Opening salvo!
The 2015 Superwinch Mainland Challenge Series has started with the first round held in Nelson over the June 19-20 weekend.
This is the second year running the Nelson Four Wheel Drive Club has hosted the first round of the Superwinch series on private farmland near Richmond where the views are awesome and once again we enjoyed great weather. That said, last year the ground was dry and most stages were driven. Not this year, because it rained on the Thursday night turning the event into an actual winch challenge with 19 entries from Balclutha in the south to Auckland in the north. In for another year we have Mike Holmes/ Sherryl Wells, Malcolm Wells/ Dave Wall, Rowan Coutts/ Chad Mitchener and Mr and Mrs Leigh (as we all know them). With Sav retired now Scotty Newport has jumped on board as co-driver for Gordon Jackett in the Open Class and other combinations are Stan Van Heeswyck with Andrew Dempsey as co-driver, Neil Albury with James Keys co-driving in Nelson, and Greg Craik with new co-driver Darren Pryde.
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The rest are either new to the series or old competitors giving it another go, including Andrew Witty/ Craig Fraser, Adam Turner/ Daniel Swift, Trev Jamie/ Grant Watson, Marc Black/Adam Gibbons, Keri Iva/ Phil Thompson, Pete Leslie/James and Miles Anderson/ Ben Keys. We also had Blenheim guys Tony and Russell O’Donnell, and two entries from the North Island, Robin Scaife/ Paul Kelly from Wellington and Bernie Konz and Anthony Tangye from Auckland. Only three series entries didn’t make it to Nelson, Rick Crosbie, Alan Parker and Mike McCarthy. But I am sure we will see them at the second round. This year three classes will be run as part of the series, Open, Outlaw and Clubman ( with Clubman and Clubman-B running as one). Scrutineering was held on Friday afternoon with three night stages put together for after the BBQ & Hangi dinner.
Night moves
Drivers’ briefing was held after dinner and the field was dispatched to the stages. The first one cut up pretty fast, and there were a few DNFs; not a good start for some with most, if not all, trucks having to do at least one winch. Next up was stage number two and when the first truck blew a tyre basically leaving the start box a few alterations had to be made to the stage. After that it ran pretty smoothly. Come number three though and Trev Jamie and Grant Watson were out; pretty sure their motor packed it in, there was certainly a lot of smoke.