RUFF wrote:Hot, Tired, just walked in the door, after driving for 15+ hours.
Drove Jackhammer with assistance from a strap and 6 guys pulling. Watch the video. I dont think the result would have been much different had they not pulled on the strap. The choice was there for every team to do what we did. Everyone else winched. I said i was not going to winch JackHammer. If it took 3 goes and i DNFed then that was the way it would have ended. Im not knocking anyone for winching i just prefer not to unless im broken or on my roof
When i watched Darren Blackburn run around the course i thought for sure he had the trophy in the bag because the mog is Big Heavy and not realy easy to move fast and i thought there was no way i could drive these courses at that kind of pace.
When i started i had no intention of beating Darrens time but when i came out of the first section and was told it was the fastest run of the day to that point it was on
By the time i was at the holding gate after the second course i was at 6.01min and i knew darrens run was in the 9min area so i had to finish in less than 2min wether i winched or not if i wanted to win. My mind was made up at the start line that i was not winching. I got to the bottom of JackHammer and when i looked up im pretty sure i could see a pioneer ashphelt machine just leaving. My Team had placed every rock they could in every hole they could find and it realy looked like a highway up there. Scott hooked the snatch strap on the front before running to the top to join the others. Greg stood to the side and spotted for me(not that i was actually listening to his advise
sorry Greg) All i could see was the top.
The Mog was running like a busted ass and kept fueling up. Thats why it stops part way up in the video. I just slipped the clutch a little and run it to about 5K and popped it. It just went straight up. To me CV rock felt like more of an obstical. It was a combination of the guys on the strap the rocks packed in the right places and last but not least a very Strong Vehicle.
As for the skid steering we have been doing this for nearly 2 years now some guys need to get with the times
The Event was awsome the organisation and officials i could not find a fault with it. The track was unreal and i will be back next year.
And the guys that having a cry about the Water/Mud. THIS WASNT ROCKCRAWLING it WAS AN ALLTERAIN EVENT! From my experiances mud and water is pretty normal in an allterain event. Personaly i would have prefered to drive the water before the rocks were placed in it but this wasnt my decision.
I would like to thank the On All 4s 4WD Club for organising the event, Dargle Gardens Ski park for holding the event, Sam Overton of Haultech Engineering for letting me abuse his rig once again, Wes Clifford for Spotting for me again, all of my Logan Districts Team members for paving and pulling for me, all the spectators that came to watch as these events realy cant run without you. And my sponsors Haultech Engineering, And ARB Southside if it wasnt for both of thes Companies i couldnt have made this trip happen.
Last but not Forgotten the TLCC Recovery Team, I know you guys get a hard time from most people but if it wasnt you guys putting your hand up to do recoveries then who is going to do it? You guys done a great job with very little thanks. If you guys ever want to do some recovery work at events in SE/QLD or Northern NSW let me know as we will be on the look out for some reliable groups to help us out in the near future.
Thanks Guys i will be back later on im going to catch up on some sleep
Oh yeah and Thanks Mum and Dad