Manukau Winch Challenge

[jeremy]

The guys from Queenstown who I think we were all trying to beat (can’t have the mainlanders winning on our home ground)...



It was awesome that they made the trip up here to race with us. A real nice truck and great competitors.

There’s a few more pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=44207&l=3ad08&id=586564229

[isuzumudman]

By the way Brenttt, Prue is spelt with an eee!
From a marshal's perspective: What a great weekend. Awesome venue, great people, a good range of trucks.
After Whangarei I had some fairly major body repairs to do and was not sure if I would be capable in time. Anyway, it turned out I was capable but wimped out to become a marshal for the event instead!

The biggie as far as I am concerned is safety. If a winch operates when stowing the cable and a hand is touching the cable near the fairlead then a penalty will be incurred. If gear is stowed incorrectly then a penalty will be incurred. The penalty forfeits are set out in the rules and are available for all competitors to read. In order to marshal fairly for all we must follow these rules to the letter. When there is an issue with interpretation other officials become involved for clarification. This occurred a couple of times.
Inconsistencies are introduced when a marshal decides to use their own interpretation of those rules. Prue and I marshalled stage 3 on Saturday and stage 7 on Sunday. The marshals on our stage reported penalties to Prue as they occurred (and she then entered those penalties on the score sheet) so she could report to the driver effectively in the finish box. The start/stop marshal was not at any time responsible for calls made by other marshals, this was the ultimate responsibility of the Stage Manager (me) who could then take the matter to a higher level as could the competitor by way of protest if anything required further clarification.

DB

[darinz]

Owen (Fluffy), Steve and I were with Dave and Prue for a fair bit of Saturday afternoon looking after recoveries and they were being very fair about how they were marshalling. At the end of the day the rule isn't as important as consistnecy, and this was something that they were being.
There is no doubt that the stowing rule is a problem due to the intent and the wording being different. THIS IS BEING FIXED IN ABOUT 2 WEEKS. Dave handled this is exactly correct and that was to rule the same for everyone as then it has no bearing either way. He also ruled on the side of safety.
The other good thing was the attitude of everyone at the event. They were all having fun and even when things didn't go there way eg breakages or marshal calls, they still had the same good attitude.

I've said it before but well done to everyone involved! And we will see you all at Nor-West and I will confirm a date for Whangarei in the next couple of weeks.

[mudplug]

Hi wopass I didn’t mean to be critical it just that my explanation came out a bit stiff. All the competitors are to be congratulated for there performance and good humour, Some of the stages at the weekend would not have disgraced an open comp. Congratulations to Scott for the design and for the work he put in pegging and bunting them.

[PuddleJumper]

Thanks for the comments on the tracks George (mudplug)! As the track setter it was quite hard setting up the tracks so ground anchors were not needed (as they were not needed for this comp)... Trees are never where you want or need them to be

Its great to hear everyone liked the event and makes all the hard work worth it!

Scott

[coxsy]

on my stages i even leaned againest trees to give a clue to lost co drivers