Tassie Challenge III

Well the North West Off Road Tassie Challenge that was held on the 26th May has been run and won, this event was the 3rd challenge and the biggest to date with 15 teams (30 vehicles) all vying to get their name on the perpetual trophy.

Any thoughts that we had about not making it challenging enough were put away after the 2nd week of solid rain finished on the Friday night about 12 hours before start time, this rain made some normally quite drivable hills and creek crossing just that much more difficult to make it really interesting.
We had a large variety of vehicles competing this time ranging in modifications from nearly stock to basically full blown comp specs, and some of the lesser modified cars definitely showing they can more than keep up with the heavily modded trucks.
The event kicked off at 12.30 pm and after a quick briefing the teams went to plot their maps and return them for marking (all but one) before heading off into the 33000 acres of state forest to find their waypoints and contest any of the special stages that they could find in the allotted time.
The first special stage was open from 1pm until 2.30 pm and consisted of a fairly decent hill climb where teams had to nominate how far they would climb before they started, only 8 of the teams contested it with only Scott & Danielle from the Hayes/Noonan team and Brett & Nicki from D-Lux being game enough to nominate the 50 point marker and then complete the climb, Scott actually drove past the final marker and kept going only to need some recovery help on the way back down.
Whilst one half of the teams were driving the hill the other half were taking on some target shooting with a sling shot with both the driver and navigator getting 5 shots each at the targets, this event was won buy Adrian & Leyton from team loose nuts racing and I’m glad we weren’t relying on them to hunt the meat for the BBQ later that evening.
After teams finished the special stages they went back to navigating the hundreds of bush tracks in hope of locating all the way points before finish at 10pm later that evening.

The next special stage took place between 3.30 pm and 5pm and consisted of reversing through 4 gates marked out on a slippery skid pan whilst being timed, while one team car reversed the other had to contest the width challenge, teams had to place two wooden markers the distance apart that they believed was the width of their vehicle and then drive between the markers to be measured with the closest being the winner.
Just getting to this special stage proved to be one of the events biggest obstacles as a creek crossing that was dry a few weeks back was now filled with water and had some near vertical entry and exit points that got harder and more slippery as each car dragged mud and water out of the creek, more than one competitor found themselves on the end of the winch attached to North West Off Road 100 series Cruiser, with Rodney Dick’s GU flat tray taking up residence in the creek for the best part of an hour while Tassie Challenge officials struggled to retrieve him without causing any damage, this little mishap won Rodney the Best Stuck Award at presentation and a new snatch strap courtesy of Piranha Off Road Products Team Lost In The Jungle was victorious in both parts of this stage with Damian & Dale in the Suzuki posting a very fast time reversing while Mick & Janelle in their GU Patrol wagon were only centimeters away in the width test.

With special stage 2 over and done with competitors went back to the task at hand of finding those elusive waypoints, which was now becoming more difficult with the onset of darkness and some heavy fog in the high ground.
During the next few hours reports started to filter in of teams being lost for hours in dead end tracks, other teams getting caught out in the heavy fog slowing their progress to nearly standstill and some teams winching over and over just to clear a hill that was drivable only hours earlier.

The final special stage was run not far from the start/finish area and was definitely one of the most entertaining with both team cars lining up at the start line only to discover that each driver had to be blindfolded and rely on the navigator to guide them around a tight and twisty course set out between tree’s and large rocks, the driver/navigator relationship was certainly put to the test as more than one team nudged a tree or put a tyre up on a rock, (I really did say left Woody ),some interesting video footage came from this event with some navigational terms being used that probably will never be published in any navigation training manuals.
The first time entry of Bugger, consisting of Kelvin & Janell in a sky high 80 series and Scott & Kelly in a well equipped 4runner took out this special stage with a very quick time just proving that both drivers were well adjusted to following orders from their respective partners.

Finish time was set for 10pm with all competitors given 10 minutes to get their respective papers in order, see if they could figure out the sentence made from the letters found at each way point and answer any remaining trivia questions, point deductions started at 10.10pm for any teams that had not yet finished, a few teams came in late and had their hard earned points tally reduced for their lateness, Cracka Woody deserve a mention here as they came in 30 minutes late but were deemed on time as they had spent considerable time helping fellow competitors over a large hill that had proved quite challenging for all game enough to try and drive it, well done to Phil, Jason, Chris and Tabitha from that team as its great to see teams helping others in trouble even if it means that it may jeopardise their final placings.
While the final placings were getting sorted Jarrod and Marcus cooked up a storm on the barbie and set about feeding the 70 odd starving offroaders.

Winner! Finally nearly 11 hours after the start of the event we had a clear winning team, finishing the event on 703 Points was Loose Nuts Racing with Adrian & Leighton in their highly modded GU flat tray & Darren, Angus & Duncan in their ever reliable Hilux.

2nd Place went to the newcomers Boom Bangers, this was an outstanding effort by James & David in their very capable GQ Patrol flat tray and Matthew & Luke in another well sorted Hilux.

3rd Place was taken out by Lost In The Jungle who were also first timers to this event, their team consisted of Damian & Dale in a deceivingly capable Suzuki flat tray & Mick & Janelle in their recently acquired GU wagon.

A hard luck prize was awarded to The Pirates Of The Ranges team as they remodeled the front guard and sill panel of their rather battle scarred Pajero, we never like to see anyone damage their vehicle but unfortunately it goes with the territory so to speak.

All place getters received great trophies and prizes that were donated from our sponsors.
Without these sponsors the event would not be possible so we would like to say a large thankyou to…

We would also like to thank Peter, Michael, Warwick, Jackson, Alex, Alex, Jarrod, Marcus and the Devonport 4wd club for all your help leading up to and on the day.

Thanks to everyone who entered and we look forward to seeing you at our next event.