SUPERWINCH MAINLAND CHALLENGE ROUND 4
We thought the third round of this year’s Superwinch Challenge was wet. If anything though, the fourth round at Nelson topped it. Vicky Newport explains.
As usual the weather played its part right up to the Nelson event starting.
The weeks prior when stages were being built, marked and played on were blessed with typical Nelson weather. The Nelson 4 Wheel Drive Club has a core group of guys and girls who gave up their weekends, days, hours and even put on club play days planning these stages. Unfortunately with the weather on the day a few of the stages blew out a bit more than they expected. In saying that none of the stages were canned.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Friday the 13th of September and 16 teams rolled into Nelson. By 5.00pm most were there with more than half camping on site.
Thank you Bowaters Toyota for the two marquees. They were very much needed and appreciated. Thanks too, to Megan and Ocean Lodge for the ‘Meals on Wheels’ which arrived at around 5:15pm, with everyone getting a hot meal before starting.
First test
It didn’t get dark until 6: 30pm so – with an hour to kill I thought we could have a bit of fun to see who had the fastest winch... or the best co- driver. Some thought i t was a conspiracy to break winches but most teams played along as i t was only a bit of fun after all. They had to set a ground anchor then dead winch 30 metres to the end, put the ground anchor away and be back in the truck with seat belt on.
First up were the PTO – Hydraulic winches. Nathan and Brock roared out over the start line but their ground anchor didn’t hold. Next in line were the Goodmans, side by side all the way to the end, with Lance over the line first but Stan’s co- driver back in the seat first. So Stan and Chris took out that test. Next up was the Electric Winches where Brock and Nick got over the finish line first.
The Clubman guys had three teams. Magoo and Ben nearly had it but cheated by driving the last metre! Next over was Trev and Grant but they weren’t at prize giving so we gave it to John and Tyra. Check out the Facebook page for the videos, it was a lot of fun!
Night stages
After drivers’ briefing the teams were sent to their start stages from 6.30pm. Four were planned, they were long stages too, so the idea was plenty of seat time with minimal need for winching... with one exception, Nathan and Daniel, who started their first stage and within basically 50m had winched twice. Then they realised they had not engaged four-wheel drive! A genuine ‘ bugger!’ moment if ever I have seen or heard of one.
Otherwise the night stages were pretty much over by 10: 30pm. A few trucks needed repairs, Nick Aymes needed a transfer case and Mike Holmes had steering problems. Also Andrew Garrett smashed into a tree at full speed and broke his steering on their first stage. Joel didn’t give up though, and the father/ son team had it fixed and carried on to complete all four of the Friday night stages.
Afterwards, and with a lot of people camping on site we had a wee social thing happening, with a couple of fires going and a lot of chit-chat... though it still ended up a fairly early night.
Most of the night stages crossed through the day stages so a couple of organisers ( Magoo and Dredgy) had to go around all the stages and re-peg what they could for day stages.
In hindsight it probably would have been a better idea to do that early in the morning, not at 11: 00pm on Friday night as they had a wee lay down on one of the stages. They recovered themselves though and got back to the pits around 1.00am.
Then it rained... and rained
I heard the first vehicle arrive at 6.30am on Saturday morning. It had rained most of the night and it was still raining rather heavy by this stage.
All the stages were checked, and a couple of changes made but mostly they were running with what they had marked out. It’s a hard call for the organisers when the weather changes so drastically but it is what it is. We had 10 stages for Open and Outlaw and nine for Clubman.
Outlaw Class
There were 11 teams in Outlaw but on Saturday they were down to 10. Nick was out. He couldn’t fix the Suzuki. Everyone else was all go.
Mike Holmes ( Blenheim) had a new co- driver ( Richard Stec) in the Hilux. Mike thought he had fixed his steering but it wasn’t playing ball most of the day with three dnfs from the four day stages they started.
In contrast, Mike and Tom ( Dunedin) in the
Buggy had a good day. They managed to drive all 10 stages with no DNFs. They did lose their ground anchor on a stage early in the day and Didn’t realise until about the same time a marshal found it!
Andrew and Joel ( ChCh) got three day stages done before their buggy was on the Trailer, completing a total of seven stages.
Like Mike and Tom from Dunedin, Andy and Tom ( ChCh) in what we call the Moonbuggy had a great day. They won Stage seven and drove the final part of Stage five to complete all stages with no DNFs.
Fellow Cantabrians Brent and Cole ( ChCh) had no issues on their first two day stages only for disaster to strike in the third, somehow managing to snap the chassis near the front lower link mount which allowed the diff to rotate around and snap the coilovers, triple bypasses and drive shaft.
Before this Brent and now Auckland-based co-driver Cole had won three of the four stages they has started. But as someone said, when Brent breaks the Ultra 4 he really breaks it.
Stan and Chris ( Wellington) in the orange Land Cruiser completed all the stages and had no DNFs, a result which should put Stan up in the top three for the series points.
Lance and Danny ( Wellington) in the Blue Land Cruiser started 13 of the stages but had three DNFs. That could have been four, as well, as on Stage 5 they came pretty close to a DNF. However, with only four minutes left on the clock Lance decided he’d give it his all, and with a bit of anger or frustration behind the wheel he managed to drive to the end of stage. It was a 30min DNF but they got there in 28: 47 min. It was awesome to watch. The drive of the day for me.
Michael and Tom ( Wellington) in the orange Suzuki started and completed all 14 stages.
Michael beat Stan in round 2 and I think that was his goal this weekend also. Michael has been competing in the odd round of the Superwinch Mainland Challenge since before he was 18 years old. He’s still not 20 and he’s up there with the older competitors already.
Hopefully we will see him enter into the Series one season soon.
First-time competitors William and Fraser ( Wellington) in a new build ( Hi-Lux) started 13 of the 14 Stages making it through the night stages no problem but timing out for DNFs on seven of the day stages. They also had a lay down on Stage 5 but they were definitely not the only duo who did that!
Then there was Richard and Mike ( Queenstown) in the rebuilt Prado-based Trials Truck/ Ultra 4 rig. Of the 14 stages they completed they won nine of them. Round 4 definitely was the best round for them so far this season. Everything went perfectly for them the whole weekend. They didn’t open the tool box at all.
Open class
Numbers were a bit down in the Open class at Nelson with only four teams entered, four in Jeep Wranglers and one with a Suzuki.
Being their home round some would say that Scotty and James ( Nelson) in the yellow Jeep had an advantage as they knew the stages. On the day though they didn’t have any more advantage than anyone else. Though they started and completed all 14 stages Scotty has been tinkering with his winch all season and had some new modifications on this round. By mid-day Saturday though he and James were taking that winch out and putting the old reliable winch in. A bit slower but its grunty. Despite the change they managed to get eight stage wins.
Nathan and Daniel ( ChCh) had a bit of a setback in their first night stage but from there they had good times giving them four stage wins. They also suffered a bit of bad luck at the end of the day as they managed to be one of the last teams into a few of the stages.
Brock and Nick ( ChCh) started and finished all 14 stages and took the other two stage wins in the black Jeep.
These three Jeeps have been battling it out all season, with all three having completed all four rounds so far. The points are close in the series. Roll on Christchurch I say!
Finally in Open we had father and son team Greg and Cullam Craik ( Balclutha). With the tracks cutting up like they did it wasn’t much fun for the pair in their wee red Suzuki but in saying that they still started 10 of the 14 stages. Three ended in DNFs but at the end of the day they were still going and they drove the Jimny onto the trailer for the long haul home.
Clubman class
Clubman class was a bit sad with only two entries this time.
Range Rover pair Trev and Grant ( Blenheim) started and finished the four night stages, winning two of them but sadly that was it for them. They were out of the days stages. Pretty sure they were having steering problems.
John and Tyra Boylett ( Nelson) were the other pair in Clubman in their newly rebuilt white Suzuki. This husband/ wife team basically wrote their Suzuki off at Round 2 in Blenheim but with a lot of sweat, tears, a new Suzuki body and help from a few of their fellow club members they rebuilt their truck in a matter of three months!
This time they started 11 of the 13 stages they were meant to do, had a wee lay down in Stage 5 and two DNFs due to time running out. But we hope to see them again at Round 5.
All over Rover!
By 4: 30pm the stages were finished and mostly all competitors gone. The weather had gotten worse by this time and lightning, thunder and hail had arrived.
No one camped on site on Saturday night as prize giving was held in town at the Ocean Lodge but I’m sure everyone was looking forward to a hot shower and a bit of warmth somewhere.
Dinner was over by 7: 00pm and prize giving at 7: 30pm. Thanks to Megan for the scoring and for Sav for taking on the MC role at prize giving.
Reports coming in on the round have been very positive, with plenty of seat time, a lot of winching and a bit of fun.
A few of the competitors showed more of their talent ( or not) later in the night when Karaoke started.
4X4 Events Club in Christchurch are hosting Round 5 on the 11-12-13 of October. This will also be NZ1. This round is open to the public.
The Superwinch draw was won by Jamie Mathews of Nelson. Jamie marshalled stage 13 and also helped set up the event.
2019 Superwinch Mainland Challenge Round 4 Nelson Sept 13-14
Outlaw
1. Richard Wilson 1355 pts 2. Andy Reeves 1241 3. Michael Duncan 1222
Open
1. Scotty Newport 1350 pts 2. Nathan Hammond 1325 3. Brock Welsh 1285
Clubman
1. John Boylett 930 pts 2. Trev Jamie 390.
Series results to date: Outlaw
1. Andy Reeves 374 pts 2. Stan Goodman 359 3. Brent Holden 287
Open
1. Scotty Newport 390 pts 2. Nathan Hammond 380 3. Brock Welsh 370
Clubman
1. Ben Simmonds 290 pts 2. John Boylett 200 3. Shane Coskerie