Offroad-Express

Went up to Woodhill today to watch the first leg of the race,There must of been at least 2/3rds of the competitors either ex or current winch challenge competitors ,you had Rodger,Mckay/and the Guy boys ,Justin Wynyard, Jason Delahunty,Pete Wheatherly,Rhana Horan,Johno,Climo,Mike and Tony in Shermin ,Just to name a few ,Saw some real good driving over some pretty rough tracks on the long straights the trucks were doing 190km plus .Before the end of the first leg Rhana,Johno,Steve Mc connell were all back in the pits trying to get broken trucks running again for the 160km night stage .
The first leg of thre race was won by Mike and tony in the reborn Shermin ..

Jono broke the rear tri link and subsequently bent both rear coil overs as they attempted to stop the rear axle floating to far from side to side. I think hes out for the event. Steve McConnell was last seen trying to sort the electrics for the night stage so I think he is back in. Justin was still running when I left with engine held in with a couple of lengths of winch rope. I didn't see too much work going on with Ranas truck, not sure what was up with that although I did see some love marks on the back of Jonos truck compliments of Rana. The 202 Rangie that had an off track detour within the first 1km of starting thr race ended on lap 2 with a head on with a tree (all ok except the truck). Tony and Mike took it easy (relatively speaking) and won the first race, not sure if they knew it at the time. Excellent/fantastic spectator event.

Any pics

wow!! brusing event for trucks, drivers and co-es alike, only 4 trucks and 1 buggy started the last race out of 25-30 entries. with tony and mike taking out the great race title in a truck that grannie can drive to the dairy! yep a road registered truck beat the thunder trucks n buggies to the finish line!
1st tony white and mike graham, nissan patrol
2nd roger makay and grant guy, nissan patrol
3rd jason delahunty and wife tania, toyota
4th raana horan and bro, nissan patrol

as you can see, all winch challenge competitors showing up the off road racing crowd!!

Raana had computer problems in the first race and had a lot of catching up to do, hitting over 170ks down coast road on sat night and topping 185ks today! it was wicked watcking Big Black fly down coast road at that speed today, big big balls!! Roger Makay always the performer was waving out the window as he want past, at those speeds with one hand on the wheel i think he's pretty damm confident in his truck set up.

jason was mr consistant, compleating all his laps, keeping the rig in one piece and being there at the end. good on ya dude!

congrats to the buggie driver for sticking to it till the bitter end. after all the other buggies had gone home he finished and was still smileing with satisfaction well after the race had finished.

big thanks to justin and tracy for letting me in the co-es seat, even tho ive got a big blister on my hand from holding the gearstick in third, iv got burns from the belts on my sholders, dust in my eyes and a few aches here and there its nothing to the punishment the truck took!
we got through the 1st day race ok, well that was untill i took the bonnet off to let the ol deisel cool down a bit, had a look around the engine bay and discovered that both batterys were not strapped in anymore and they had also collapsed the inner guards bugger!! thats it said justin ,were out, race over. well that was untill an hour before the nite stage. i put a little suggestion to him, what if we use the cable for the electric winch that ran from the engine bay to the back of the cab connect that to the engines positive cables, mount the batteries in the back on the tray in series to give 24v strap them down good n tight and we are away again. yep it worked.
all was good untill we got run over by a tank, a big yellow shermn tank! we pulled off to the side to let tony through and he got into the same rut as us and peeled open our door and front gaurd. it wasnt a pretty sight and even less so in the morning, the bugger about it was that we had had enough and were calling it quits at the end of the lap!! our belts were at the end of their adjustment because our seats were collapsing, every nut that could rattle off probably had, the trusty narvas were pointing all over the place and justin had been doing a power of work with the driving and was just plain old buggered!!! good thing was that our batterys were still as we has placed them so the ol bush fix worked well.

thanks to phill and karen cameron for their hard work along with the marshalls and recovery guys, sponsors of the event, the food stall and even the kids that were there putting smiles on faces and loving their time in the forest.

Rob

Team DSTRBD were there on saturday night to cheer on Jono, he'd been back to the workshop and repaired the broken mounts for the tri link and straightend a bent coilover. He started the night race about 5th and made up a couple of places in the first lap but by half way thru the 12 laps the truck was showing signs of just how tough these races are, the front suspension arm bushs were nearly gone and she had a bit of a miss. Jono pulled in for a pit and we refueled and cleaned out the air filter and he was on his way again.
by the end of 12 laps jono still had to make up 2 laps from the mornings race but decided to pull out as the truck was now missing the bonnet and the air filter housing was in 2 pieces, not to mention the broken seat mounts and complete lack of suspension bushes.
All in all a fantastic night in the forrest, There nothing like standing in the darkness with nothing but the sounds of blown V8s all around you

Can you fll me in as to what the Big race was - Im now living in Aussie, but still interested as to what is happening over there

The Great Race is held in Woodhill forrest, the course is a mix of fast open gravel roads and tight sand based forrest tracks.
It is held over two days consisting of race 1 on saturday (100 ks) race 2 on saturday night (160 ks) and race 3 on sunday (100 ks)

It is very hard on vehicles with only about 5 ready to race in race three out of about 27 starters in race 1.
Vehicles range from class 1 buggies to class 8 thunder trucks.