Heavy rain on the day before the event served to dampen the track but certainly not the enthusiasm of the marshals and competitors as they readied themselves for the final round of the 2010 series at the famous Landcruiser Mountain Park north west of Brisbane.
The morning of the event dawned clear so the Ozcat excavator and a water pump were employed to drain the mud from the bottom of the Rock Garden before the event got underway but the competition area stayed wet for the whole weekend.
With the event underway on very slippery tracks it wasn’t long before Ken Bain served up the first round of excitement with a nice drop off the logs resulting in a gravity defying landing!
It seemed impossible that the Patrol didn’t roll over and I’m sure if a fly had of landed on it the truck would have laid down.
A rope was quickly attached and some people power soon had it back on all four wheels.
Matt and Josh turned up in a nice white GQ wagon acquired the week before; they had whacked in a cage, some suspension, 36” centipedes and the safety gear and took it racing.
Without sliders or rear protection and only an old alloy bar at the front the poor thing was destined to become a nice wreck by the end of the weekend.
They had trouble not long into the race when the motor would not run properly but despite their best efforts to find the fault it remained the same causing them to really struggle to get up the slightest slopes over the rest of the weekend.
One of the new sections put in was the Bowl which proved to be very interesting with the clay surface holding the wet all weekend.
The trick was to use exactly the right amount of speed to hold you up on the wall as you went round to keep you off the rock pile in the middle but not so much that you slid up and over the walls edge.
Brendan went a bit slow in the Dual Cab Hilux and slid back down and tangled with the rocks … Matt and Josh also struggled in the misfiring Patrol as they found it hard to get up enough speed to make it out of the uphill side of the Bowl.
One of the new sections of track ran right in front of the spectators before dropping left over the rocks on the top track.
Christian managed to get stranded on one of the rocks wrecking what had been a good run up until then, Belinda worked the Hi Lift jack hard to no avail.
On the other side of the rocks Brad got stranded on another rock and managed to drag it downhill under the front of the dark blue Hilux, the more he tried to reverse off the more he slid sideways towards a drop off, eventually he freed his Hilux as it slid sideways over the drop off but he somehow managed to keep it upright.
Daniel had the Outlaw class to himself but still drove the multi coloured buggy hard all weekend
Despite the Buggy being designed for slow speed work Daniels times were right up there with the Super Modified class but at times it appeared his body would be shaken to pieces at speed over the tough terrain.
Jack must be sick of replacing broken bits on the V8 MQ/GQ Ute as he started out trying to be gentle on the long suffering Patrol.
One of the tracks involved rounding a large rock beside a bottomless mud pit which Jack easily ploughed through then thinking he had to do a 360 round the rock he tackled it again but this time sunk the patrol and had to be recovered.
The red mist set in and Jack broke the front and was left with rear drive only for the remainder of the Sunday.
Brad had probably his worst weekend in years of competing in the Superior All Terrain with major problems dropping him to last place in the gold Patrol wagon.
While it was going he was up to his usual antics and thinking outside the square to get great times.
With the heats and finals run and won it was Brendan and Russell in the white dual cab Hilux who took the first place honours in Modified class.
Ken and Callan piloted the silver/blue GQ Ute to victory in the Super Modified class and Daniel and Glenn in the multi coloured Buggy easily secured the top spot in Outlaw class.
The King of the Mountain is a once a year event open to anyone who had competed in all three rounds during the year and is a long track encompassing most of the tracks and obstacles in the competition area.
Jack gave it a good go in two wheel drive and almost did the whole track using lots of full revs and momentum but it wasn’t to be.
Christian just pipped Ken Bain’s time in the race but as he did not do the first race of the year it was Ken Bain and Callan McNamara who not only took out the series win but also deservedly won the coveted King of the Mountain title for 2010.
After this years efforts I think some extensions to their trophy cabinets may be in order.
RESULTS:
Modified:
1 Brendan and Russell
2 Jack and Josh
Super Modified:
1 Ken and Callan
2 Christian and Belinda
3 Josh and Matt
4 Brad and Mick
5 Matt and Josh
6 Brad and Brad
Outlaw:
1 Daniel and Glenn
KING OF THE MOUNTAIN:
Ken Bain and Callan McNamara
Some more pics ...
