I had been looking forward to this round as the truck has now got front and rear ARB difflocks as well as a new set of 38” TSL Super Swampers, Chris was also looking forward to having a lazy time and not having to rock stack as much so with a fair bit of excitement we entered our nomination and ended up being competitor No 1, we were assigned to start at Track 3 and headed over to inspect the track.

SATURDAY

TRACK 3 consisted of a steep drop from the bank down to a creekbed then a sharp turn to the right which I didn’t make and had to do a reverse to clear a large tree, this was followed by crossing an angled log then a short run to a small rock waterfall with a pool [dry at the moment] at the entrance which we negotiated quite easily.

Some more rock on an angle with another rockface hanging out of the right hand bank had the tray scraping from just behind the cab to the very rear of the tray, glad I don’t have a wagon.

We continued up the creek dodging some diff dragging rocks and past the old exit where we had to drop into a deep hole on the left to avoid the witches hat  which had the snorkel and headboard hitting a small tree hanging out of the left bank, luckily the tree moved in the loose soil and no damage occurred.

I stopped the truck and waited while Chris stacked some logs into one of the deeper holes in the next section of huge boulders, I engaged the front locker [the rear was already on] and turned to the right to drive up on a large boulder but couldn’t turn due to the pressure on the tyres so just ploughed on at the bottom of the gully with the door panels very close to the rocks on the right.

The truck climbed a huge boulder on the left which had the truck on a huge side angle as the right tyres where still in the bottom of the gully but we kept mobile and drove up the next rock ledge and back onto fairly level ground without even touching the logs that Chris had so laboriously dragged there.

All we had next was a right turn up the bank to the exit via a steep loose dirt section which we did easily, our score of 10 points made us pretty stunned……love those lockers !!

TRACK 1 was next and with a quick look to see that it hadn’t changed too much from the last time we did it, I eased the truck down the bank, dodged the big free standing rocks on the left and turned hard right into the bottom of the very muddy gully, a reverse got us lined up for the mini gorge and I confidently headed up the rock ledges but stopped at the top ledge with the swampers fighting for traction, I reversed back and Chris chucked a couple of logs in the hole and we drove straight out then squeezed through the gap between the witches hats and entered boulder bend but as we were exiting the rear diff got hung up, I reversed again and Chris placed a couple of logs on the track to lift the diff and we drove out the exit with a score of 80 points.

TRACK 3 was held in a wide gully just above the dam and consisted of driving over various isolated rocky out crops.

At the start the truck was sitting on such a bad side angle that I had to get the official to help me open the door so I could have a look at the track and when I got back in I couldn’t get the seatbelt to unlock and had to reverse back to level ground to get it on before lining up at the start again.

I started off by dropping down beside a deep hole with the truck leaning precariously toward the hole and levelled out while turning right and lining up the rocky section to clear the diffs, I took a line to the left which no one else was using and had no trouble getting through then got the truck lined up for a rock slab between a couple of trees, I came at it on a sharp angle to get the right wheel up the rock ledge and used the tree to pivot on so we wouldn’t get hung up on the drop off.

We did a three point turn and then entered the area where I got severely stuck last time but this time I ran the left wheel up the rocks and when it looked like not making it I turned right and followed the rocks to the end and made it through that way.

The next section saw most people scraping there left side rails against a large boulder but it would have hit the door panel on mine so I drove the left wheel up and over the boulder while straddling the hole at the bottom of the boulder and with a small amount of scraping underneath we got past and into the small waterfall which we cleared without touching down.

A 270 degree turn had us crossing out tracks and then we drove over a couple of rock slabs to the top of the bank where we did a three point turn and dropped back into the gully, two large rocks in the gully looked like a problem but I drove over the largest one which gave us a good line for the loose dirt exit and we drove through the finish with an excellent score of only 5 points [neither of us can figure out where we got the penalty from]

SATURDAY NIGHT

TRACK 4 was held under lights in the Gorge.

We started by dropping over the bank with the rear wheels almost lifting off the ground and then drove over some large logs before doing a sharp left hand turn while scraping over a huge boulder.

Next we drove up the bank and did a three point turn and dropped back down an even steeper track to another three point turn before lining up for the Rock Wall.

A large log at the bottom of the Rock Wall stopped any sort of run up and we didn’t make it over the log the first time and decided not to rock stack and just hit it harder, with a lot of bouncing we clawed our way to the top of the Rock Wall where Chris asked me if I had the front locker on…Doh, helps if you switch it on!

Another three point turn had us dropping back over the bank on an angle whilst at the same time crossing a fan of logs and then into a series of moguls that had the Wizard Suspension doing its thing to keep the wheels on the ground.

We crossed from one side of the gully to the other and followed the track to the “Dogs Bowl” which involved dropping into a deep bowl shaped hole with a steep exit to get back out, and then we again followed the track until the log climb which we climbed first go and passed the finish with a score of 15 points.

We headed for the exit and glen suggested I head out via the Rock Wall and this time “use those lockers!” so we cheerfully lined up and bounced our way over the log but it slipped backwards and when it dug in it made a very expensive sound, turned out the left rear axle had broken and shattered the end off the difflock and damaged most of the rest of the parts in there as well !!

Our placing's were third in track 1

First in track 2

Equal first in track 3 [there was a 3 way shootout on Sunday to find a winner but as we had broken we were unable to join in and would have come officially third]

There was two equal firsts on track 4 and we were part of the 6 equal seconds.

Our overall score of 110 brought us in second by 5 points then third was another 75 points away

Oh well, at least we had finished the course and came in second overall so we are pretty happy about that !!

We cut the broken axle off near the bearings and removed the driveshaft and drove it home in four wheel drive with terry towing my trailer back to springwood for me.

I scored another axle and dropped the difflock off to ARB southside to inspect but when the guys dismantled it and showed me what was damaged I decided to get a new one. Even though I had not bought it from them, Mark Lacey and his staff have gone out of their way to help me out, you don’t see service like that very often.

Shane Gerrish (AKA Big Red)

:: Return to Comp Reports / Home

© Copyright 2003 Big Red Racing, All Rights Reserved
http://www.bigred4x4.com