Author: tsh-01
Written on June 16, 2008
Written on June 16, 2008
Hello to you all,
Well our Shottle ‘Challenge Event’ came and went. Did we pull it off? Yes. Did it all go according to plan? Most definitely. Was it worth all the planning and hard work getting ready for it? Absolutely!
Firstly I, and I’m sure everyone who took part, would like to say a big thank you to the following people who helped with this event, Byron for the idea originally, and weeks of hard work planning behind the scenes with me, Mick Bell for helping set out the red punches, Gaz, Little Andy, Pete and Bob, Calla and (beaver) Mark who all put in the whole of Saturday setting out trial sections and punches, and marshalling the event on Sunday. (and if you don’t mind i’d also like to give myself a pat on the back for my part!!), and finally Shrek for getting out there and pushing the event outside the club.
The decision not to have the course open on Saturday proved to be a wise one as most of the day was took up setting out punches and the trial sections! The trial sections were tested in several standard road going vehicles, including my own, to prove that they could be attempted by anything without causing any damage.
Sunday morning signing on was busy and things kicked off just after 10am, with the modified vehicles doing the trial sections first and the others going off to start collecting points on the punches.
In all 20 vehicles started with 4 retirements due to mechanical failures as the day progressed. Hats off to Ako who broke his transfer box mountings, and so left site to rush off home and pick up spares to repair his motor, (and also bring spares for another member to allow him to carry on!) and then return to site, fix his vehicle and carry on!!
Poor old Shrek has been rallying round people for the past few weeks and talking them into competing, only for his own motor breaking (whilst helping someone out) causing him to retire early.
The trial sections proved to be the talking point of the day, especially the 1 minute timed section and the blind driving, providing plenty of amusement for those spectating. Almost everyone who did the blind driving section commented on how difficult it was to get your bearings in my home made blind fold, (with added artwork by my daughter!), not knowing where straight ahead actually was!!
The following is a list of class entries and their final positions for those of you who took part to see how you did.
>Standard Class
1 Chris Hackett (competitor no. 2), 3220pts
2 Dave Banner (no. 16), 3205pts
3 Mark Naylor (no. 9) 3155pts
4 Nigel Atkins (Ako) (no 10) 2325pts
5 Paul Peet (no. 11) 1740pts
6 Shrek (no 4) 1490pts
7 Wayne Butler (no. 12) 740pts
8 John Peace(no. 17) no cards handed in, did not attempt trial sections, no points
9 Taz (no. 18)no cards handed in, did not attempt trial sections, no points
10 J Livingstone (no. 20) no cards handed in, did not attempt trial sections, no points
Modified Class
1 Karl Bunting (no. 1) 3225pts
2 Eron Baxter (Ezz) (no. 13) 2795pts
3 Nick Wilkes (no. 8 ) 2255pts
4 Nigel Smith (no.14) 2030pts
5 Phillip Hill (no. 5) 1955pts
6 Chris Shaw (no. 15) 1240pts
7 Wayne Shelley (no. 19) 1160pts
8 Anthony Young (Donk) (no.6) 380pts
Fully Modified
1 Alex Wilson (no. 3) 3590pts
2 A Sharp (no. 7) 3140pts
Spirit Of The Event Award
After much deliberation this was awarded to Paul Peet and his 12 year old son Josh. The decision was based on the fact that Josh was in and out of their vehicle throughout the day at punches, and calmly guided his dad through the blindfold section despite only just being able to see over the dashboard in their Land Rover! I only hope that Paul will drink the beer and buy his son 10 cans of pop to refill the fridge!
Many people have questioned this decision, based on the fact “that I pulled such and such out here or there”. Based on that should the award have gone to Shrek, who ruled himself out of the competition by snapping shafts and smashing diffs pulling out someone else? Or perhaps Ako who went home part way through the day to get parts not only for himself, but also for another competitor to allow them both to carry on, or should it have gone to Alex Wilson, the ONLY competitor to find ALL 30 punches, and also have the time to help other competitors get punches by winching them both into and out of punch sections when they got stuck (and NOT just Chris in the orange 90!)!! Or finally what about the guys from Viking 4×4 in the blue 90, who entered the fully modified class? They also helped out people throughout the day with winches when they were stuck! It went to Paul and Josh because it was felt that Josh gave his all to help his Dad throughout the day. The view was that this team, a father and (young) son team working together, is what this club is all about, or at least I think so!!
It also seems that some people misunderstood some of the rules given by Byron at the drivers briefing prior to the start of the event. It was made clear enough ( and everyone else understood it!) that you could, if you wanted, attempt punches outside your class to gain more points. You were even allowed to re run the timed trail section more than once to try and get as close to the set time as possible, which many of you did! If any of you were not sure about anything you should have queried this at the drivers briefing, as Mark Naylor did. You had all day to query anything you were not sure about or let us know you were unhappy with something, and chose not to! And so the trophies and awards will stand as they were given on the day!! The old saying you can’t keep all of the people happy all of the time comes to mind, but if we kept some of the people happy some of the time then it was worth the effort!
The next question is, do you want this competition to run again next year? it’s up to you, so let us have your comments, good or bad, and pictures from the day if you have any.
Once again thanks to the marshalling lads for all their hard work on the day, and it was nice to see more families coming along!
June 16th, 2008 at 9:58 pm
lol 4th overall in the standard class!!!
i thought i was in the modified, beings though i have a welded diff. and when pete put my puntch card string on i got the modded lenth. suppose it makes my 8 blue puntches that i got much more sweeter
and how did i end up with 2325 points???
i thought - 8 blues = 400 clean on blindfold = 750 and 0 on timed.
please explane as i must have nodded off during the brefing, as i mist the bit about scoring points for any colour puntch aswell.
maybe an idea for the next event to publish the rules/scoring a week or so in advance, so people who are asleep/exited dont get confused
Can`t complane realy, have a fantstic days driving, probebly 1 of the best.
apart from a short brake to fix a T/Box mout the old jeep performed supperb.
i loved the idea of the 1min timed section, i did a 1.04 1st go, but that soon got beat. after a few more goes i cract the 1 min (well 2 thou over)
and the blindfold section was bloody terefying, it is just so strange to drive blindfolded, thanks to Mick for concering his fear and giud me through.
Hats of to Alex for getting all 30 puntches and winning the fully modified,but maybe next time don`t winch jeeps in the unmodded class to puntches, not realy in the spirt of things m8
thanks to all involved for putting it on, roll on the next one (so thats a yes from me trev)
June 16th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Yes it has got to be run again next year. as callor said leek is perfect. i have already started repairing mine, i need to replace both axles, the radiator, one shocker and a spring, and the radio is broke. besides that my back is in bits, my shuga level is warp speed 9, I think i will sit back again for a few events now as this one really has done me in. I do think alex deserved it though his truck was perfect and his driving was spot on.
June 16th, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Did a quick analysis to see what the overall results were.
June 17th, 2008 at 3:56 pm
for get next year put one one every 3 months i may be back by then
sounds like i missed a good week end well done boys proud off ya well
done alex and chris see ya all soon
June 18th, 2008 at 9:15 am
Note: Judging by some of the feedback may be next time the ’spirit of the day’ award should be renamed the “who can pull out the most stuck vehicles to impress the marshalls”! Just a thought!!