a fundraising event for TONY DODDS and TONY RYAN for the outback challenge.
6pm KFC browns plains, $20.00 10 prizes plus 4 trophys.
food at start and finish.
bring the family fourby, hard options at checkpoints if desired

wooohoooo, andrew [next door neighbour][ my navigator] and i came second
Met up with DQ and his navvy murray along the way and we turned up at browns plains to see dozens of hugely modified 4B's in the carpark, fair dinkum mine was one of the least modified, DQ was peeved that his was the smallest as the lift didn't go in on thursday like he wanted but then a smaller rangie turned up and we saw a vitara there as well so his spirits lifted
There ended up being 69 competitors !!
We lined up and left the carpark in last place, DQ was in front and a call came over the uhf " have you gone under the bridge yet?" i replied " yep i just turned onto the dirt" [then a bit of silence] "dirt ?" says DQ who's just about to turn onto the ipswich motorway .
A short time later DQ has turned up at the dirt turnoff and we headed off to catch up with the rest at checkpoint No 1 and settled down to a 2 hour wait due to the sheer number of competitors..............................

Checkpoint 1 was in a small quarry filled with water, the easy track was up a steep bank to the left and the hard track was up a rockface with some big holes above it and enclosed by a bank on each side, I drove through the water in second and accellerated as i came out of the water and up we went, but then with wheels spinning madly we slid back to the bottom, we reversed back into the water and nailed it in third and drove the left bank but the front wheels launched themselves across to the right bank with a sickening thud and we again slid back to the bottom
With honour at stake [but very few points left] we again attacked the rock face and was unceramoniosly dumped back at the bottom again and so we slinked off to get our sheet marked with a huge "O"
DQ took the easy track and collected his 30 points !! we missed out on 40 or 20 or 10
Along the way we had to collect a yellow flower, 12cm bit of wire, KFC chip packet, a can of coke and a shoe lace....murry was the only one with shoe laces so we schemed to knock him on the head near the end but we managed to find an old runner dumped 100 metres from the finish so he was saved the embarrasment of turning up at the finish laceless
There was a few questions to answer along the way as well as trying to make sure we didn't get lost, DQ wasn't worried about collecting points, he just followed behind happily waiting for the next hard bit to use his new locker on..........................

checkpoint 2 had three choices and we again took the hard one for 40 and nosed the front up the 2 1/2 foot ledge then nailed it and as the rear left climbed the ledge the front left dropped into a huge hole but with only a slight hesitation as the chassis thumped into the ground we made the top to earn our 40 points.
DQ also tackled this one but failed first time and busted a tailight reversing back down, he made it second go and we carried on with a very happy DQ
the tracks between checkpoints was filled with mud from previous day and nights rain which had DQ happily pouring heaps of petrol down the carby in a largely successfull attempt to keep the rangie completely sideways..................................

We arrived at checkpoint 3 and was asked which option we were taking but when we asked what was ahead all we got was a big sly grin and a repeat of the question so we again took the hard option and dropped down off the bank at a large side angle, "she'll be right says i" and we go a bit further, "we must be near the bottom says i" as the door handle gets very close to the ground and the rear wheel starts to lift " bugger says i " as we have to reverse back to get a straighter line but andrew looks much happier and we continue on to the other side where the hard option is
The turn into the hard option has the right rear about three feet above the rest of the wheels as we drop into a deep channel and we nail it to climb the steep bank at the end and collect our 40 points
DQ decides to attempt it but misses the turn and goes up the easy way by mistake and we eventually meet up and carry on to the next section......................

along the way to checkpoint 4 we have to find some boards with letters on them which are hidden beside the track in a short section between a "start of boards" and "end of boards" sign and i travel up the right hand side of the track looking and DQ travels up the left beside me, when we get near the end DQ yells out "found one" but there is ten spaces on the paper so while DQ checks out the carby linkages i decide to drive down to try and find some more boards, yep you guessed it, he has driven over two of them the and splashed another one with so much mud all i can see is the square shape. theres a couple hiding under grass clippings and are easy to find this way but impossible to see from the normal direction. we find another nine and then join back up with DQ and give him a good stirring [he will never live this down ] before carrying on to checkpoint 4.
For this one we have to do a very sharp turn to the left from a waterhole and climb a steep bank but as the track goes no where, we then have to reverse back down into the water before taking a 20 point bonus to drive through the deep section to the exit on the other side or the shallow section for no bonus.
We do the hill climb easy and the bonus is not as deep as they make out and we wait for DQ to have his turn but as we cant see him i dont know if he did the bonus......................................

checkpoint 5 is a hill climb with a straight set of ruts to keep you on line so i nail it in second and with diffs dragging, revs at absolute max and dirt spitting off into the scrub we manage to make it, tony ryan marks off our paper and tells us it been a long time since anyone made it so we are stoked
DQ takes the easy option as his diffs will ground out with the 31"s but his door comes open and he tries to close it but gets off line and has to reverse back down for another go.
We have a hairy wet clay slope to drive down to get off the ridge but get down ok, then we have some wet clay wased out tracks to do and DQ does them surpriseingly easy considering he only has AT's , i think he might be pretty happy with the diff lock.
We have another board section with some big ruts and washouts to drive through while looking for the boards and we can only find seven but as we dont know how many there is supposed to be we just carry on up the hill to the finish.
We stand around reliving every hard bit and checkpoint while they tally the score and first is a couple of guys in a front locked GQ wagon who had come down to brisbane from maryborough for the event, they then had to drive back that night and it was already about 2am.
Due to stuffing up checkpoint 1 i didn't think we had any hope and was pleasantly surprised when we picked up second place, we got a patrol hat, trophy and a tyre repair kit courtesy of FOURBYS .
They didn't say where DQ finished but he was only in it for the driving challenge and didn't bother with half the questions or items to collect.
All in all it was a fun night and can't wait till the next one.
Thanks for keeping us company and keeping us laughing DQ

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