Marlborough winch challeng

[scotty36]

hi allcan some one kown how the Marlborough winch challeng go this weekend thank you

[Shane]

I Second that,

I know its early but if anyone has results and or pics,post them up,sure there's many keen to hear how it all went

Cheers Shane

[muddy]

I didn't think to bring the full results list into work with me, so can't post all the details...
Bruce Hughes won the Open Class, and Sav (from Nelson) won the Clubman.

It was my first Winch Challenge as a competitor and the only other one I've seen was the same one last year, so I can't really say how good (or bad) it was compared to others. For us, we had an awesome time! We may have been just lucky, but we had no big queues (never more than one truck in front of us waiting), and everything really seemed to flow well. The split tracks so the Clubman could bypass some of the harder Open Class bits worked well, although we did get caught being the first Clubman truck following the Open Class on two stages so had a bit of extra winching to clear the ruts for those that followed. Someone has to be first though, and a few others had to do the same on other stages. We only had one DNF - waist deep in mud trying to free up the winch cable was NOT fun, but that was a learning experience since we could have had it sorted before we started. Then choosing a punga to try to haul out an FJ40 bogged to the chassis rails didn't help either.

There were quite a few breakages for those that drove too hard, but we got through with a just a few extra dents and a handful of shear pins in the PTO winch. Apparently there was a spectacular forward somersault by a Suzuki buggy (Outlaw Class) on one of the night stages, where they didn't see the drop-off into a creek in time to slow down. They recovered to complete all stages the next day. It was a good vindication of the decision not to have the Clubman Class (without roll cages) on the night stages.

Due to the amount of work involved, and the disruption to the farm operation, it won't be run next year, but we'll look at another one in 2010.

Thanks to all who competed, and especially to the marshals, many came from Nelson and and the West Coast to help out.

[toysuzi]

mint weekend
got 1st in the out law class but
we tipped it on to its side 2 times one was nearly a forward roll on to its roof at night
as it pivoted on the winch/bar bounced of a tree on the drivers side and landed the wrong way and on the passengers
side got out of the truck and set the winch up with pulley block and started to winch it back on to its wheels
until we got toll(by head Marshall) we needed another truck to let as down slowly as it may have rolled over again
still finished the stage in 19 min but got a dnf as for out side assistance(all cos i did not see the caution sign)
were we hit the tree (top of drivers side door / roof)



the other also all my fault and you will see it on suzuki extreme on sky sport on the 17th
mate filmed it and could not stop laughing

i compared all my times with the open class (only day)did the night stages but did not get the times.
worked out we would have got 5th place (now to fix it and get it road legal.)
here are same pics

[NJV6]

The event was run extreemly well and it was great to see so many marshalls.

4 night stages and 12 day stages, of which all could be run at once, there were that many marshalls. 1 night stage had winching. 12 stages in the day and I was buggered! We were in the Open class, did 7 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon. Steep winchs including 1 compulsary double purchase due to the climb. Big rocks in the tracks, bang crash boom.

3 roll overs - 2 outlaw class - both as reported by toysuzi! and one double cab Hilux from Southland in the Clubmans class. I think 2 out of the 3 rollovers they recovered themselves quickly they were easily completed before DNF time.

Many people's vehicles had a few battle scars on them with most needing work between stages to compete, from us borrowing tyres, others borrowing diff's, even bruce flogging a steering box out of an 80 series in the carpark to keep going!

There was a digger and tractor on hand to rescue people and many, many km's of bunting to keep us on the right track. Didn't stop me from missing a turn on the night stage and trying to go up the down track.....

22 competitors with many coming along way, 4 teams from Invercargill, 3 Dunedin, 1 Queenstown, Omarau, Timaru etc

Suzuki xtreme were there so the footage will be on sky very soon but I have forgotton the dates

Thanks to Mike and the team for the great (& demanding!) event. (did I mention the rocks???!)

[muddy]

TV coverage will be screened on Sky Sport 3 at 7pm on 16 June, and again on Sky Sport 1 at 6pm on 17June. Later on TV 3 probably in July but date not yet confirmed.

[David_S]

Some pics from the event













David

[NJV6]

Any more?

Thanks for reminding me just how steep those banks were to climb!

[David_S]

Here's some more - courtesy of JH who looked after the TV crew.







and I can't omit the old Nissan

[Rocktruck]

Now thats an impressive shot of tomos truck (Blue Nissan Wheelstanding). I hope he didn't work you too hard Glenn.

[NJV6]

Yea Scott, about then I needed a hug!! The old muscles were sighing on Monday.....

There were some pretty neat stages, this climb I really didn't want to winch so we had to drive it!!

[Rocktruck]

Yes, I was talking to another co-driver yesterday and he was absolutely stuffed after the weekend.

[David_S]

And a few more pics that have come to hand also courtesy of John H



















David

[muddy]

There were a couple of errors in the placings announced after the event. Those affected have been notified. Corrected results are:

Open Class: points
1 Bruce Hughes 1455 Hlux V8
2 Linton Powell 1314 Hilux V6
3 Roger Hackett 1284 Safari
4 Karl Townsend 1278 Hilux
5 Colin Rees 1245 Jeep
6 Alvin Frew 1207 Safari ute
7 Andrew Thompson 1086 Safari
8 Bruce Perry 897 Safari
9 Mark Coleman 754 Rugger
10 Tony Campbell 595 Safari

Clubman Class
1 Andrew Satherley (Sav) 1152 Wrangler V8
2 Tom Hayes 1075 Pajero
3 Barry Warnock 1012 Hilux
4 Justin Hayes 946 Pajero
5 Trev Jamie 908 FJ40
6 David Selby 862 Safari MQ
7 Stewart McLellan 838 Hilux
8 Terry Franicivic 375 Safari LWB
9 Keith Ponder 258 Mitsubishi ute

Outlaw Class
1 James Keys 983 Suzuki SJ413
2 Neil Campbell 872 Suzuki
3 Stan van Heeswyck 492 Prado Buggy

[Bubba]

Man, them there some preddy pictures!!

I might even be tempted in coming down to marshal next year

[Shane]

And a few more pics that have come to hand also courtesy of John H








David

Some really good pics there.

I like the nice clear hand signal...I'm about to turn right


In the second pic there appairs to be a Limo in the back ground not something you normaly see at a winch comp

Shane

[NJV6]

Ah yes, the Limo.

It went all the way from Invercargill towing a Hilux on a trailer. About 10MPG all the way with the worst tank full at 6MPG. 1800km @ 10MPG @ $2.... + lots of beers... U work it out... Very funny stories about seeing 100km till next town and wondering if they'd make it on a tank. Couple of farmers down here bought it for fun so its the tow vehicle

All it had to have was the bomerang on the boot and a V8.

[swampa]

can you convert that to litres please glen, i cant, i used 180 litres one way going up to reefton last year, know how you feel, i was surprised to see you were leaving friday morning, how long did that take, 14, 15 hours?

[scotty36]

thank all for good photo looks like it was a good week