Well the Tay Forest Challenge. Been there done that. We got both cars through the event and I even drove there and drove back. David Alonzi who was to be my winchman had hurt his arm badly and so pulled out and so the week before I had to find a new winchman. Colin Rose also from SORC stepped up and agreed to be my team-mate. There were a few tense times in the campsite on Friday night as I arrived and was trying to make sure I didn't forget anything. I decided to switch from wire to rope at the last minute and Andy T from Ruftraks was more than happy to supply the 100ft of 11mm Plasma. Dave from Strathearn Engineering had seen me the night before when I went to pick up some spare parts and promised to lend me a set of 35in Simex Extreme Trekkers for the event. Only problem was, they were arriving on Friday. Alan then got them fitted to a set of rims and brought them up in the evening and we got them fitted. With these on it would give me a bit of extra ground clearance that I would need over the stumps.
Clean at the start control.Fish and chips and a couple of beers to steady the nerves saw me ready for bed on Friday. We woke up early and with a bit of last minute faffing it was off to start control to get issued with a Marshal and drivers briefing. We got the number 13 stage to start on and off we went. We got stuck straight in with some heavy winching up a fire break and some careful driving. We missed the route a little and headed the wrong way. We found the punch location and change our course. Mike's winch managed to spit out a shaft and so we had to change the rear winch onto the front. Punch got it was time to get out the section. Bad news again. I manged to bend my front steering arm. We attached my rear winch onto it and winched it straight. Unfortunately this wasn't to last the rest of the section. We had to fix it again less than 50m from the stage exit.
In the middle of Stage 13
Colin showing off my morning's handy work. Yes that should be a straight bar.
We stopped for our compulsory lunch break before heading out to tackle stage 14. This looked fairly straight forward. Winch up a fire break over a few logs punch and back out the same way we came in. All was going well until we realised we were not going to make it time wise. We had to be back at control by 5pm or risk losing the point gained. We turned around and started to head out the stage.
On the way out of stage 14 I manged to smash my drivers window. oops. Careless on my part but you live and learn. So by the end of day one we had only managed one punch. But we were not the only ones. One of the tops teams were out. They had smashed a tree stump through one of the cars gearbox.
Sunday dawned and we were determined to do better. We were hearing stories of people working on their cars till all hours. We managed to get away fairly easily. A quick check over the night before and we seemed ready. This morning we were sent to section 8 first. A steep climb start followed by a rather scary looking drop off that would definitely require the rear winch. Lucky I got that fitted. We then had a tight tree section that I enjoyed. I felt I was driving it well and picking some good lines through the stumps. Less than 5m from the punch and my steering arm went again. I knew Alan from Strathearn had arrange another one to be brought up but we just had to find him. He was off watching at another stage. I walked out the section and got a marshal to give me a lift to find him. Got the Steering arm and got back to my stricken car in the forest. Colin had got the arm off and we refitted the new one. We were off again. We had to get out the same way as we came in so it was up the drop off this time.
The ledge drop off on Section 8. We had to go down this as well as up.
The final exit on Section 8.We got lunch again, compulsory and headed for section 9. This was a great section. It was so good I was too busy to get someone to get some photos. The car was behaving itself we had some great bits of winching and driving to do and we finished on a high. We had one hour left before we had to be back at control. We had heard Section 10 was a long boggy one so we decided to give it a miss and head back. 3 punches over the weekend and we finished. I was happy with that. I even managed to drive home. Even though the steering wasn't all that great.
The results. We weren't last.
Thankyou to everyone who help me along the way in getting to and competing in this event. I will be back next year. Special name checks to Colin for stepping in at the last minute, Bob for all the work on the truck and help and advice. Strathearn Engineering for parts and help supplied. Especially with Jax who has put up with me.
