Big Red 4x4 - Q-Rock 2004

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Navigation: Home :: Comp Reports :: Q-Rock 2004

Q-Rock 2004 - Comp Report

Dates: Easter Weekend, 2004

Once again Q Rock was to be held over the Easter break but this year 6 outlaw class vehicles and 10 modified class vehicles tackled the rocks at Manar Tourist Park.

The trip up on Thursday night gave me a chance to compare the new Beaudesert Exhaust 3” mandrel bent system to the previous “cut off” standard system up the Toowoomba range.

On previous trips I usually had to go back to second as it would die in third but with the new system it went over the top in third easily…very impressed.

We arrived at Manar Tourist Park just south of Mundubbera at about 3.30am and set up camp with the others from the Overlander forum.

Friday: was spent fitting the swampers, finishing setting up camp, collecting firewood and relaxing around camp while watching other campers arriving and setting up. We also spent some time chatting to those we know.

Saturday: Chris and I drove over to the drivers briefing to find 3 tube buggy’s, a highly modified hilux and a highly modified 40 series entered in the outlaw class and two 40 series Toyota’s, three single cab hilux’s, one extra cab hilux, one dual cab hilux, one Suzuki sierra, one MQ short wheel base and our GU coil cab entered in the modified class.

Track 1:
We lined up third and to start off we drove over some large rocks then crossed the creek but had a fair bit of trouble getting up the bank due to the large holes and well spaced ledges, chris chucked a couple of rocks in the holes and we got up the bank and onto the rockface but loose dirt left us spinning about half way up.

A few more tries and we were up but we had knocked over a cone and was way off line, we to and fro’d a bit to get around a tree and back on line then lined up for the sideways drop back down over the bank.

Chris wrapped the safety strap around the tree and lowered the truck over until we were straight and stable enough to drive down the rest of the bank.

We turned up the creek and dodged around some boulders then forced our way between two trees [dented the bull bar] and up a small waterfall then over some large boulders to the finish line with a score of -50.

Scotty in the dual cab Hilux managed to roll onto his side trying to climb the rockface but was quickly pulled back onto his wheels and continued on to complete the track.

The team toy story hilux dnf’d within the first metre as it had broken a front drive shaft earlier.

Tony in the outlaw class hilux broke his transmission trying to climb the rockface and was then out of the whole competition for the weekend but his truck then became a spare parts bin to keep other competitors mobile.

Track 2:
We had to tie the truck to a tree and lower it over the bank sideways at the start of this track to get wide enough to clear a rock ledge at the side of the creek, we then crossed the creek and over some large rocks before hitting the rear diff on a rock between two trees, a quick reverse got us clear and we continued on over some large boulders to a very tight corner which took a couple of reverses to get round.

We drove over more boulders on the down slope back towards the creek and got caught up in an overhanging branch which broke and got caught even more.

Chris and the officials removed the branch and we then did a hard left over some more boulders and back into the creek where we were faced with a double jump up with a tree in front and a stump at the side getting in the way of a clean run up the bank.

We had to place a rock in front of the ledge to get the bullbar to clear then nailed it up the double ledges with a dodge to the left to miss the tree and finished with a score of -85.

The blue 40 ended up sideways part way up the ledge and up against the stump and had to be pulled clear.

The MQ didn’t continue after this but I don’t know what happened to it.

Track 3:
This track was the first of the Outlaw tracks and we had the benefit of watching where they got stuck to plan our line.

We dropped over the bank at the start and dodged around a few boulders to the first corner where we had to do a sharp u turn then had to do a sharp left hand turn into a gully where we rubbed up against a tree with the rollbar and then dropped over a large rock on the right and ended up hard against the left hand door on another tree.

Chris tried to pull the truck across to the right to clear the tree but could not budge it and if we tried to go backwards the truck would have slipped down into the gully even further and making it worse so I just had to keep driving and listen as the door buckled under the pressure of the tree as it slid right along the middle of the door and continued on to the cab before the tray hit and took the pressure off.

We turned left up the bank which put us on a pretty bad side angle and then had to run the right hand wheel up and over a huge rock which put us on an even bigger side angle on the other side to squeeze past the cone.

Next obstacle was a rock ledge about a metre and a half high and the bullbar had no chance of clearing it so chris threw a couple of rocks in front of the wheels and we eased the front up then nailed it and punched up and over it to the finish with a score of -40.

The dual cab hit the same tree as us with minimal damage but Richard hit the tree so hard he bent the inside door frame.

The Suzuki broke a diff and was out of the comp.

SUNDAY:

Track 4:
We again watched the outlaw class rigs do this course first and then it was my turn to go first for the mod class.

We clambered up and over the rocks on the first obstacle but got hung up on the side steps due to lack of clearance, it didn’t matter how much chris tried to rockstack we just couldn’t get any traction to move backwards or forward and after one last try where we almost disappeared in a cloud of tyre smoke we finally had to admit defeat… the worst thing was that this was the exact same spot where we DNF’d last year !!

Scotty went next and did some major damage getting through in the dual cab hilux and Richard broke a front axle and DNF’d in his single cab hilux.

Track 5:
Once again the outlaw class went first and then it was Scotty’s turn to lead the modified class through.

We watched until he broke a CV and then I ran out of battery power in my camera so we did a quick trip back to camp to charge it up on the generator while we had some lunch and by the time we returned they had finished track 5 with team F-it popping a tyre off the bead.

Track 6:
This track was for the outlaws only and we arrived back from camp to see Rod in team Rugie stuck in the last obstacle which was a deep ravine with a narrow V shaped bottom full of water.

Rod had broken something in the front end and was winched out.

Team Trailcraft went next and had a brilliant run until the last obstacle where they rolled the buggy upside down in the ravine, they were pulled back upright by a heap of willing helpers and drove their way out of the ravine.

Team Hawg went next but ended their run when they broke a left CV about three quarters of the way through and when they tried to reverse back out they broke the right CV, they were winched backwards out of the way of the next team.

Team Haultech managed to get about half way before breaking a CV to end their run.

With everyone finished most people headed back to the main camp area for the presentations but Chris and I stayed behind with several others to winch Craig out in the “Team Hawg” 40 series which also had broken steering.

The steering was welded up while a few of us stacked a heap of rocks to make the recovery easier and we managed to winch him back out of the hard stuff before the steering broke again.

Once again the steering was welded up again and I turned my truck around and towed him out of the gully and we finally headed back towards the main camp by about 9 pm.

RESULTS:

Modified:

Entrant Number

Team

Stage1

Stage2

Stage3

Stage4

Stage5

Outright Points

01

02

Yuri

-55

-230

-125

-85

-165

-660

03

Team F-IT

-110

-90

-35

-20

-10

-125

04

Dangerous Daves Weapon

-25

-10

-30

-15

-65

-95

05

Scott Dunlop

-70

-70

DNF

06

Rock Solid

-5

-60

-105

-125

-50

-315

07

A.A.Rockcrawling

-205

-50

-10

DNF

-140

08

09

10

Team Toy Story

DNF

11

Scott Henery Demolitions

-45

-120

-90

-315

-205

-775

12

IKUZUS

-75

-130

-110

DNF

15

Big Red Racing

-50

-85

-40

DNF

· we came 4th on track 1

· 5th on track 2

· 4th on track 3

RESULTS:

Outlaw:

Entry Number

Team

Stage1

Stage2

Stage3

Stage4

Outright Points

01

Team Hawg

-30

-190

-85

-120

-425

4th

08

Rugie

+10

+5

-100

-110

-195

2nd

09

Haultech Engineering

-70

-115

0

-15

-200

3rd

14

Trail Craft

+20

+35

+25

0

+80

1st

· outlaw stage 1 was track 3

· stage 2 was track 4

· stage 3 was track 5
· stage 4 was track 6

MONDAY:
With the competition over we went out for a fun drive with the Overlander forum members and a mate Phil.

We took the easy way along track 12 until the turn off to track 66 where I went first while the others watched then Phil, Chris, and John followed with Andrew having to bypass due to lack of clearance.

I had a go at “middy rock” and too my surprise cleared it ok then Phil drove it in his mid wheel base Toyota as well, all the others bypassed this bit and we headed over to track 69 for a go.

Andrew jumped in with me and we quickly drove the track to see if he could get through in his stock height Rodeo and then we both joined up to the tail end of the convoy.

We all drove up to the top of the ridge and followed the ridge line to the first challenge loop with no one having any major problems but a couple of wheels were lifted and some sills got very close before we looped back onto the ridge track.

The second challenge loop has a large isolated rock at the start and the rodeo was far too low to straddle it so Andrew waited on the ridge track while the rest of us drove down to the bottom and did the turn on the bad side slope before lifting a wheel as we drove across and up the rockface back to the ridge track where we had to place a few rocks to get Johns 80 series over the edge back onto the track.

We started the downhill run to the bypass track and again had to place a few rocks to keep Andrews sills from getting damaged and then he turned right into the bypass track while the rest of us drove up the rockface to the top of the next section before the track turned to the right and we joined Andrew on the exit back to the start.

We next took track 18 to a track called “wreckers run” which has beaten me up to now but with double Airlockers and Super Swampers this time I thought I had a fairly good chance.

Phil has driven the rockface a couple of times already and he led the way into the track and lined up at the bottom of the rockface.

He started up the face but started spinning so reversed down for a faster attempt but again had no luck. By this time I was getting a bit worried because I have come extremely close to flipping over several times on previous attempts.

Phil had a few more hard goes before admitting defeat and reversing back out and I headed up for my turn at the face.

I lined the GU up on a line that would give me a clear run backwards if I didn’t make it, double checked both lockers were engaged and steadily drove straight up the face without even slipping a wheel !!, to say I was extremely happy is a huge understatement……..woohoo !! :>)

It had been a long time since anyone had driven the rest of this track and in most places you could not see any sign of the track so a lot of it was done by trying to remember back when we built it.

Just round the next corner is “Phils folly” and Phil again led the way up and round the rock to the top, John and Chris in the two 80 series cruisers went up next and Andrew decided to head back to camp so I followed the other three to the top.

After driving over the top of the outcrop we turned hard left and dropped back into the gully before doing a sharp u turn and climbing back up the rock ledge while turning left to follow the hill upwards.

Chris was parked with a wheel almost lifting and as soon as he started off he did a nice wheel lift until he got over the next rock ledge and leveled off.

A sharp turn between two very close trees saw the two 80’s do a couple of reverses to get lined up so I took a line over a large boulder in the long grass to make sure I could get through and then we had to climb a steep rockface where John got a little off line but after a bit of guidance from Phil he was soon back on track.

The four of us followed the cliff line to a steep rock face at the end and dropped over the edge following the gully back to track 18 where we turned left for camp.

A couple of hours later with all the camping gear packed we started the long trip for home.
Another great weekend with plenty of excitement and good company…Manar is always a great time!

Shane Gerrish (AKA Big Red)

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