The 24th of May saw another winch challenge put on by Mission 4x4 at a new venue on the outskirts of Chelmsford,Essex.

The team (me, my wife and Martin) managed to set up 20 sections in the days before the event, this time ranging from really easy sections to well, challenging I suppose, nothing too hard, just make them think a bit, you know the ones!

We had a really good attendance with 13 out of the 15 booked on to the event. Lots of new faces which was really nice to see and some of the same faces with new machinery.

The weather was fantastic and so nearing the 10 o clock stage they all set off to find there own way around the site of the 20 punches.

The casualties started before some of the teams had started! A varied field from wiring problems, bent steering, oil filling up the bores,tyres off rims, trailing arms torn from chassis's, broken cv's (one word for you Jeff....ASHCROFT)

But the spirit of the competitors and determination and the fun they all seemed to be having was the most I've ever seen anywhere, when I see faces like that it makes all the hard work worth while.

Tactics seemed to be varied, some teams were doing them as they came to them, others were driving round doing the easier ones leaving the more difficult to later if they had time, or if they got progressively braver as the day went on.

Section 15 and 16 seemed to be where the men and the boys were separated, 15 being a steep nasty downhill which you lowered yourself down but aswell as down it was a steep sidehill, like a corkscrew, those with mid winch facilities found it OK but anyone without gave it a wide birth, Except one Nutter.....Jeff.

Hats off to the man, I would not be keen to do it without a mid winch facility, WELL DONE! All be it he broke his cv at the bottom trying to get the punch, but once he was out of the hole he headed straight to the parc ferme and changed it and was back out competing within the hour!

Section 16 looked oh so simple, off a small ledge, a tight turn at the bottom, a sidehill wall of death round to the left, punch the card, turn round and come out the same way, simple!! Well it was until the mud by the punch err... softened, and with a lack of competitors walking and having a look first, less space to turn round than first thought.

For the first time we ran two classes, class 1 was anything with two traction aids or less and class 2 was everything else. The reason was that a percentage of entrants were novices, which is why we had an array of courses to suit but these were very easy for the experts. As it was, the novices did themselves proud, some of them shocking themselves at how much they had covered, including beating some of the class above them! 

The day ran really well with the finish time of 6 o clock all had either broken or had done enough and were not up to the remainder of the sections or had finished, with myself busy working out the results with the prize money eagerly being watched by the onlookers, we were finally ready to dish-out the results they had all been waiting for!!!!!

 

THE RESULTS            from a possible 1000 point total

 

CLASS 1

 

1st         Keith Woods /  Jamie Woods                          500

2nd        Jason           /  Darren                                     450

3rd         A,Branch      /  E.Doy                                      375

eq          Scott            /  Aaron                                       375

5th         R.Beal          /  Josh                                        250

 

 

CLASS 2

 

1st         D.Cowlin     / W.Leaper                                   975

2nd        P.Graves    /  D.Graves                                   675

3rd         E.Chapman/  K.Churchyard                            650

4th         P.Mangham/  A.Fletcher                                 600

5th         A.Bryant     /  D.Death                                     525

6th         J.Waghorn  /  I.Rust                                        475

7th         G.Callow    /  C.Vernon                                   450

8th         C.Cater      /  D.Atkins                                     175

 

 

Well done to all of you and look forward to seeing you all soon on the next event......

 

MANY THANKS TO ALL WHO HELPED MARSHAL, WE CANNOT DO THESE EVENTS IF IT WAS NOT FOR YOUR HELP, THANKS AGAIN.

 

SOME SAY HE IS PURELY EVIL, AND THAT HE IS TOTALLY INSANE, AND THAT HE DREAMS OF SECTIONS IN HIS SLEEP!!!!

all we know is that he's from mission 4x4........

Regards

Mark. (the stig!)