Northland Winch Challenge 2009

[wopass]

we will be comin as well prepared for the weather as possible the bedroom looks like a camping store dont know how to fit it all in the ute

what time you leaving? wanna do a convoy mish ?

[mudslut]

as early as we can man got kids drop off at cambridge in the morning what time you leavin

[wopass]

as early as poss but realisticly around early to mid arvo? want to try and be there by 6pm...ish ? if not before

[mudslut]

i wana leave hamilton as early as possible my ute is so slow you could leave early arvo and still catch me up

[darinz]

We have the OK from the property owner to have a camp fire so we will organise those there early to collect firewood from around the property. The nigh stages are starting from similar spots so you'll be able to keep warm around that and watch the action. This will also be going on Friday night to keep things warm then as well.
And it is beautiful, warm and sunny here today. I didn't even a jacket this morning just my normal light wieght shirt!!!
(Won't hold my breath for the weekend though)

[wopass]

hey darrin, what sort of running time do you think we will be doing mate? just trying to gauge weather to bring spare fuel or not. and how far is it to the neares fuel if needed??

[darinz]

Hard to say as the weather and how well you drive will have a big part in it.
The "plan" is for the average stage time to be around 10 minutes and there are 12 stages planned so that should give an average drive time of 120 mintues. But it NEVER works that way. Last year average drive time was about 90 mintues and I'm planning this to be a bit longer. ie 1 more stage on Saturday, 1 extra night stage and 1 more stage on Sunday.
But some people will drive some stages in 2 or 3 mintues and others will take 20+ minutes. With the rotation we have planned this should mean more drive time in the same overall time.
Closest fuel is about 10km away and Whangarei is 18km away.

Simple answer!!!! Anything else!!!!!!!!!!!

[monstr]

Hi Ben,Im staying in Kamo so i would be no problem for me to bring you through some fuel on the Sunday morning if needed.Steve

[darinz]

Weather forecast for Saturday is a few showers, high of 19 and a low of 11. Isn't that a mid summer temperature for the guys down south!

[Dr_PC]

Where's the points. where's the placing, where's the stories and photos

[suzookyman]

Dan, we can confirm there was a winner! but i will let Darrin confirm
all but i am sure he is still out there packing everything up and will
tell all soon.......
Al

[monstr]

In Challenge class
Winner was Arron Smyth/Nissan Safari 4.2 intercooled Turbo Diesel
2nd Chris Smith / Hi Lux ,Supercharged Lexus

Club class
Winner ,Gene Batty /Hi Lux Lexus
2nd Bernie Konz / Jeep
Have a heap of photos that we will post tomorrow night ......
Ben (wopass) was doing well untill he blew rear diff on Sat Afternoon

[vvega]

In Challenge class
Winner was Arron Smyth/Nissan Safari 4.2 intercooled Turbo Diesel
2nd Chris Smith / Hi Lux ,Supercharged Lexus

Club class
Winner ,Gene Batty /Hi Lux Lexus
2nd Bernie Konz / Jeep
Have a heap of photos that we will post tomorrow night ......
Ben (wopass) was doing well untill he blew rear diff on Sat Afternoon

ohhh soooooo gutted
should have given him my spares .. i have 3 of them now

[meatc]

Had a blast.

Long week trying to get ready and arrived with a to do list. Got that done to go roll on first stage.

Second stage went well.

Third stage blew the rear drive shaft rear yoke to bits. Managed to get a surf one and Howard of Mud Hog fame pulled the unis apart and we we where going again. Unfortunatly a gearbox prob that has been ongoing and thought I had fixed showed up again leaving me with reverse sometimes and no foward movement at all.

But hey all good fun and we can rebuild and will be back. Bring on Manukau (assume that is happening again this year)

And congrates to the winners. and thanks to Darrin and the rest of his crew.

[wopass]

yea broke it again

who would have thought a carrier pin would blow and leave us high and dry and no one up there contactable to get a replacement

ahh well, next time maybe ill manage to get thru a whole event without doing something dum

still was an awesum event and big ups to the people that ran it. cant wait to see sum pics etc

better get back to unloading etc.

[skid]

yea broke it again

who would have thought a carrier pin would blow and leave us high and dry and no one up there contactable to get a replacement

ahh well, next time maybe ill manage to get thru a whole event without doing something dum

still was an awesum event and big ups to the people that ran it. cant wait to see sum pics etc

better get back to unloading etc.

too scared to rip the tow wagon apart dude

[smiddy]

fantastic event, big thumbs up to the event organisers and marshalls good tracks, good bogs and good weather

[wopass]

too scared to rip the tow wagon apart dude

wasnt going well enough to make it worth while.

pity the wrecker up there wasnt answering his cell and was unavailable as it was an easy fix ahh well, will take more spares to the next one.

and i have the front left gaurd to fix aswel

other than that the truck went pretty good i think.

[wopass]

ohh and one thing i noticed...

the fleece vests in the goody bag are very nice, all embroidered with northland winch challenge 2006 on them



they are in pretty good condition for being 3 years old

[darinz]

ohh and one thing i noticed...

the fleece vests in the goody bag are very nice, all embroidered with northland winch challenge 2006 on them



they are in pretty good condition for being 3 years old

Just stand on you head and they are fine!!!!!!

PS Yes they are left overs from a few years ago!

[darinz]

Well we were very lucky with the weather. The first rain of the weekend was 1 hour AFTER we finished the event! And like it or not, fine weather makes everything go much better.
Aaron and Doug were first in Challenge class and first overall with Gene and Justin first in Club class and 5th overall. I get the feeling their days of club class are very limited!!!!!
I get a full report together soon.

[darinz]

too scared to rip the tow wagon apart dude

wasnt going well enough to make it worth while.

pity the wrecker up there wasnt answering his cell and was unavailable as it was an easy fix ahh well, will take more spares to the next one.

and i have the front left gaurd to fix aswel

other than that the truck went pretty good i think.

I've just been talking to him and he was watching a movie so didn't hear the phone and then didn't check it until 11am on Sunday. Otherwise he could have sorted something!

[Satalite]

Awesome weekend, I managed to get a bit of footage and will be putting together a dvd of what I got and if anyone else has any footage that I could add to it I would really appreciate it..... PM me

Thanks

[DieselBoy]

Couple of pic's from the event:










Tim's winch man (mountain goat) doing a huge effort to avoid using the ground anchor

Check that out for a climb, we where joking about doing that, and then he did it

[wopass]

the broken one and the one i had sitting in my spares box in my shed at home.... shoulda had it with us



will know better next time eh

[mudslut]

what a awesome event, had a blast and learnt so much, and all due to some great people who help to make it happen, so personally wanted to thank all those involved, alot of time and effort and sacrifice goes into organising this so we can have fun, thank you to those who helped out and gave some great advise too.
Mel{Dans co-driver}

[monstr]

here are some pics that my daughter took (when she remembered) don't mind the date on the pics, she forgot to reset the dates...

[darinz]

Did you get a photo of the pile of mud you excavated from stage 5!

[mudhaw]

Did you get a photo of the pile of mud you excavated from stage 5!

We didint but we got one of the grass moustache from the next stage
Will post when I figure out how...

[mudslut]

i wish stage 1 looked like that when we tryed to go through it,but what a wicked weekend, loved almost every minute of it (bloody winch solanoid)was great to finish the event in one piece.
cant wait till the next one