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
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