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

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...

Tough Tracks Round 3 2008

RESULTS: still to be announced

TOUGH TRACKS 4X4 CHALLENGE
Round three 2008

The Springs 4x4 Park played host to the final round of the 2008 season under blue skies and mild temperatures making for excellent viewing for the many spectators crowded around the tracks.

The Park is situated 25Kms south of Warwick right beside the New England Highway making access easy for trucks, trailers, campers and caravans.

Saturdays tracks were laid out on the hill at the rear of the office.

Both the Challenge class and Trophy class’s track 1 utilised the same starting point but the more challenging Challenge class track veered off to the right after 15 metres and into large loose boulders catching some out early.


The loose boulders just before the 300 point mark had most easily traversing this section but a couple of teams rolled when boulders were dragged into different positions by previous teams.






The huge rock step at the 300 point mark just after this section had most teams struggling with one team rolling after getting up over it causing a rapid extension of the safety zone.
























A side angle off a rock slab had a few teams worried but once past this point it was a simple climb over another rock slab to the finish line.

The Trophy class track continued straight up before veering to the left between some isolated boulders then doing a U turn and winding its way back to the bottom of the hill through more rocky obstacles.














Momentum seemed to be the preferred strategy making for some exciting action for the crowd of spectators.

Track 2 for both classes was a little further up the same hillside with the Challenge class starting off by climbing over some jutting rocks before tackling a steep rocky outcrop at the 400 point mark that stopped all but the most determined attacks.


Plenty of sill bar metal and tyre rubber was left behind in futile attempts to conquer this mid point obstacle with many different lines taken over the wide competition area between the cones,
those that did make it truly deserved every point.














Those that made it thus far had no real trouble climbing the cascade of rock steps to the finish line.

The Trophy class had numerous obstacles on their track but the one that caught most out was a simple log across the track.

Plenty of loose dirt was sent skywards as the teams struggled to gain traction with the underpinnings dragging on wood.

Some rock steps greeted their attempts at the finish line with a big side lean occurring if they slipped off line.

Sunday saw the Challenge class move to the back of the park and tackle a rocky creek bed studded with deep clefts and water sections, most had only minor troubles to get to the end where a bonus line was added.

To the left out of the gorge was the “less difficult” 900 point finish line, most had a few goes to get out this way due to the steep dirt strewn rock face causing them to slide off line.


A few tried the near vertical rock waterfall with the 1000 point finish line sitting enticingly at the top of the mass of smooth rock.

Lynda in the team Barbie Gq ute jarred her back when the truck slammed back into the waiting rock at the bottom of the waterfall and had to be helped from her Nissan after a valiant effort to conquer the track.


Evan rolled his hilux on its side after sliding sideways across the rock face and Sloshy and his hilux did a mirror act a short time later although after his roll on Saturday there was no extra damage to be seen anyway.




Only Shane and Mick dual driving the Superior Engineering GQ made the 1000 points mark to take out first and second for the track.

The Trophy class was running their track 3 at the same time but was out near the front of the park so spectators had to choose which class they wanted to watch this time round.

Most had enough time while the score were tallied to pack up camp and drive back out to the office where the weekends presentations were held in the marquee.
With the season at an end it only remains for the 2008 year Outright winners to be announced at the Tough Tracks 4x4 clubs annual Xmas dinner in early December.

Its been a fantastic year of action, guts and glory run by a team of dedicated volunteers who can be truly proud of the great competition they have developed over the past three years … well done guys and gals !!

See you at round 1 on Feb 14 at Janowen 4wd park!

.Shane Gerrish

Superior All Terrain Challenge Round 2 2008

15 competitors fronted up to Landcruiser Mountain Parks torturous All Terrain Track area to tackle the tracks the team at Superior Alignments had ripped out of the rocky gully above the expo area.

Competitors were sorted into two Teams and raced two at a time on side by side tracks, once finished they then swapped tracks and raced again.

Mick is a long time competitor but his ute was not ready to compete so he has been concentrating on the track building for quite some time, as a reward they gave him Starky's ute to use and let him loose as a wildcard.


Shane got a little enthusiastic on the log dump and launched his wagon over the top with wheels airborn then had to stop in a hurry as the finish line was just after the last log.


Brad was back in the V8 Scout but the motor was missing badly all weekend although it didn't seem to slow him down much and he took out third in Super Modified.


Romana always has a great time and is one of the regulars who uses the competition as stress relief, must be working going by the smile on her face at every event.


Stuart Parkes Outlaw Buggy looked like it was fresh from a show and shine competition and was beautifully presented, he was not afraid to go hard in it though and his results showed he had done his homework well on the build up by winning the Outlaw class.


Keith Bignell drove like a demon all weekend in his holden V6 powered, nissan chassied toyota bodied hybrid to once again take out Super Modified Class.


Lynda was mixing it with the boys at the pointy end not only taking out the top ladies award but coming second in the super competitive Super Modified class.




Michael was on fire piloting his buggy to second place in the Outlaw class.




Shayne was doing well until he broke the top link on the rear diff and had to be carted off by the excavator.




Daniel may only have L plates for the road but fifth place in Super Modified showed he had what it takes on the track.




Brad smashed the windscreen when he got a bit close to the tree in the gully after bending a rim and deflating the front left tyre, he still managed to finish in a reasonable time though.








Shane was struggling to finish the course in two wheel drive after breaking the front end.




Yuri Rock almost claimed another victim when Ken Bain got into a bad spot and had to be dragged out by the excavator, he did well enough for most of the weekend to take out first place in Modified class.


Damien had a great run over the weekend taking out fourth place in Outlaw class even despite a rollover in the final.


Jack was only six points behind Ken to take out second place in Modified class.




The newly dug out rock claims its first victim, Al in the Yuri Buggy and so was christened "Yuri Rock"




A huge electrical storm overnight had me erecting a makeshift shelter before the rain hit.


If you thought they went hard on Saturday then you should have seen them all go even harder in the finals on Sunday.



Craig had quite a few goes at this obstacle but finally made it up to come in third in Outlaw class.


The tree at the top of the course took its toll on a few trucks over the weekend.


Drive the front up and spin the back round then reverse back off on the other side of the cone was one option a few teams made over the weekend.


Oops!


Rear wheel steer certainly came in handy getting out of the gully.


Outlaw class had their own section of track down the gully a bit.


There was plenty of rock for the other classes as well.






RESULTS:

Modified:
First: Ken Bain and Callan 295



Second: Jack and Josh 289

Super Modified:
First: Keith Bignell and Tom 284



Second: Lynda and Aaron 279
Third: Brad and Brad 278
Fourth: Shane and Ashley 269
Fifth: Daniel and Rod 241

Outlaw:
First: Stuart Parkes and Jodie 289



Second: Michael and Matt 262
Third: Craig and Paul 257
Fourth: Damien and Jamie 206

Logan Challenge 2008

Logan Challenge 2008

Heading south from Warwick for about 25Kms brought me to a blaze of light indicating the challenge area in front of The Springs 4WD Park office where three of the stages for the Logan Challenge were being run under lights.

The Logan Challenge is a survival based 4WD event, each team comprises 3 cars and a manager. The Challenge accepted 12 teams equalling 36 competing cars, the competition ran over the Friday night, Saturday and Sunday.
The event has everything from winching, hard drives, GPS runs, mechanical stages and first aid, basically anything 4WD related spread over 20 stages all around the Park.
Spectators had several stages within walking distance of the campground and a food tent helped to make it an enjoyable weekend watching the teams put their vehicles and themselves through their paces.

The competitors did not need their vehicles for the 3 Friday night stages but the freezing cold night air probably made them wish they did so they could use their heaters.

The Friday night stages included a "wheelbarrow" race, "blind obstacle" course and "drag the objects from the ring" race.

After an overnight Frost the sun was out for a cool clear day for the start of the driving stages.

SS5
This stage was the spear the spud stage where competitors had to pick up the coloured spuds with a spear then change driver and navigator before rerunning the course and dropping the correct coloured spuds back into the coloured tyres, with red and orange colours in use there was some confusion getting them back in the correct tyres.


SS9
This stage started with a zigzag across the gully where competitors exited the gully up the steep bank before looping back to the gully and driving back down the gully to the start finish line.
A large loose rock at the base of the climb caused the early runners some grief but it was broken into smaller pieces as the competitors took their toll on it.


SS8
This stage ran through a deep mud pit before the competitors had to build a bridge and drive the cars across then tackle a steep climb up the bank.
They then drove over the hill and back down a gully before turning left into a long series of deep waterholes to get back to the start finish line.


The first team took a lot longer to build the bridge than expected so the organisers changed the crossing position and the position of the logs to speed things up and awarded the first team "average points".
The Mud hole at the start caused most vehicles quite a few dramas and teams had to work hard to shift the logs into position for the bridge building then move them out of the way again after the trucks had crossed to allow a clear passage up through the waterholes, several trucks had water rolling over their roofs as they hit the deep holes hard and fast on their way back to the start.










SS16
competitors started with a long run across the ridge line and a drop down the long steep "beer o'clock hill".
A few of the competitors made it down "not quite in control" and did a graceful slide around the bottom corner.
A drive along the creek bed over some large rocky outcrops preceded a climb up a bank and the long run back to the start.




Most spectators and competitors agreed it was another great event put on by the Logan 4WD club members and volunteers with plenty of action happening at all times and great weather helping make it an enjoyable weekend for all.

Results:

1) Logan Districts.

2) SOC Racing.

3) Thunder Monkeys.

4) Redlands 4WD Centre [aka The Simon Slayers]

5) The Pansies.

6) Gold Coast 4wd Club.

12) DDD - The South East QLD Deaf 4wd Club.