VIC WINCH CHALLENGE

We were all ready and new what lay ahead and by dinner time on Friday all the VAT marshalling crew had arrived, grabbed some dinner and headed off to watch the teams compete. It was a relaxing night that ended with us all chatting around the campfire back at camp.

Saturday morning we headed off to manage SS7 which was a very long stage that most teams completed without any dramas. In saying that, 2 teams, 1 being Big Scotty did lie down and rest just near the end, providing the boys at the top with some action. I ended up at the bottom with Rob and had our fix of action as we had to recover a rolled Hilux. All recoveries were carried out in our usual manner, mine using the teams winch while they stayed buckled in their rolled Hilux. After all that excitement we headed back to camp to catch up with the rest of the club.

Back at camp we all heard the stories of how people fared, who was doing good, who not so good, all while enjoying a few beers. After learning Joel had the misfortune of rolling again, and discussing what his plans for the shorty were, a conversation started;  “I’m gunna make it a ute” said Joel. I suggested “Lets do it now!” to which Joel replied “You wont be able to do it with a hacksaw”. Well you can guess the rest as Big Scotty was handed hacksaw. Joel was correct as we did use an axe to finish the roof cut. It was one of the funniest thing I have ever been involved in .

Sunday rolled around and it was eggs and bacon again for breakfast again before we headed off to SS10 to get our stage sorted. This is a stage I have been involved in before and this year was even better. The stage had 3 possible winches with most teams having at least 1 winch (Adam & Bagsy were an exception!!) and provided some real action for all involved. Justin and Steve had to recover after a roll and still managed to finish inside the DNF time. After the last team had completed we headed back to camp to pack up and watch the presentations where we ended up with 3 VAT teams in the top 5.

It was a great weekend for the club and I really appreciate the hard work and dedication provided by all that helped with the marshalling. I would also like to congratulate all the teams that competed and it was great to see that everyone was there at the end, even after the issues encounted by some teams.

I had a ball, had to make some tuff, hard decisions, saw some action packed driving and cant wait for the next one.

Jonesy