Tassie Challenge iv

Picture this….. the mist rises slowly from the lush green pasture , it pauses just long enough for at least one keen photographer to snap a few scenic shots before it disappears and leaves us with a clear view over picturesque hills dotted with natural bushland  and rich farmland.

The sun has risen over the quiet farming community of Sassafras situated on Tasmania’s sunny northwest coast , the sky is blue, shining a radiant warmth on my face, I turn to watch 2 black swans feeding on the mirror like dam and marvel at the serenity of it all……

Moments later I hear a distant noise, more of a rumble really, as I strain to hear it I feel the earth shudder, quickly I make my way back to our camp, by the time I have arrived to tell the others it was already upon us….. A nearly continuous line of  4wders lasting what seemed like hours were weaving their way down the hill to us.

It was time …  Tassie challenge 4 was upon us and there was no stopping it, nothing else to do but enjoy it, and enjoy it we did but not on our own, we shared the fun with over 150 competitors and more spectators than we had ever seen before.

A competitor briefing was held at 11.30 am outlining what was expected of  them and what challenges lay before them,  looking into the crowd I noticed so many blank faces and looks of “ what did he just say/mean” that the phrase “lambs to the slaughter came to mind”.

First task at hand was a map marking exercise with 19 points to be marked out,  some seasoned teams were obviously a bit complacent with this small challenge as they faired quite poorly while a few newcomers showed they learnt very quickly and scooped up some valuable points before leaving base camp..

Following the map exercise competitors were free to leave base camp and head off to find the 21 waypoints and compete in special stages through out the day, rest assured that the waypoints were placed in some of the hardest to reach places that the surrounding terrain had to offer and the special stages would get the brain thinking as well as the right foot.

The first special stage was the AIR LIQUIDE SS1 consisting of 2 parts,

The 1st being “A DOGS BREAKFAST” where 1 car had a dogs bowl attatched to its bonnet with a tennis ball placed inside it and then timed whilst  driving a course consisting of side slopes, steep up and down hills and rocky parts, more than 1 navigator had to run to retrieve a run away tennis ball before they could continue.

Part 2 was the “DO I LOOK FAT IN THIS PATROL” width challenge where drivers instructed their navigators how far apart to place 2 markers from a distance of 10 mtrs before driving through them to be measured with points going to the closest, some drivers obviously were confused as to whether they were driving a mini or a mack truck judging by the distances measured..

Following SS1 teams continued to collect the info from each waypoint they had located and record it on their answer sheet with the hope of piecing together a sentence from all the waypoints found.

During the afternoon we started getting reports of teams winching for hours at a time to free themselves from the deep muddy bogs that we had sent them to, there were also quite a few mechanical failures that led to some very impressive bush mechanics to get themselves up and running again, more importantly though everyone was having fun with the exception of one competitor who threw his gps out the window in a fit of frustration only to back track his steps to retrieve it and not be able to find it,  apparently he also threw out his navigator/wife during the afternoon but she was later reported alive and well back in the passenger seat……

Some hours later after the sun had gone down the AUSTRALIAN 4WD ACTION SS2 opened up for competitors to try and gain some valuable points, as the SS’S were not compulsory and not all teams entered them it was a great way to gain some points over those teams still out chasing waypoints.

SS2 again consisted of 2 parts with the first being “GLASS HALF FULL” in which 1 team car had to pass a glass of water under one of its tyres whilst being timed, the way in which this was achieved was entirely up to the competitors with some teams digging holes in the rocky ground and others trying the traditional jack and then some spending more time planning how than actually doing, times for this ranged from under 2 minutes for the quickest to nearly 15 for the slowest.

The other team car had to contest “SHOW ME A SIGN”, this was a quite difficult track that required a tulip map to negotiate whilst recording symbol markers placed along the course, due to the heavy rain in the days leading up to the event the course became very difficult with most teams needing to winch at some point, team Mc’Coy  Automotive looked like driving the whole course without the need to winch until their big horse power turbo landcruiser busted its front diff on the last rocky hill climb.

This SS eventually was cancelled due to competitor Terrence Ward turning his 80 series cruiser on its side half way through, this little incident won Terrence  a place on the “IN THE POO” poopetual trophy, although officials were quick to respond and recover the tired 80 it was decided to cancel the rest of this stage and award average points to all teams that entered SS2.

By now it was well into the night and teams were getting cold ,tired and hungry, only a couple of hours remained to find those last few way points which were becoming more difficult to reach as 70 odd cars had passed through the wet boggy tracks in the  previous 8/9 hours , the onset of darkness had slowed vehicles down and made spotting the waypoint tags very difficult, most teams now were finishing up out on the trails and trying to find their way back to base camp by the 10pm so as not to incur any late penalty points, if they arrived by 10pm they could also compete in the final SS and hopefully add some more points to their tally before handing there score sheets in for marking.

The final SS was the “HEMA MAPS DRIVING BLIND” where each team lined up both cars and navigated their way around a rough bush course, the only twist was that the driver of each car was blindfolded and given instructions by their navigator , judging by the vast difference in times some teams had a lot more trust issues than others with the fast times around the 2 minute mark and the slowest time nearly 10 minutes.

Following the last special stage competitors made there way back to head office at base camp where they handed in all their paper work for marking , whilst they awaited the results to be tallied  they were fed a bbq meal and given a chance to warm by the fire pots and relive some of the days events, after a short wait the winners were announced with the team TBA coming in 3rd , team TASSIE BOYS 2nd, and for the second time team D-LUX taking outright honours, all teams received trophy’s for drivers and navigators and were also rewarded with great prizes form our sponsors.

Tassie challenge organizers Glenn and Lyndon would like to thank the following people, Peter , Jarrod, Whack, Woody, Bill, Cozzie, Kim, Marcus, Duncan, Nick  and the following sponsors, North West Off Road, 4wd Action, Hema Maps, Air Liquide, Angry Man, Ibbots Hardware Latrobe, Carline Exhaust Devonport, Ausspit, Ecolab, Piranah offroad products, Tasweld , Cargleam, Tassie 4wd, Forestry Tasmania.

Words by Glenn Williams….