Excitement was high at Colyton (near Feilding) on Sunday April 18 as several keen competitors rejoined the Club Truck Challenge (CTC) when everybody’s calendar opened up with a free weekend.

Brendan, Mark and Rae Watchorn had pegged out a course over a property that has hosted National 4x4 Trials events in the Past. And let me tell you, there weren’t many easy hazards to ease you into the day, plus there were a few jolly hard ones that squeezed you out of the course.

But I digress.

You see, Facebook experts have said that the length of your LED light bar determines the amount of off-road prowess you have. I, for one, am not quite sure of this though, so used the latest round of our long-running Central Zone Club Truck Challenge as a sort of ‘proof of concept;’ or not as the case might end up being!

For example. Brent Ward hung a long light bar in front of the supercharger on his LS1 V8-powered SWB Nissan Safari and had some good results. Mark Smith – on the other hand – had a long AND curved light bar on the front of his Rubicon-spec SWB Jeep Wrangler, but, apparently forgetting his years of 4WD experience, drove the thing off the side of the track as he entered the property.

The plus side is that Mark got to meet Bruce the farmer who came down to see what the trouble was and Bruce’s tractor towed the lightbar... I mean Jeep... safely into camp.

My turn

On hazard number three it was my turn to be the first person starting on it and straightaway I was over on my door handles as the ground gave way underneath me. I had lost drive to the wheels in the air before I could turn on the lightbar. At least I had one, though.

Clint and Chris had the misfortune to have no lightbars on their wagons (or tubes in their tyres, as it turned out) and required a trip to the pits after doing the same hazard. Meanwhile Ross’s Jeep lost its power steering on the same hazard after, you guessed it, no lightbar.

We started and finished with speed sections and in between some very technical challenges.

Natasha Smithson battled Judith Hintz to be the Queen of the Slipstream all day. Tash is bringing an analytical outlook to the competition that hasn’t been seen before, taking notes after each hazard. Wow, saying we’ve all been doing it wrong, doing it wrong.

In the spirit of the pioneering wheelers who had vices mounted on their rear bumpers I will probably now mount my lightbar on the back bar. Because?

I’m a joker

I’m a smoker

I’m a midnight toker

I sure don’t want to hurt no one

(RIP The Joker #199 Malcolm Mcleavey)