Muddy Truckers

On the 1^st March 2007 six members of the Bristol and West Off Road Club (BWORC) along with other competitors from around the UK and Holland headed North of the Scottish Border to make up a 20 team 40 car line up for the Steve Maddison Muddy Truckers Trophy.

Team 10 was made up of Adrian Everitt (Pod) driving his 4.6 powered Tomcat with Shaun Harris (Bushy) as co-driver, Adrian and Shaun had recently won the Rainforest Challenge Portugal so now it was time to go up against the best the UK have to offer Their team mates were The Jason Farr (Ciderman) in his 200Tdi tray backed 90 with his Winchman Paul Milsom (Lardy) Jason and Lardy compete regularly with Challenge South West and have been placed on many occasions. Also from BWORC were Steve and Scott Williams a father and son team who came along as spectators/ marshalls in there challenge spec Td5 90 Scott and Steve also compete around the South West but didn’t make the final entry list as places are snapped up very quickly.

The event now in its 5^th year is organised by James Feeney and Neil Redpath. These two seasoned off roaders along with many other willing helpers managed to set out an event to test each competitor in every aspect of off roading with a huge emphasis on teamwork.

Day1

Friday 2^nd was an early start with all the teams lining up in 4 groups at Parc Ferme, the initial briefing was kept to a minimum and set out the format for the next three days. The four teams headed off to separate sites where various challenges awaited them. The Bristol boys being in group “A” reached the first site and parked overlooking a small valley with a stream running along it; we could clearly see the challenge area which was laid out in 3 sections with set passing points to each. Fifteen punches and 3 hours to get them what could be easier? Then sting number 1 each team was given a card with only 3 numbers, sting 2 you can look at the map showing the punch position but you can’t take it, all sounded easy enough then on arriving at the first punch sting 3 no numbers on the punches, each one had to be handed in correct before you proceeded to the next card, then to cap it all what looked like a drivable site turned out to be marshland with some parts over waist deep and very cold. The highest score in group “A” after 3hrs was a mere 5.

At 1pm all the groups moved the next challenge area. We were faced with 5 team building challenges each to last 20 minutes with a 10 minute changeover; these consisted of a log pull only using winches through a series of gates, a bridge build and cross, punching a card on an island in the middle of a river without touching the ground, pulling a dead Land Rover through a series of gates only using winch power and manouvering a truck wheel from point to point without it touching the ground.

At 5:30 we were given the grid reference of the evening’s camp site and 3 hours to get there to include re-fuelling and repairs but with no outside assistance.

Unbeknown to the competitors the marshals had parc ferme staked out so a couple of teams received penalties along with the ones who returned to there Hotel.

Day2

Saturday 3^rd started with a prologue to warm things up. 2 Items had to be collected from separate GPS points and these along with the correct answers to 10 questions had to be exchanged for the first of three coloured punch cards and a list of 25 GPS positions. At each point there were three coloured punch posts, at least 20 of the 25 punches matching the colour of the card had to be collected before returning for a new card. Also at some point during the day each team had to do a special stage set out by Brian Hartley 8 Punches in any order in 30 minutes with some very deep water involved. Day 2 turned out to be very good for team 10 who were the only team to take a 3^rd card and completed the SS in 16 mins. Another GPS point was given for the final camp site again to be reached in 3 hours.

Day 3

Sunday 4^th

After a night under canvas at -7deg the teams were back into groups and finished the weekend with the final 2 challenge areas. Site 3 was a series of 15 punches set out in a wooded area found with the aid of a map then after 3 grueling hours of sloshing around in mud team 10 had 14/15 punches and headed off to the final site. Site 4 again 15 punches but this time no map and even more mud and steep climb after steep climb. After a long weekend this was really one to sap the strength from the winches and winchmen, but after 3 days of being wet and cold we managed a respectable 12/15.

As the rain started it was back to Parc Ferme to load up the challenge cars for the journey South but not before the prize giving.

Final results

1st Adrian Everitt and Jason Farr

2nd Ivor Clegg and Merv Colton

3rd Bob Seaman and Steve Lloyd

4th Alan Wormald and Richard Ibberson