Andrew Satherley, or Sav as he is more commonly known, has been around motorsport from an early age competing in Go Karts and Speedway but it was 1981 when he moved into four wheeling and started competing in 4WD Rallies (now known as trials) in an SJ410 Suzuki.

Nowadays Sav is very much a Jeep man, having owned and modified a few over the years.  He has sold a few and even purchased one back after two years and ran that again until it was sold again and the new owner is still competing in it.  In fact several of his former vehicles are still competing in South Island events with new owners.

Over the past 8-9 years Sav has been competing in the Superwinch Mainland Winch Challenge series in several different classes and usually takes out top placings in his class. For the last couple of years he has been competing in the vehicle featured here.

It started life as a 1997 Jeep Wrangler 4.0 litre manual that was a write off with only 30,000kms on the clock.  When he purchased the vehicle he didn’t even realise it was a manual as he prefers automatics especially for four-wheeling.

Sav has set up the Wrangler very well almost as a minimalist vehicle which has proved to be very reliable and capable as a competition winner, having won the Superwinch Mainland Winch Challenges series yet again. 

Although it’s not the vehicle that ultimately wins events but the driver and co-driver, the team work between Scotty Newport and Sav is a large part of it. So too is Sav’s “unique driving style” which he has developed from years of trialling and competition driving.

The Jeep Wrangler is on the market for sale but delivery will only be after the Northland Force4 Novawin Winch Challenge over Easter which Sav has entered.

To read the full story in the April 2015 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (on sale March 23) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.