Dunedin turned on the hospitality at the final round of this year’s Mainland Superwinch Challenge. Vicky Newport reports.

Round 5, the final round of the 2017 Mainland Superwinch Challenge and we are in Dunedin.

For those who have competed in all five rounds this has been a huge commitment. Not only is this the final round it is also the AGM which is always something to look forward to.

Teams from Blenheim and Nelson all headed away Thursday, spending the night in Amberley.  With the Kaikoura Road still closed the Lewis Pass takes a while to get through.  All other teams (Christchurch, Timaru, Balclutha, Queenstown and Dunedin) left home Friday. 

Scrutineering was between 2.00 and 5.00pm on site at the Dunedin Club’s property tucked into the folds of the hills north of the southern city. Entered were 24 teams, five in Clubman and 19 in Outlaw. A couple of invitational teams were also competing - a good way to see if they would be interested in entering a series/rounds in the future. With the vehicle checks all done the AGM started at 6.00pm.

Night stages

With the AGM done and dusted for another year (see sidebar story) the event itself kicked off some night stages which started at 8.00pm.  The weather at the time was great, in fact the ground was a bit dry and probably could have done with a bit of water.  Don't ever wish for rain I say, you may just get it though. 

A couple of teams struggled a bit with the night stages and had to get repairs done.  The last truck to come out of a stage was midnight.  One stage had been canned for the Clubman class due to time frames. 

I am sure some Teams were looking forward to their beds that night.  Travelling and competing in one day certainly is tiring.

Saturday

Come Saturday and the marshals were on site fairly early. Drivers’ briefing was held at 8.30 am with start time 9.00am. Ten stages were set out with no jumping stages the order of the day unless there was big hold ups…. 

I have been travelling to Dunedin events for about five years now so I think I know the area pretty well. A lot of the stages are the original tracks but it’s great how they can add a new bit in or change direction of the old track. In other words, never think you know what to expect.  They are lucky with their land as they have a bit of flat ground, bogs, hills and trees.  Plus an awesome clubrooms to take shelter in should you ever need to, of course! 

It was good to see a lot of winching in this round.  The weather has been fairly mild this winter so it has been hard for the event organisers to get a lot of winching in some events.  As you know we are here for a winch challenge, not off road racing if you get my drift.

Clubman Class

Brock and Nic in the Jeep Wrangler have had a great run so far this season winning all four previous rounds. So their goal at Dunedin was fairly obvious – make it five out of five!

Next were Callum and Ben in the Suzuki and newbies from Nelson, Tom and Zinny. Their scores for the season were very close.

At Dunedin Callum had a wee layover, but it wouldn’t have been a winch challenge if he hadn’t, would it Callum?  Richard and son Will from Blenheim, and Tim and Callum, both teams in Land Rovers, were also very close in points. 

Outlaw Class

Three of the 19 teams in Outlaw this year are pretty new to winch challenges. What a class to start in! Some of the stages were pretty hard going, with a lot of winching for quite a few trucks, though to be fair, winching in amongst the trees is a lot easier than the ground anchoring in the grass paddocks or gorse. 

Whichever way you look at it the Outlaw teams certainly had mud flying out of the bogs. Even if you were on the sidelines you still got dirty.  All good fun as they say and if one team stood out at Dunedin it was Adam and Josh in the red Hilux. 

They managed to finish all 14 stages, with only one DNF and this is their first season. The only other team to finish all 14 stages were locals Richard Robb and co-driver.  

In terms of spectacle two teams gained a bit of air in stage 14, with both Brent and Albie’s trucks showing off their bellies. Bothe came down hard, too, but still carried on.  Others just drove over, no excitement in that, while Steve Bruerton had a wee layover and had to get recovered. 

Nathan and Michael in the Can Am UTV had a bit of fun in Stage 13. They kept getting two wheels off the ground, not the front  or the back but the side.  Still they finished.

Sting in the tail

The weather played a big part in the weekend’s end results. By 2.00pm we were getting lightning, thunder and then rain/hail. And did it come down! To the point where the officials decided to make the call to can the event due to safety.  Some competitors were running stages but got pulled from them, receiving a DNF for those stages, a real shame but you can’t control the weather and it was decided the scoring would run as it was at the time.  

This is where the awesome clubrooms come in as everyone ran for shelter. 

With the event over it gave most teams time to head back to their accommodation to shower, change and relax for a bit before dinner and prize giving. 

Prize giving was a bit late as it wasn’t just for the round, it was also the time to read out the 2017 Series results.

To view more photos go to our Facebook page:  mainland 4WD Winching. I hope you have enjoyed reading my stories on each round this year. Roll on 2018!

RESULTS

RND 5 2017 MAINLAND SUPERWINCH CHALLENGE DUNEDIN OCTOBER 13-15

OUTLAW

CLUBMAN

Mainland Superwinch Challenge - Series wrap!

This year’s Mainland Superwinch Challenge series started in May with the first round at Alexandra hosted by the Shotover 4WD Club with Bert, Richard and Keri the main organisers. 

In June we headed Maruia for the second round, hosted by the Marlborough and Nelson 4WD Clubs with Mike Holmes, Mike Dredge and Pat Pretty being the main organisers.  Round 3 was supposed to be held in July in Cust near Christchurch but due to bad weather the host club, 4x4 Events, were forced to postpone it until August. Ashley and co put a lot of time into sorting this in July only to have to do it all again a month later. 

Round 4 was held at Makikihi south of Timaru in September, with Malcolm being the main man here then lastly we headed to Dunedin where the hosting club was the Land Rover Owners Club (Otago) (LROCO), Mike McCarthy being the main contact here. 

None of these events would have been possible without marshals, organisers, competitors and especially land owners.  So thanks to all that were involved. All these people are volunteers.

Number’s up

This year saw 22 entries for the Outlaw class, five for Clubman but none in Open. Not all teams competed in all rounds, but Outlaw has never had this many competitors before. Hopefully with the new rules which got passed at the AGM we will have Open back up and running next year.

We had one team from Auckland (Roger and son Sean) enter the series but only made it down to one round. We hope to see them back next year.

Mike Holmes and Sheryl Wells, long time competitors had a real bad run in  Round 2.  They came out of the mishap OK but not so much for the Hilux, now getting a major makeover so it can be back better than ever in 2018.

Outlaw class

We had a couple of new teams this year. Brent Holden and co-driver Aaron have competed in the North Island for a few years but were new to the Mainland Superwinch Challenges.  They brought into the series a new truck (Custom Ultra 4) and though they had a few breakages along the way they still managed to start all five rounds. 

Nathan Hammond and co-driver Michael also bought a new truck into the challenge, a Can Am UTV, Nathan completing all rounds. 

Scotty Newport was back in the bright yellow Jeep Wrangler.  But with daughter Megan not able to co-drive this year he managed to get James Keys, who up until now was more at home in the driver’s seat. They also did well, completing all five rounds. 

Others to complete all series rounds in Outlaw this year were Richard Wilson and Matt Silva, Mike McCarthy and Tom Hayes, Andy Reeves and Aaron, Malcolm Wells and new co-driver Robert Harris, and Steve and Mathew Breurton, 

Clubman class

This year Clubman class saw a clean sweep, with Brock Welsh and Nic Scales completing and winning the Clubman class at all five rounds.  Land Rover pair Tim Engel and Callum Hunter, in their first full year in the series, also finished all five rounds.

We also had a first this year, with Leigh Kirby driving the bright orange Hilux and partner Leigh Jones in the co-driver’s seat. We have had female co-drivers but never before have we had a female driver enter the series. 

So well done Mrs Leigh (as she is known to most). Awesome effort and a huge challenge against those blokes.  She held her own, too, though probably won’t be in the driver’s seat next year because now that she has tried both she reckons she likes being a  co-driver better.  More control out of the cab, driver gets stuck, co-drivers gets you out (a lot more fun). Either way, well done Mrs Leigh.

You’re welcome

We had seven new Trucks enter this season, some new teams and the rest long term combinations. Hopefully with the new rule change we will get the Open Class back up and running for the 2018 season.  Remember Clubman is a starter class so if you are keen contact us and we will get a rule book out to you (just give us a couple of months to get them sorted). 

Superwinch support

We have given away five Talon Superwinchs this year plus and some fantastic prizes also supplied by our sponsor Superwinch.   

The final results would I’m sure have pleased our sponsor Superwinch as well with first place in both Clubman and Outlaw classes going to teams running Talon Superwinches, I also have to mention they were both in Jeeps, Brock and Nic in a Jeep Wrangler and Scotty and James in a Jeep Cherokee. 

Full results on our Facebook page:

Note from the author

The Mainland Superwinch Challenge Series is big in my household. I write the stories and keep the Facebook page up to date with photos etc, my husband Scotty Newport enters in the Outlaw Class and our daughter Megan enjoys hanging with us oldies that much she volunteered to help in the scoring side of things for the year!  This is my last story for the year, I hope you have enjoyed my photos and reading my version of events thru out the year.

Ends

2017 MAINLAND SUPERWINCH CHALLENGE OVERALL RESULTS

OUTLAW

CLUBMAN

To read every story in the December 2017 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (Nov 17) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.