CENTRAL ZONE CLUB TRUCK CHALLENGE
The annual Manukau Winch Challenge event seems to have found a new place on the calendar after moving to November. NZ4WDs Ashley Lucas reports from the 2017 event.
For 2017 the competitor’s base was at the Maramarua Ruby Club with the two competition sites also in the area, with the property for the night stages being a totally new property to events. Again this year, the club has dropped its Manukau Class after poor numbers last year and total competitor numbers across the remaining three classes were also significantly down over earlier years. This is hard to understand why considering there has been a lack of similar events to compete in during the last couple of years. For 2017 there were originally 18 signed up but two were a no show for various reasons. The remaining made up of three in Challenge Class, two in Club Class and 11 in Modified. I do wonder if the lack of numbers is down because the events are no longer the ‘enduro’ type that had competitors battling it out over two days and two nights. The Manukau Winch Challenge is a short sharp event consisting of Friday night stages and just Saturday for competition. Despite this there was once again a strong contingent of competitors from Tararua 4x4 Club with four teams making the long trip north. Fronting up at the briefing on Friday night there were two vehicles that used to compete 10-12 years ago. Hawke’s Bay-based Nigel Reid and Steve Franklin were back in Nigel’s little red Suzuki 413 competing in Challenge Class. Nigel has since upgraded the original Warn 8274 to Red Winches’ top hat and gears and with the lightweight Suzuki, winching was very quick. Matt Hawkes and Aaron Thynne were first time competitors in the ex-Mike Mabile (previously the Chris Smith, Lexuspowered) Hilux. Matt managed to do the Friday night stages but unfortunately on stage 14, his first for the day on Saturday he broke, scored the ‘Did Not Finish’ (DNF) and was out for the rest of the event. Hopefully he will be back as that Hilux always did go well and made ‘a beautiful noise’ under power.
Up for the Challenge
Challenge Class to me is always the main class of any winch challenge. They are the ones the event originally evolved around as well set up Club-type vehicles and they have to remain roadworthy with registration and WoF whereas the Modified class is more for the “Trailer Queen” vehicles. Club Class, meanwhile, is more an introductory class where vehicles do not compete all the stages and have some stages set to lessen potential breakages and roll overs. Of the two competitors in Club Class, Chris Simpson and Jake Higgins from Tararua Club were back and up against old rivals, Dean Currie and Ash Goddard. Ash Goddard is usually the winch man for father-in-law Dean but this year they reversed the roles and entered Ash’s wellside Hilux with Dean doing the hard work to yet again take the class win over Chris Simpson. Scott Withers in the ex-Trials Suzuki managed to frighten off two winch people before he managed to get to the start line for the first stage (one due to illness and the second to last minute injury) but fortunately for Scott, Andrew Dwyer has able to fill the seat at the last minute.
Red sky at night
From the venue for Friday’s night stages up in the hills at the back of Maramarua the sunset was a ‘shepherd’s delight’ meaning it should be fine for Saturday, but also gave a nice back drop to the competition as it got underway. The four night stages were basic driving stages that did not involve any winching at all and mostly consisted of driving down into a gully and looping around for the drive back up. The stages were all finished in just over an hour. With the rain staying away some of the stages weren’t as challenging as expected but there were still one or two stages that required winching. Stage 5 was one such stage in that if it went wrong, it really went wrong and several competitors lost valuable time on this stage. They weren’t helped by the marshal who awarded the most penalties on the day. Rohan Hooker was one such person who received a penalty for knocking over a peg, yet photos actually show the peg before and after still standing in the same spot after the vehicle had passed. At least Mr Lenny was consistent if not harsh on the day! Roger and Sean Urwin managed to climb the trees on Stage 7 and knocked one completely over and the vehicle landed on the stump. Unfortunately for them time was lost trying to get the vehicle off the stump and they were rewarded with 20 penalty points as the tree was also actually one of the stage pegs.
Ready for take-off
Peter Haigh and Nathen Phillips can always be expected to do something unexpected and this year it was figured that Peter had invested into Rocket Lab and sat the Jeep up on its rear for an attempted launch into space. Ian Hartley captured it in film with their faces telling the story, and fortuitously for them, it was a “failed launch” and a not so graceful return to earth. Several others did something similar but not as entertaining. Early on in the day Nigel and Steve managed to roll the Suzuki but managed to recover themselves and finish the stage. Damage was cosmetic and they were without a windscreen for the rest of the day. The hard luck story of the day would have to go to Luke Vitasovich and Nathan Murray who were delayed Friday and didn’t make the night stages. Next day they suffered two DNFs in their first two stages and were out for the rest of the day. Scott Withers and Andrew Dwyer had a good consistent day with only one penalty, a peg on Stage 6, which saw them placed seventh overall and sixth in class.
The envelope please…
Overall winner and modified class winner for the previous two years Robin Scaife and Paul Kelly were the team to be reckoned with as they went for the hat trick of three wins in three years. They completed all 14 stages in less than 41 minutes, 10 of those stages under the four minute mark, with their slowest time still a measly 5.38 minutes. Once again Stan Goodman had to settle for second in the modified class 52 points behind, with Mike Inns a further seven points back in third. It was a successful return to winch challenge competitions for Nigel Reid and Steve Franklin with them taking out the Challenge Class and finishing fourth overall.