The Desert Defenders club hosted the fourth round of this season’s Central Zone Club Truck Challenge at Waiouru over the February 24-25 weekend. Story and photos by Andrew Gee.

The name "Central Zone Club Truck Challenge" (CTC) isn't that catchy and I wonder if it is holding back a major expansion of  competitor numbers. 

Sure the "Central Zone" of the NZFWDA supports us and the lawyers say "Challenge" instead of bare knuckle competition but maybe we need to look at other sports for some inspiration. My son and I went to watch NZ-wide Pro Wrestling and it was genuine entertainment, albeit from the ‘70s.  It could certainly teach us some lessons about wearing costumes and performers having stage names, so like the V8 Ute racing series we could be known by nicknames; the  tights and thigh boots can come later. 

To that end I have decided to test my theory on the readers of this fine magazine. To whit;

It only took one phone call to Desert Defender, Robert "The Raza" Stout to put everything in motion.  We had a quiet thought in memory of Bubble, this being the first Waiouru round held without him, before camping and a pit area were set up on the farm and we were treated to a hot weekend up the Whangaehu Valley.

The Dynamic Duo

The "Turbo Tyrannosaurus" and the "Blonde Bomber" preferred to be known as the "Dynamic Duo", a bit new age for me but they had entered a turbocharged Nissan Patrol that made an evil whistle when given the curry. 

Still, ‘the Force’ was strong with them as they both took a timed run in the speed section to see who was the faster driver.  Brendan "the Mitsi Buster" Watchorn lost front wheel drive early in the day but carried on with only rear drive until that also failed on Sunday.  He had an exciting failed hill climb when the Pajero freewheeled backwards and was only stopped by crashing into a handy tree beside the hazard.

Judith "Cunning as a Fox" Hintz took carrying momentum through the hazard to ridiculous level by flying through a combined sidle and hill climb at high speed, but it worked well to earn zero points.  Marty the Makara log puller broke a rear axle but had a spare and was able to make a repair and rejoin the competition.

High flier

Hazard 7 had a tricky line of sight which nobody was able to stay inside; that is moving between a consecutive set of pegs you must keep at least one wheel inside the line described by the pegs of the same colour .  The hazard was improved and then we ran it again as an extra hazard.  We used new areas of the farm and the hazards were rather difficult, with very steep descents and ascents laced with sheep ruts.  Bruce "Rocketman" Tustin hit all of the climbs really hard and flew into the air culminating on Sunday with a lurid pirouette off a hill after a huge wheelstand.

At the end of the first day despite arriving two hours late, Andrew "The Mechanical Genius" Gee led by 30 points from the Makara log puller and Dave "the Silver Fox" McGinnity in second equal and Mark "Handlebars" Smith in fourth.

The Dynamic Duo tore themselves away from pre-dinner drinks to straighten their steering arm.  Handily Marty had bought a large sledge hammer with him and they pounded on the removed steering arm with that.

Baby Driver

Hintzy joined us on Sunday after doing the National Trial on Saturday.  For the CTC he is ably assisted by Grace "Baby Driver", they had a lot of fun as the dry conditions really suited their LS powered Patrol.  The speed section was long and complicated but all the fast times were quite close and eagerly compared as they were laid down.

There are still two rounds of competition to go for this season and the overall positions are still wide open because we have had a number of different round winners.  Everyone is in with a chance.

Entry info on www.czctc.org.nz or NZFWDA forum "Events" page.

Selected results

To read every story in the April 2018 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (March 16) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.