The winch challenge scene might be a little ‘light’ in the North Island with only two confirmed events so far for 2015 but the first event held over Easter managed to get the weather just right for the 13 competitor vehicles and their co-drivers.
Held at the now infamous Possum Palace in Northland, the teams competed over two and a half days with night stages.
The event got into full swing on Friday afternoon with four stages, most of which were very much straightforward. There was one steep hill that wasn’t considered driveable but most did in the end.
Friday evening, half the competitors completed two night stages while the other half would do the same stages on Saturday night.
Saturday’s stages were all down in the valley and the organisers operated a simple ‘hub’ system. This allowed competitors to be directed to all stages over the day depending on how quick or slow some of the stages were flowing.
Come prize-giving Raymond Leemeyer with son Daniel took top placing with Alan Parker & Jimmy Green second. In the modified class Andrew (Sav) Satherley and Scott Newport managed to hold off Thor Freicket and Marissa Judkins-Fi.
The next confirmed event will be the first round of the Mainland winch series in June. The next North Island event will be the Manukau event in November.
Companies which supported the event were 2up Winch Adapters, 4WDbits, BNT, Force4, The Gadget Guys, Lubrication Engineers, Mag & Tyre Direct, MP Rig Weld Ltd, Motortech 4x4, MSE Turbos NZ, Mudstuck, NZ4WD Magazine, Samson Ultra Ropes, Terrain Tamer and TWL Group.
To read the full story in the June 2015 issue of NZ4WD go to Zinio.com (on sale May 18) or purchase your own hard copy at the Adrenalin store.
