hijacked his cart. Randy and Steve were surprised at our tactics, which left them stunned for a few seconds. The race was on. Randy finally caught up to us (because of lapped traffic), and it was on again. There were crunching sounds of fiberglass, and arms from both carts entwined as we painted the streets of Catalina.

Just when I thought we had seen it all, Randy was under the hood of his cart during our pit stop trying to squeeze more ponies out of it. We ended the day with a great lunch and talked about our day of dicing.

I have to thank Randy; it was the most fun I've had in a while, and it took my mind off the daily routine and deadlines of the magazine world. Sometimes it's just mandatory to go out and be a kid.