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
