CZ CTC 17/18 SEASON WRAP

Always as keen to entertain as he is to educate us about the Central Zone Club Truck Challenge, organiser Andrew Gee has put together this ‘spreadsheet-style’ story to wrap up the 2017/18 series.

In no particular order we will start with 32, the number of rounds of the Central Zone Club Truck Challenge (CTC) entered by Brendan Watchorn, in other words, every single one.

25-9-2011 – that date of the first round of CTC which was held in Manawatu.

31 rounds entered by Steve Stewart, he’s been to them all but only watched the first one.

3 generations of the Hintz family take part in CTC, Mum and Dad, John and Judith, little boy David and granddaughter Grace.

There are 21 4WD clubs in the Central Zone, 31 clubs in the Northern Zone and 13 clubs in the Southern Zone giving a total of 65 4WD clubs affiliated to the NZFWDA. Any of their members can enter the CTC.

We have 4 different classes to even up the playing field. Class 1 is unmodified with no traction aids, Class 2 allows limited modifications, uncontrolled traction aids such as limited slip diffs allowed, Class 1 and Class 2 are limited to 33-inch tyres. Class 3 Modified allows with driver-controlled traction aids, Class 4 Unlimited Modified that can include fiddle brakes and adjustable suspension, and Class 3 and Class 4 are limited to 35-inch tyres. Everyone needs a warrant of fitness and registration on their vehicle.

At the 2015 Ratana round there were 7 Jeep Wrangler TJs entered. Nissan Patrol GQs are also a popular choice as is the classic FJ40 Land Cruiser. It’s hard to say what is the best vehicle is apart from the best one is whatever you have. The 4 classes mean that you are competing on even terms with the other competitors and it is about knowing your vehicle and getting some practice.

Your 3 best results for a season are used to calculate your placing in the series for that season, allowing you to drop bad scores or to chose not to travel to a far away round.

There are 15 hazards per day typically, in a mixture of graded, ungraded and speed sections.

Usually events attract 2 types of people, the ones who have a Jeep and the others who wish they did.

At one round we had 4 women entered as drivers, and quite often we have 3 lady drivers #YOUTOO?

There are 0 dollars prize money, although there has been the odd spot prize.

We have had 1 revision of the rules, not bad for 7 years.

Only 20 dollars, currently the maximum entry fee per round per driver.

That said we have 500 dollars per event available from the Central Zone to financially underwrite a club putting on a round.

We had 53 different drivers entered at least one round of CTC in the 2012-13 season

Then 54 different drivers entered at least one round of CTC in the 2014-15 season.

An incomplete list of series results going back over the years looks something like this:

2012-13 Class 1 Mark Watchorn, Class 2 Ross Gregory, Class 3 Dave McGinnity.

2013-14 Class 2 Ross Gregory , Class 3 Dave McGinnity.

See you in 2018/19.

2014-15 Class1 1= Keith Hosking, Brent Ward, Class 2 1= Brendan Watchorn, Graeme Goble Class 3 Don Morgan.

2015-16 Class 1 Ross Gordon, Class 2 Alan Stone, Class 3 Marty Green.

2016-17 Class 1 Ross Gregory, Class 2 Dave McGinnity, Class 3 Marty Green.

2017-18 Class 1 Ross Gregory, Class 2 Mark Smith, Dave McGinnity, Class 3 Andrew Gee, Class 4 Marty Green.

And that’s it for the current season. Our number has literally come up! Thanks to our competitors and event organisers for putting on great events with a competitive edge.

Series stalwart Brendan and Tracey Watchorn uses the same Pajero in Class 2 back in 2013 at Whitemans’ Valley as they do today with just a healthy supply of CV joints to keep them rolling.

Trials pilot Brent Ward tricycles his “unmodified” Class 1 Toyota powered by a Lexus V8 engine.

Bruce Tustin from Wellington Jeep Club pushes hard just to get 80 points. The Jeep TJ is a popular choice in both class 2 and 3.

Don and Trish Morgan from Wellington Jeep Club get a lot of use out of this modified Jeep in CTC, from normal 4WD club runs to full-on off road race events, including two Taupo 1000s.

Steve Stewart throws his Class 3 Nissan into the hill at Lepperton back in 2013. Steve has been to every round of the CTC.

Marty Green from Capital Cruisers Club uses Chevy power to clear out the boggy parts of the speed section. He has owned the Modified classes for the last three years.

Guy Conroy from Wellington CCVC competed in many rounds in this classy Cruiser. After a few years he beheaded poor old Orville and filled the now roofless truck up with scaffolding pipes.

Shona Stone from Mt Egmont 4WD club gives the creek a good go. She would be the lady entrant with the most entries over the years. Shona and husband Alan Stone put on the Taranaki rounds year on year as well as competing in all the other rounds around the lower North Island.’

Judith Hintz is a great competitor and has travelled to most of the rounds in the last couple of years like all our cadre of Club Truckers.