Before the COVID-19 lockdown, the Central Zone Club Truck Challenge managed to squeeze in the second round of its 2019/20 series at Pahiatua. Andrew Gee has the story.
Grace Hintz was rocking her inner Six60 coming into the second round of this season’s Central Zone Club Truck Challenge at Pahiatua on Sunday March 08,
“Can’t stop believing I’m the greatest, hearts breaking till I know I made it, I’ll never know what second place is, no pain, no doubt – ’til the (dash) lights go out.”
It must have worked as she and Dave took the honours for the day.
Which raised the age-old question, “Who is the Greatest Of All Time?” (Aka the G.O.A.T.) For instance, back in 1991 Ayton Senna and I were at the Monaco Grand Prix... the only difference was he was on the start line and I was on the bank above. Still it was phenomenal for me; the sights, sounds and smells and the best man won on the day.
My long but undistinguished career in motorsport had begun on trailbikes, progressed to road-racing production bikes and on to England where I went to (watch) Formula One, Le Mans, Isle of Mann and World 500cc Grand Prix motorcycle racing (the precursor to MotoGP) while getting to drive open wheeler race cars at a few English tracks.
Opportunity knocks
On returning to New Zealand I took up mountain biking like a lot of old dirt bikers did. At the time (over 20 years ago now) a friend introduced me and my Suzuki Vitara to the Cross Country Vehicle Club in Wellington, initially just as a means to get access to off-road areas.
However the club opened up all the different areas of four-wheel driving to me; club runs, touring, competition and camping. And, after meeting people from other clubs I was encouraged to go to NZFWDA meetings and later on I became first Central Zone secretary and then the CZ president.
Back to the present day, however, and the drivers’ briefing at Pahiatua started with the presentation of trophies to last year’s class winners; Class 1 Matthew Liang, Class 2 Dave McGinnity, Class 3 Bruce Tustin and Class 4 Dave Hintz.
At Pahiatua, Brendan, Mark and Rae Watchorn had pegged out their event on Bryce Sowery’s farm, thanks to all of them. It was a good central location for Manawatu and Wairarapa club members to join in on the Club Truck Challenge (CTC) so we saw club stalwarts Lee Turner and Peter and Sheryl Pope come out for a run.
Peter had recently changed his Prado for a Jeep JK and Clinton Carroll was ready for action in his Jeep TJ, to bring the Jeep-to-competitor quotient up to 46 percent.
Hoof it!
The property was a cattle farm and the ground had baked solid over summer while also being filled with hoofprints. Several hazards changed a lot as competitors took their turn and knocked the lumps out.
The start order is cycled after each hazard to give everyone a chance to have an early start in case it is an advantage; hey, we try to be fair here.
The first and second hazards were hill climbs that were quite rough before we got into to murderously twisty tests for three and four. But hazard five was a deceptive straddle section that looked achievable if you could stay out of the ditch; however as people started to drop into the ditch it became wider and wider for the late runners. And as well as a bad score they also had difficult recoveries to get their wagons out of the hazard.
Shafted!
Clint was leading the scoresheet coming up to the last hazard before lunchtime, belying the fact he was a National Trials competitor, when he pushed too hard to finish the hazard for zero points.
He made the last turn that defeated most people and crested the blue pegs marking the end for the perfect score, only to have his rear driveshaft let go, ending his day.
Bruce Tustin similarly took a zero but at the cost of his Jeep’s rear suspension, leaving us down two competitors for the afternoon.
After a break we resumed for another seven tests and a speed section, two hazards started with horrifying vertical drops right at the start, no problems, gravity will always take you down no matter what you do behind the wheel.
Wall ‘o death!
Steve manged to start leaking blood after tangling with his steering knob but struggled on to finish the day. The only ungraded hazard was unlucky number 13, a wall of death-style sidling hazard where you gritted your teeth and stayed on the side slope as long as you dared. Your score was determined by the number of pegs you left standing with Dave McGinnity taking the only zero by using sticky tyres and the unreal speed of his Jeep TJ!
At the end of a long day there was a long Speed Section which caused a few to miss a gate and have to head out on a second lap, plunging down the leader board as a result.
Finally, who (or rather what) is the Greatest Of All Time in our little world? It’s the Jeep, of course, letting ordinary people do extraordinary things off-road since 1941!
Have a look at the NZFWDA web page www.NZFWDA.org.nz, there is a forum area there, you can post any questions you may have about joining Club Truck Challenge.
