Mud Bulls and Music 2009

Mud Bulls and Music 2009

Bushfires glowed red and lightning put on a spectacular show with multiple strikes lighting up the ominous black clouds along the ranges surrounding Landcruiser Mountain Park as I made my way northwest from Brisbane on Thursday afternoon.

Rain was threatening as I drove up through the green and brown patchwork of forests past the small township of Jimna but I had time to set up camp before the first drops raised little puffs of dust on the bonnet.

Campsite were silhouetted against the sky on every ridge overlooking the Expo site and all the grassy slopes within walking distance were packed with tents but I chose to camp out in the park in a nice little grassy flat beside a small gully with the country music occasionally floating past on the wind.

With nearly a dozen artists playing from noon on Thursday the Country music fans were well catered for and the small patches of rain only served to dampen the dust so my preparations against the threatening storms were not fully justified.

The first 4WD event began just after lunch on Friday and was a whole new event sponsored by All 4X4 Parts at Minden.

The Go to Whoa utilised the old Hills Drags strip but the competitors had to stop with their front wheels between two lines at the top of the hill.

Three classes are available but no one entered the 2WD Ute class so the Standard 4WD and Modified 4WD classes were left to battle it out up the short gravelled track.

Some of the more highly powered vehicles had trouble trying to keep in a straight line from the start but many of the vehicles slid past the lines at the stop point and had to reverse back.

Some of the more “over enthusiastic” competitors slid sideways trying to stop but as both front wheels had to be between the lines they had to straighten their vehicles to finish wasting a lot of time.

After the heats were run the top 10 in each class battled it out for the Trophies with another two runs each.
Leila Chapman won the Modified 4WD Class while Clayton Chapman won the Standard 4WD Class.

Just on Dark the Bull Riding started drawing quite a crowd away from the music for an action packed couple of hours but the fans were soon back to the stage area.
Tania Kernaghan was one of the feature artists on the Friday night and after performing several songs she had the honour of unveiling the new 2010 Toyota Prado amidst lots of flashing lights and much fanfare.

Saturday morning saw the Clarion 4WD and 2WD Ute Muster flashing lots of chrome and flags under a clearing blue sky with Bill Geddes taking out the best overall prize.

After lunch the ARB and Goodyear Autocare Super Rally X heats drew the crowds away from the music again, the jump saw quite a few airborne vehicle land a little out of shape and a few loses really mixed up the results.

Deep ruts were forming in the soft dirt, particularly in the Esses so there was quite a bit of two wheel action.

After someone hit the left hand log rail earlier in the year the whole left side of the bridge was replaced but the dark green jeep came very close to taking out the right hand side of the bridge after coming into the previous corner a fair bit out of shape, he managed to wrestle it back on to the track again but lost a few valuable seconds.

The Bull riding was back on again as the sun set providing lots of thrills and even more spills with one of the contestants needing medical attention.
After the Bulls had won more than their share of battles the crowd returned to the main stage for more of the musical entertainment into the small hours.

The finals of the Rally Cross kicked off early on Sunday morning with the competitors getting straight into it, no mucking around!

The jumps were getting bigger and bigger as the competitors tested the limits of their vehicles, or maybe it was the red mist setting in, either way the crowd were loving it.

The action wasn’t confined to the jump though; the ruts formed in the track at all the corners were causing major dramas when the vehicles slid over the edges with several competitors losing a lot of time due to a lose.

Clayton Chapman won through in the Standard Class to take out a well deserved win in his Triton Ute while Brent Perrett took out the Modified Class in his twin turbo V8 Patrol.

While results were being tallied the Toyota versus Nissan grudge match went ahead with both vehicles having the new Goodyear Kevlar MT/R’s fitted for the race.

Brent Perrett in his twin turbo’d V8 GU patrol Ute raced Myles Newbon in the Hilux styleside bodied V8 on a Patrol Chassis but after two round it was declared a draw and they both received the tyres as a prize.

The threatening storms had stayed away allowing an enjoyable weekend for Fans, Competitors and Spectators alike, bring on Mud Bulls and Music 2010 !!

. Shane Gerrish

::All 4x4 Parts Go to Woe::

Standard Class:
1st Clayton Chapman 13.40 sec
2nd Rob Chapman
3rd Roger Vickery
4th Kevin McCord
5th Chris Hammond

Modified Class:
1st Leila Chapman 11.87 sec
2nd Dan Brown
3rd Clayton Chapman
4th Evan Pradella
5th Rob Chapman

::ARB & Goodyear Super Rally Cross::

Standard Class:
1st Clayton Chapman 1.26.74
2nd Rob Chapman
3rd Roger Vickery
4th Ben de Brueys
5th Brent Perrett

Modified Class:
1st Brent Perrett 1.23.61
2nd Clayton Chapman
3rd Myles Newbon
4th Rob Chapman
5th Paul Thatcher

The Goodyear Kevlar Knockout, Toyota vs Nissan, was fought out between Brent Perrett for Nissan and Myles Newbon for Toyota.
This was run following the finals of the Super Rally Cross as a grudge match between the two. Both vehicles were fitted with the new Kelvar MT/R's on site to race with.
After 2 rounds it was a tie so Goodyear kindly awarded both drivers a set of new Kevlar MT/R tyres.


::CLARION UTE MUSTER::

4WD’s - Best Overall: Bill Geddes
Chicks 4wd : 1st Kylie Row 2nd Romana McCall
Feral 4wd: 1st Mick Legge 2nd Micky De
3rd Evan Pradella
Promotional 4wd: 1st Dan Brown 2nd Romana McCall
3rd Mark Petersen
Extreme 4wd: 1st Bill Geddes 2nd Drew Schultz
3rd Clay Richards
Work 4wd: 1st Howard Fiedler 2nd Brad Goltz
3rd Jean Fielder

2WD’S - Best Overall: Christopher Dix
Feral 2wd: 1st Rum Can 2nd Travis Milne
3rd Nick Andrews
Restored 2wd: 1st Corey Pereira 2nd Stephanie
Nielsen
Chicks 2wd : 1st Tanya Mundey 2nd Amy Litfin
3rd Amanda Featherstone
Aussie 2wd : 1st Dugald Watts 2nd Christopher
Dix 3rd Joe Bradley
Bundy 2wd: 1st Christopher Dix 2nd Grant
Shuttleworth 3rd Rum Can






EXHIBITION SITE:



GO TO WHOA:


PERFORMERS:
Tania Kernaghan


UNVEILING OF THE NEW PRADO:


RALLY CROSS HEATS:


BULL RIDING:


RALLY CROSS FINALS:

CARNAGE CANYON 2009

Carnage Canyon

Carnage Canyon was held at Landcruiser Mountain Park in sunny Queensland over the weekend of the 17th and 18th of October and is run down a remote Gorge in the upper reaches of the Brisbane River.

Carnage Canyon is an event for drivers and something that has a few features that no other comp has.
This year had a change to the format as there is no access to the Dinner Hole end of the Gorge from the State Forest tracks so they will race down and back to the start box again and also have an extra heat on Saturday afternoon.
1: no rules ... [apart from safety]
2: no track ... go where you please to get from A to B and back to A again
3: no pre entry ... if you want to race just turn up,[with safety gear, rego and CTP] pay the entry fee and race
4: no penalties ... you can winch or carry boards etc
5: you don't have to have a Navi ... drive by yourself if you want.

This makes the whole event very casual and pressure free as evidenced by the camaraderie on Saturday night at the start line.


There are three classes and as power or high speeds are not an issue they are sorted by tyre size.

Class A: up to 35" tyres
Class B: 35" to 37" tyres
Class C: over 37" tyres

All vehicles must be road registered.

The course itself has a huge and consistent variety of natural terrain spread along the 5.2 Kms ... everything from mud, water, hillclimbs, boulders, rocky outcrops, grassy flats, tight trees, sand, gravel, side slopes, deepish water crossings, wet rock slabs, rock gardens, drop offs to sandy bottomed water crossings ...
once you reach the turn around point and note the sign on the back of the marked tree you drive back the way you came over the same obstacles.

Carnage Canyon is an event for drivers and something that has a few features that no other comp has.
This year had a change to the format as there is no access to the Dinner Hole end of the Gorge from the State Forest tracks so they will race down and back to the start box again and also have an extra heat on Saturday afternoon.
1: no rules ... [apart from safety]
2: no track ... go where you please to get from A to B and back to A again
3: no pre entry ... if you want to race just turn up,[with safety gear, rego and CTP] pay the entry fee and race
4: no penalties ... you can winch or carry boards etc
5: you don't have to have a Navi ... drive by yourself if you want.

This makes the whole event very casual and pressure free as evidenced by the camaraderie on Saturday night at the start line.

There is one run on Saturday morning then another run in the afternoon before another run at night so you know where you are going and what to expect ... this is absolutely awesome and most people actually beat their daylight times!

The final is run on Sunday Morning with a big jump right at the finish line to end on a high

Great fun to drive fast but can be driven slowly in a stocker if you don't mind a bit of damage to sills and bumpers.

A normal trip with a few mates down the Carnage Canyon normally takes 3 to 4 hours but the best time so far has been 8 minutes 34 seconds in race mode set by Jeff White in 2006

As this will be a new format at twice the distance, the fastest time is now up for grabs again and is taken from the finals run on Sunday morning.

Saturday:
The weekend started off badly for Brendan, on a reconnaissance trip on the Friday before the Comp he broke a steering arm on his Gympie Offroad/Bridgestone tyre centre Gympie White dual cab Hilux driving down Dead Mans Dropoff and took a few hours to go and get parts to repair it so he could get it out, then on the first heat he hit a tree and ripped the rear wheel off breaking the axle.
A few more hours for repairs saw him back for the optional afternoon heat 2 where he did a 26:19:75

Ken was having a fairly good first heat in his blue GQ leaf sprung ute until he staked a tyre, a quick wheel change saw him at the finish line in 30:29:00.
Brendan and Russel helped out with tyre repairs and he was back for the second heat where he did a respectable 23:54:47

Michael had a bit of trouble with a turbo hose and ignition short on the first heat in his Superior Engineering Red Nissan Ute clocking a 23:01:72, he opted out of the second heat as he was helping Dave.

Dave didn't get far at all as he hit a tree on Rollover Ridge and broke the end off his rear axle housing, some makeshift repairs involving a forked tree branch in place of the wheel allowed him to drive the DGR White hilux back out of the canyon and on to the car trailer ending his weekends racing.

Saturday Night:
The Night Run is the best part of the comp and gives a completely different aspect to the race, Brendan had a good run with a 30:13:00 while Ken managed a 25:56:66 even with an unplanned venture into the sticky black mud of Lake Tripygurgle, i'll bet he wished he had some decent driving lights on his ute.

Michael did a best time of 21:08:18 in a trouble free run, pity it wasn't in the finals.

The Finals:
Sunday morning saw the competitors fired up and ready to race with Brendan doing a personal best of 22:01:66 in an easy run and taking the Class B Trophy as well as taking the Outright Champion Trophy and cash.

Ken had a great run spoiled by several attempts to get over the Goolies, without his trouble on the rocks it would have been a very close time to Brendans but was still a personal best with a time of 23:45:53.

Michael dropped a front spring out twice and the repairs cost him several minutes as well as losing a lot of time by taking it easy and limping back to the finish with a disapointing 36:07:00 although he did pick up the Class C Trophy and cash.

Once again competitor numbers were down as a few other starters competed in another event which had changed dates but all drivers agreed that it is a great track to race and promised to be back better than ever next year!

.Shane Gerrish

RESULTS:

Carnage Canyon Champion:
Brendan Lobse, Russel Corbet 22:01:66

Class C:
Michael Hayes, David Burton-Bradley 36:07:00

Class B:
Brendan Lobse, Russel Corbet 22:01:66
Ken Bain, Callan McNamara 23:45:53
David Burton-Bradley, Michael Hayes DNF

All Terrain round 3 2009

Superior Alignments All Terrain Challenge
Round 3 2009

The rolling green hills of Landcruiser Mountain Park once again hosted the Superior Alignments All Terrain Challenge with the third and final round of the 2009 season held under clear blue skies and a fiercely powerful Sun.

Craig and his dedicated team of helpers had come up with some more track changes and new ideas to keep the competition both challenging and fun.

Saturday Heats:

One of the first new obstacle ideas was a line drawn a metre or so up a tree which the Outlaw class had to touch with a tyre as part of their first track.
Stewart Parks in the orange buggy had no trouble with the tree climb but the extreme line over the rocks had him looking at the world from a different point of view … upside down !!
Daniell Kable in the white Hilux buggy also had a little lie down at the same obstacle.

Another new obstacle was an angled log on a side slope which saw many a right rear wheel high in the air until the left front lifted on the log and brought things back to level.
Those who maintained momentum made it look simple but those who stopped as the front right lifted on the log put on quite a show for the spectators as the right rear soared skywards.

Dwayne Chapple broke a CV and with only drive to 1 axle in the rear he decided momentum was the key and launched over the log pile a little too hard ended up face planting the silver MQ which then landed on its roof ripping the motor off its mounts and ending his weekend.
Luckily the compulsory rollcage did its job and he was not hurt, the same thing could not be the said about the MQ though.

Another of the new obstacles put in place was the Log Bridge with 1 log on 1 wheel track and 3 logs on the other wheel track and deep gaps on either side and in between, those who missed the logs had a hard time dragging themselves back to level ground.

One of the fun challenges was to stop half way around one of the tracks and quickly fire three shots from a paintball gun at three targets on a nearby tree before continuing the drive to the end of the track … lets just say that as shooters, they all make good drivers!

Up at the top end of the gorge Ken Bain slid off the side of the huge rock when he bottomed out going slowly over the top, every time he eased back the truck slid even more sideways … he had to accelerate back off the top to get it straightened before it slid over the side, not an easy thing to do in that situation.
His next attempt with a bit more momentum was successful and he dragged the chassis up and over the top.

Rhett Bryant had the Suzuki buggy doing some huge wheelstands as he tried to climb
The jump up with the log across the top and had to get the momentum just right to make it.

Sunday Finals:

The Log Bridge was used in the uphill direction to make it more difficult and a few vehicles slipped off line, some managed to continue but Rhett Bryant was one who had to reverse back off the logs and try again.

The Outlaw vehicles also had another tree climb to do but this time it was over a steep drop so most drove up and then turned left dropping the wheel off the tree in one movement to avoid rolling over.

The angled log run had the vehicles bouncing high in the air as the drivers threw their vehicles over each set of logs with Lynda O’Reilly picking a nice momentum to give the Pink Patrol a smooth looking run.

Lynda’s run up the Rock Garden was a lot more spectacular as she launched the Barbie Patrol over the largest rock at the top throwing a wheel high in the air.


Brendab Lohse, Keith Bignell and Stewart Parkes won their prospective Modified , Super Modified and Outlaw classes for the weekend with Ken Bain taking out the Modified class for the year, Keith Bignell grabbing the honours for Super Modified and Roger Edols picking up the Outlaw class.

King of the Mountain:

The top three for the year in each class then lined up for one last race to determine King of the Mountain.

Brad Bernard had a spectacular run in his Scout to take home the coveted trophy with his usual high flying style.


While the results were being tallied Roger Edols had another go at the Jump up doing a spectacular back flip to end the show with a bang and a promise of even more action when the new season starts in 2010 … can’t wait !!
.Shane Gerrish

RESULTS:

.MODIFIED:

DRIVER HEATS FINALS PENALTIES
1st BRENDAN LOHSE 1701 595 7

2nd KEN BAIN 1540 595 9 SERIES WINNER

3rd DWAYNE CHAPPLE 372


.SUPER MODIFIED:

DRIVER HEATS FINALS
1st
KEITH BIGNELL 1813 590 SERIES WINNER

2nd
LYNDA O'REILLY 1781 569

3rd BRAD BERNARD 1732 578


.OUTLAW:

DRIVER HEATS FINALS
1st STEWART PARKES 1729 640

2nd ROGER EDOLS 1829 639 SERIES WINNER

3rd RHETT BRYANT 1793 630

4th DANIEL KABLE 1591 570


.KING OF THE MOUNTAIN: 2009

BRAD BERNARD

Expo 2009

The show and shine:








The All Terrain Challenge Heats:























The All 4x4 Parts Gymkhana:

SSS Winch Challenge round 3 2008

Mickey Thompson
SSS Winch Challenge
Round Three 2008 Landcruiser Mountain Park

The Final Round of the Inaugural Mickey Thompson SSS Winch Challenge started off with a field of 22 extremely keen teams ready to battle anything that Peter Stirling and his band of dedicated helpers could throw at them.

Competitors and Spectators alike were kept entertained on Friday night with challenging tracks in, out and along the gullies featuring tight uphill turns, deep water, extreme side angles and large tree roots on vertical banks.

More than one competitor had to anchor themselves to avoid tipping on their sides in the muddy water at the bottom of a steep climb on one of the tracks with the vertical climb up the bank over a large tree root on another track only metres away causing all sorts of mayhem, the competitors stuck on one track had a birds eye view of the action on the other track while they waited for their Navi’s to hook up the winches.

The sight of powerful lights spearing through the darkness and the bellowing of high revving V8’s echoing around the hills made for a very entertaining night’s racing.

Saturday Morning saw most of the Teams repaired and ready for another day of tough and unrelenting winching.
Two of the tracks were staged on the side of a very steep slope forcing the competitors to winch up, then winch back down again followed by winching up again on the N shaped left track whilst on the A shaped right track the competitors had a much simpler winch up and back down again section.
These two stages were so steep that the Navi’s had extreme difficulty climbing them and the vehicles had trouble reversing down and across at the same time as they were virtually hanging by their winch ropes.

Two of the tracks dodged in and out of one of the gullies with plenty of wheels in the air action much to the appreciation of the crowd.

Just to mix things up the other two tracks were a short and a long high speed run to really blow the cobwebs out and once again the hills were alive with the sound of V8 and Turbo Diesel music.

With the stages run and the scores being tallied it was time for Peter to unveil the secret stage 11 … this time it was a timed run around the Mud Pursuit track but with a twist … recent rain had filled one end of the track with a couple of metres of water and you had to maintain a fast enough speed through the shallower water at the top of the banked corner to prevent sliding down but as Robbie Marshall found out, if you went too fast the front right wheel grabbed in the water and pulled you in to the deep, luckily his sideways slide stopped him and he was able to reverse back up to the top of the bank and continue on.

With the fun over it was time to get ready for the presentation dinner where the Third Round Trophies were handed out, Congratulations to Wil Neilson and Chris Brame for fighting off a determined attack by Greg Jackson and Brent Griffin in second followed Robbie Marshall and Glen Macdougal in third.

The Trophies for the Overall winners of the 2008 series were then announced with Greg Jackson and Brent Griffin taking out a well deserved win from Robbie Marshall & Joel Jeffry/Glen MacDougal in second place and Jason Wotherspoon & Errold Misso/Anthony Stout in third.

It has been a fantastic Inaugural year for the SSS Winch Challenge with a number of innovative ideas tried and improvements made throughout the year, I’m sure the series will continue to grow and provide some more awesome action in 2009 !

.Shane Gerrish



Darren Blackburn launches the Navara...






Robbie Marshall loses it sideways into the deep water at the end on the mud pursuit track.




Round 3 Special Stage Winners:
SS1 Wil Neilson & Chris Brame
SS2 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin
SS3 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin
SS4 Wil Neilson & Chris Brame
SS5 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin
SS6 Nathan Barrett & Danny McDonald
SS7 Michael Camac & Jason Enright
SS8 Christian Trusz & Terry Kane
SS9 Wil Neilson & Chris Brame
SS10 Robbie Marshall & Glen MacDougal
SS11 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin

Overall Scores for Round 3:
1 Wil Neilson & Chris Brame 857
2 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin 791
3 Robbie Marshall & Glen MacDougal 757
4 Christian Trusz & Terry Kane 657
5 Jason Wotherspoon & Anthony Stout 645
6 Michael Camac & Jason Enright 609
7 Mike Clayton & Samantha Clayton 589
8 Peter von Pein & Jane von Pein 581
9 Brad Drummond & Phil Macready 550
10 Nathan Barrett & Danny McDonald 543
11 Darren Blackburn & Mark Biezl 539
12 Brian Gregg & David Gregg 530
13 Ashlie Enright & Michael Baucock 441
14 Karl Chaney & Mark Stringer 400
15 Kirby White & William Dolan 361
16 Mark Fowler & Dean Grills 350
17 Joel Thomson & Paul Espig 215
18 Brad Dukes & Robbie Weller 177
19 Ashley Bunney & Warren Bunney 83
20 Shawn Swaffield & Phillip Benson 77
21 Bob Dunsmore & Damian Henningsen 67
22 Brad Cooper & Kevvy Knott 40
First Place

second place

third place

OVERALL RESULTS FOR 2008

1 Greg Jackson & Brent Griffin 2454
2 Robbie Marshall & Joel Jeffry/Glen MacDougal 2260
3 Jason Wotherspoon & Errold Misso/Anthony Stout 2096
4 Christian Trusz & Terry Kane 2087
5 Brad Drummond & Phil Macready 1872
6 Ashlie Enright & Michael Baucock 1825
7 Michael Camac & Glen Hollings/Jason Enrigh 1791
8 Peter & Jane von Pein 1780
9 Brian Gregg & Wil Neilson/David Gregg 1741
10 Derek Priestly/Joel Thomson & Paul Espig 1654
11 Scott Purkis & Josh Foster 1518
12 Wil Neilson & Glen Teichman/Chris Brame 1507
13 Ashley & Warren Bunney 1243
14 Darren Blackburn & Karl Chaney/Mark Biezl 1089
15 Mike & Samantha Clayton 1055
16 Mark Fowler & Mark Biezl/Dean Grills 1003
17 Nathan Barrett & Danny McDonald 995
18 Bob Dunsmore & Damian Henningsen 763
19 Kevin McCord & Glen MacDougal 547
20 Danny Moore & Matthew Sawyer 511
21 Wally Rhodes & Troy Callinan 507
22 Andrew Stark & Craig Linnane 493
23 Robert & Michael Marx 432
24 Karl Chaney & Mark Stringer 400
25 Kirby White & Kodi Zabel/William Dolan 379
26 Dave Metcalfe & Chris Wood 252
27 Brad Dukes & Robbie Weller 177
28 Robbie Weller & Anthony Stout 129
29 Shawn Swaffield & Phillip Benson 77
30 Brad Cooper & Kevvy Knott 40

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Superior All Terrain Challenge round 3 2008

SUPERIOR ALL TERRAIN CHALLENGE
ROUND 3 AND SERIES FINALS

Once again Landcruiser Mountain Park played host to the Superior Alignments All Terrain Challenge.

This event has grown to become one of the major drawcards to the Mud Bulls and Music event weekend held at Landcruiser Mountain Park in the first weekend of November.

Spectators crowded to the Rock Arena to watch the heats on Friday before coming back for the finals on Sunday.

THE HEATS:
Competitors lined up side by side on separate tracks using the same countdown to launch their vehicles at the unforgiving obstacles with the Superior Alignment team once again coming up with some new approaches to the obstacles to keep the tracks new and interesting for the competitors.

The mud hole was partly emptied of the recent rain and it didn’t take long before the logs placed lengthways out of the exit became slippery with mud making everyone use as much momentum as possible to make it up to the rock garden at the top.

With breakages and strandings bound to happen at this level of competition it was great to see the Ozcat excavator standing by to extract the stricken vehicles quickly and safely.
The author has often been on the end of this machine being removed from the top of a large rock or putting the wheels back where they are supposed to be … on the bottom side of the vehicle !!

Stuart Parkes made good use of Ozcat’s services after breaking a hydraulic component and was lifted out of the track area to make repairs.

Robbie Marshall took a different approach to the cones on top of the mound, he drove past the cones then reversed back to get a better line so he could miss the inside cone that everyone else was hitting but unfortunately went back too far and the right rear wheel went up the bank and his GQ ute slowly and gracefully rolled right over ending up on the right hand side with Robbie still trying to use the momentum to get enough drive to get it back on its wheels.
He was soon put right way up and ready for the next track.

The sound of crunching metal echoed over the competition area as the competitors tackled the mound of rocks at the bottom of the course, the one metre high rock at the end had most slamming down on the chassis as they powered off the top to avoid being stranded with wheels hanging in mid air.

The rocks were not the only metal crunchers with a large tree leaning over in the gully ready to take out the roof of the vehicles as they went past.

As the shadows lengthened during the afternoon and the heats drew to a close most competitors were wondering if they went fast enough to get into the finals on Sunday.

There’s a fine line between breaking your truck and going the quickest you can with most taking the safe route during the heats although you wouldn’t know it going by the amount of air time the wheels were grabbing, I’m sure the spectators appreciated the action as they were kept enthralled by the action going on just in front of them all throughout the day.

THE HEATS:























Robbie Marshall reversed up the bank to get a better line but went a bit far and rolled it right over.















THE FINALS:

Sunday dawned with some cloud cover to help keep the sun’s bite at bay and the 5 finalists in each class lined up to find out what they had in store for them.

With the score reset at zero it was the best run today which would take out the honors in each of the classes and the teams stepped up the pace accordingly

The course was divided into two section with the first section in the top end of the gully then after a short stop to make sure the second half was cleared the competitors tackled the second section in the main competition area.

A couple of teams took the opportunity to repair their vehicles between sections.

Keith Bignell made it almost all the way through to the end but rolled his bundera bodied holden powered GQ on the finish line … to say he was elated to find out it had rolled past the finish line was an understatement!!

Damien Edwards broke an oil filter or component in the red landrover buggy but refused to give up and battled on with the motor knocking and steam pouring out all the way to the finish line where he took a well deserved bow from the roof of the much abused Buggy.

In the end Ben Van Gestal brought the Rangie in for a win in the Modified class, Brad Bernard punted the Scout into first place in the Super Modified class and Roger Edols scored a fine win with his blue Buggy in Outlaw class.

ROUND 3 RESULTS:

MODIFIED
1st PLACE Ben Van Gestal
2nd Ken bain
3rd Brian Langbein


SUPER MODIFIED
1st PLACE Brad Bernard
2nd Carl Chaney
3rd Keith Bignell


OUTLAW
1st PLACE Roger Edols
2nd Damien Edwards
3rd Rhett Bryant


THE FINALS:



Keith rolled on the finish line but the vehicle stopped after the line so he was elated that he had finished.






















KING OF THE MOUNTAIN:

Once the score from the finals were worked out, the overall placing for the year were worked out and the top 3 vehicles from each class were pitted against each other to determine the overall winner for the year.

Once again the competitors were lined up and they launched themselves in a no holds barred attack on the course… no one held back and the battered and bruised vehicles were pounded over the obstacles unmercifully but in the final wash there can only be one winner and Damien McCotter took out the coveted trophy in his yellow buggy.

The Superior Alignments All Terrain Challenge has grown and improved over the last couple of years with the times getting shorter and the trucks getting tougher but the one thing that has not changed is the fun and friendly way in which the competitors and marshals enjoy the weekend, everyone is sure looking forward to the next one!

2008 OVERALL RESULTS:

MODIFIED Ken Bain
SUPER MODIFIED Keith Bignell
OUTLAW Stuart Parks
LADIES Lynda O’Reilly


2008 KING OF THE MOUNTAIN:
Damien McCotter

The KING OF THE MOUNTAIN for 2008 is:
Damien McCotter

Carnage Canyon 2008

Carnage Canyon was held at Landcruiser Mountain Park in sunny Queensland over the weekend of the 4th and 5th of October and is run down a remote Gorge in the upper reaches of the Brisbane River.

Carnage Canyon is an event for drivers and something that has a few features that no other comp has.
I have entered in a lot of different events over the years and picked out a few things i wanted to see changed then implemented them in this event.
1: no rules ... [apart from safety]
2: no track ... go where you please to get from A to B
3: no pre entry ... if you want to race just turn up,[with safety gear, rego and CTP] pay the entry fee and race
4: no penalties ... you can winch or carry boards etc
5: you don't have to have a Navi ... drive by yourself if you want.

This makes the whole event very casual and pressure free as evidenced by the Saturday night around the campfire at the start line.

There are three classes and as power or high speeds are not an issue they are sorted by tyre size.

Class A: up to 35" tyres
Class B: 35" to 37" tyres
Class C: over 37" tyres

All vehicles must be road registered.

The course itself has a huge and consistent variety of natural terrain spread along the 2.6 Kms ... everything from mud, water, hillclimbs, boulders, rocky outcrops, grassy flats, tight trees, sand, gravel, side slopes, deepish water crossings, wet rock slabs, rock gardens, drop offs to sandy bottomed water crossings.

We have one run on Saturday morning then the afternoon off to repair anything needed before another run in the same direction at night so you know where you are going and what to expect ... this is absolutely awesome and most people actually beat their daylight times!

The final is run in the reverse direction on Sunday Morning with a big jump right at the finish line to end on a high

Great fun to drive fast but can be driven slowly in a stocker if you don't mind a bit of damage to sills and bumpers.

A normal trip with a few mates down the canyon normally takes 3 to 4 hours but the best time so far has been 8 minutes 34 seconds in race mode set by Jeff White in 2006

We had a quiet weekend with only three competitors and all in B class.
[35" - 37"tyres]

B3: Ashley Bunney and Angus Allen pushed the 2.8 Hilux very hard all weekend with a 14'4", 12'27", and a final run of 12'25" to bring it in to second place.
they bent a spring hanger and a tie rod on the final run but had no trouble apart from that.
They had a bit of drama getting over the Goolies but drove the gully to get through on the way down and went round the back over the top of the rock in the final with some nice wheel lifting action.

B2: Michael Davis and Grant Walker had a great first ever run down the canyon in the 4.2TD GU with a superb first up time of 9'36" but did a tyre sidewall near the start on the night stage and had to change it dropping their time to 33'50".
Their final run was ruined by another destroyed tyre but they refused to give up and drove the track on three to complete it in 26'15" bringing it into third place.
Amazingly their mag wheel survived the journey with minimal damage but their winch got a good work out to pull the vehicle across the Goolies.

B1: Wil Neilson and Chris Brame in the 5.7 V8 powered GQ did a fantastic 8'57" on his first run but were put off by the lights of a spectator and cruised to a 11'22" on the night stage, they were asked if they wanted to run again but were in the final anyway and so declined.
Their final run on Sunday morning was a race winning 8'49" only 15 seconds short of the best ever time.
Wil has run the course in 2006 and so knew what to expect but Chris had never been down the Canyon at race pace before and was heard to say "nothing" ... its not very often Chris is speechless !!

We may have been well down on numbers due to other competitions run on the previous two weekends and other events during the same weekend but we all had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!

.Shane Gerrish


A few pics taken over the weekend:

The "goolies", a large outcrop of rock and probably the hardest part of the track, i spent friday morning driving the track and clearing the new growth before the race ...


Racing:
Exiting the end of the track at the "Dinner Hole" ...


Sunday Mornings reverse direction over the "Goolies" ...






The jump at the finish line...