Story and photos by Ashley Lucas

For 2016 the Manukau Winch Challenge was held a little later in the year and this allowed the organisers access to new venues for the night and day stages.  

Seventeen competitors over three classes entered with the largest class being the ‘modified’ class which is for anything goes type vehicles whereas the Challenge class requires vehicles to be roadworthy with registration, WoF and certification for modifications. 

A fine evening

Come a wet Friday afternoon vehicles were put through scrutineering at the Ramarama Country Lodge which was to be the base for the two days of competition.  As the competitors made their way to the venue for the night stages at Meremere the rain eased and as they gathered for drivers’ briefing it cleared into a fine evening of competition.

There were four stages to complete with a couple being fairly easy and a couple proving troublesome for some others. 

The hilarious sight of the night was local competitor Bernie Knoz who got the fastest time on Stage 14 but also a penalty when on the first corner his door swung open and took out the peg.   

New property

Saturday stages were on a completely new property to winch challenges at Maramarua.  Again the day was fine with 11 stages to complete during the day although several would not finish the day. 

Stage 3 threw up some challenges for a few competitors with Stan Goodman, Brent Holden and Bernie Konz all finishing just outside the DNF time of 30 minutes.  It was especially hard on Bernie as he was only 44 second over and had he been 45 seconds quicker he would been second in class ahead of fellow Manukau club member Peter Haigh.

Despite the lower competitor numbers the event was extremely successful and the new property having plenty of untapped areas the prospects of a 2017 event are very good. 

RESULTS

Challenge Class

1. Steve Reed/Steve Green 1355 points

2. Grant Stone/Steven Hardman 140

Club Class

1. Dean Currie/Ashley Goddard 860

2. Chris Simpson/Ben Harvey 810

Modified Class

1. Robin Scaife/Paul Kelly 1386 points

2. Peter Haigh/Nathen Philips 1219

3. Bernie Konz/Warren Thomas 1192

4. Stan Goodman/Chris Golding 1184

5. Lance Goodman/Danny Richmond 1138

6. Phil Barnard/Steve Kingswell 1101

7. Tim Randall/Carol LeGallais 1086

8 . Roger Urwin/Sean Urwin 954

9. Brent Holden/Aaron Blomfield 945

10 . Jacob Higgins/Tom Goodman 928

11 . Mike Inns/Neil McConnon 871

12. Luke Vitasovich/Nathan Murray 602

13. Tony Smith/Calvin Tyler 512

To read the full story in the February 2017 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (January 20) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.