4x4 challenges rules etc

[darinz]

As some of you will know, 4x4 Challenges had a meeting on the weekend and the outcome was that I have taken over as President and we also have a new rules committee.
I have been running the Northland Challenge since 2006 and I have been racing since 2005 so I hope that means I have a pretty good idea of what the sport is about.
With the discussions we held at the meeting we have new direction for 4x4 Ch.

Jack Talbot is now the head of the rules committee and he has some very experienced competitors working with him to make the rules work better. They are currently working through them and there are some changes planned that will allow more people to compete and should make it cheaper. The changes aren't huge but the effect is very good for the sport. Along similar lines some other changes are being made to make it easier for event organisers. These are around log books specifically and this will also save competitors money.
If you have anything else you want looked at then conatct Jack on 'rules@4x4challenges.org.nz'. There are quite a few rules they are looking at and they will be published by December. Anything that is a major change will be notified and won't happen untill 2010. There will also be a few rule changes that will be put up for discussion over the next 12 months.
The big thing to remember here is that the rules belong to the competitors, so it is us that need to make them work for how we want to race. Four of the rules group are current competitors so they are using them but lets give them plenty of feedback so they can make the decision based upon what we want.

My goal is to get a true national chapionship / event. To this ends I am slowly contacting as many event organisers through out the country to get their opinions on what needs to be done to make this happen. The first thing I can see is the slight differences in rules between the Mainland series and the 4x4 challenges series need to be removed. This is one thing our rules group is looking into and they have identified a couple of changes we can make to make things line up better the Mainland rules.
My thoughts are we could have a SI series and a NI series followed by a national final that is shared betweened the 2 series. Similar to how the off-road guys run their series. By rights this would mean that every other year you need to cross the strait to compete once. It also means we can get back to having something like the Kiwi Challenge but as a group you only need to organise it every other year.

So I have put my nuts on the chopping block to get the sport sorted out and have a very good team working with me on this. What we need is the appathy to stop, the politics to be forgotten and all of us to work together to get something really good going. Most of you will know I'm pretty passionette about things and don't mind saying it as I see it so tell me what you want and help if you can.

There will be a lot of discussion about the rule changes happening on 'http://www.4x4challenges.org.nz' so go there and express you opinions. I say that because we have that forum setup so that we know exactly who is saying what, which makes it much easier for us. Or you can email me and I'll post you coments up in there as well.
My contact details
darin.neeley@roostmortgages.co.nz
or president@4x4challenges.org.nz
phone 0275 330637
work 09 438 7985
home 09 436 1992

To make this work we need more people on the same page.

Darin Neeley

[toysuzi]

looks to be same good ideas
hope same thing like this happens

[cool__bananas]

heya darinz, is winch challenges taking on the anti drug thing like trials are?

[jeremy]

heya darinz, is winch challenges taking on the anti drug thing like trials are?

SPARC? Yup, 4x4 Challenges are. Why do you ask?

[cool__bananas]

thats the one, just wondering cause trials are

[PeterVahry]

The NZFWDA have elected to adopt Drug Free policies and those will cover all activities. The reality is that almost all clubs already specify in their rules that alcohol and drugs are not permitted. Certainly 4x4 Challenges NZ rules already contain such a clause.
It all comes down to risk management for everyone involved in our recreation. The international Drug Free rules we will be working under are not a case of 'one strike and you are out' but have a process of 'warnings'. There will be more information once a formal written policy is developed in consultation with Drug Free Sport NZ.

[darinz]

looks to be same good ideas
hope same thing like this happens

As a competitor most definitely. A bit of work to do but if we can get the vehicle rules about the same which I think we are about to achieve then the rest is easy. The competition rule differences appear to be driving by geography so it makes perfect sense to have the rules fit where you are racing.

It is really good to see a roll bar coming in to the Mainland Club class. A bit of cost but how to do you put a price on safety?