MANUKAU WINCH CHALLENGE
With plenty of rain in the lead-up to the 2017 event Eastern Southland’s infamous Landslip was at its muddy best for the Southern Trail Blazers 4WD Club’s annual 4x4 rally there in November last year.
So there you go, another 4x4 Rally done and dusted. The weather did its usual leading up to the day, with plenty of rain the week before, meaning some last minute alterations had to be made to account for the saturation of the hazards. Come the day, though, there were some light showers in the morning but they had cleared by the afternoon to be quite pleasant for the spectators. It is great to see that the event is still well supported, some old faces with old trucks, some old faces with new trucks, some new faces with new trucks, some new faces with old trucks. There were 15 rally competitors and this year a new ‘Winch Recovery’ class with five entrants.
Simple format
The format for the day was simple; competitors were to do a round of the hazards set up in the morning, then repeat in the afternoon with some changes been made in the lunch break; either due to the hazards being too easy or cutting up and becoming impassable or dangerous. Hazards ranged from hill climbs, sidlings and off camber turns to mud bogs and cross up banks. The winch class did some of the rally course and then had some special stages for them to test man and machine. At the end of the second round there is the option to compete in “The Open Round” which allowed all kind of modifications and slightly different rules. Most of the vehicles still going opted to have a go and the convenor selected a portion of the hazards to be repegged to make them more challenging.
Happy as…
A great day, and judging by the smiles and the mud on the trucks everyone had a ball. The new winch class was a bit of a wild card but it seemed to work, watch out for this developing in the future. A big thanks must go out to the competitors, the marshals, the tractor drivers and the guys on the BBQ. Many local businesses sponsored the event and it wouldn’t happen if we had nowhere to do it, so a big thanks to our hosts for the continued use of your land.