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
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