ARB Warn Outback 4x4 Challenge 2006

Victoria Reclaims the ARB Warn Outback Challenge Trophy

Rohan Canavan and Wayne Smith from Victoria have taken the illustrious Poolamacca Rock trophy in the eight ARB Warn Outback Challenge outside of Broken Hill, New South Wales, Australia.

In 24 of the toughest stages ever seen before at an Australian four wheel drive event, Rohan and Wayne drove their Nissan Patrol with astonishing skill to defeat second place getters, Cass Jones and Kevvy Nott by only 29 points. The fight for third place was not as tightly fought with Neil Cooper and Chris Hummer bringing the Hilux home with 1654 points.

This year's event had more than 60 starters but by the finish of the Broken Hill special stages there were only 52 vehicles in the field.

At the end of the event, eight days later there were only 32 teams left which is about 1/3 of the field.

ARB Warn Outback Action

More than 60 of the best four wheel drivers spent a year building their rigs in preparation for Australia's Premier 4wd Event – after eight days, only 32 emerged and most of them would not have lasted another day. This was Australia's toughest event by far and judging by the reaction from competitors – the best one yet!

In it's eighth year, the ARB Warn Outback 4x4 Challenge was won in spectacular style by Victorian Rohan Canavan with veteran Outback Challenger Wayne Smith in the Navi seat. With a possible total score of 2400, this gutsy crew put in a consistent top 3 effort to accrue 1968 points, only 29 ahead of their arch rivals Cass Jones and Kevvy Nott. At the start of the event many were asking, would Chris Hummer finally come home victorious? But the fight for third place was not as tightly fought with Neil Cooper and Chris Hummer bringing the HiLux home with 1654 points.

The ARB Warn Outback 4x4 Challenge was the first of the big offroad events in Australia and the stages normally take their toll on less than five percent of the crews but this year they were dropping like flies before the teams had even left Broken Hill and by the end of the event more than a third of the vehicles had suffered damage and had to retire from the event.

There are 24 stages in all held over the eight days of competition, some of which are over three hours in length, but that is just the start of it. Crews must be self sufficient to be competitive and because they are in remote areas, there are many hours of transports, which they must endure.

Competition Manager Paul Vanderhorst was overwhelmed by the attrition rate this year, "Some of these guys are spending up to $60k on their engines and $15K on their suspensions but they are not waterproofing their rigs. It's no use having a supped up vehicle and then having to retire because your vehicle cannot look at the water stages. Preparation is the key rather than horsepower".

Taking a look at the vehicles during prescrutineering, which was held in most states at ARB Stores and the final scrutineering in Broken Hill, you could see the amount of modifications, which have been made to these fourbys. Heaps of horsepower and suspension to match, which allowed for much higher speeds over the boulder strewn creek beds and along the fast sand dune stages. It was the driveline components, which ultimately let most teams down.

The American teams ensured that by the end of the event there were no Land Rover diffs or tail shafts left in town, whilst CV joints were once again a standard breakdown which is generally repaired onsite by the competitors.

The first couple of stages in Broken Hill really took their toll on tail shafts and diffs. The two Southern Cross Canvas special stages set up in Broken Hill had two vehicles on the course at the same time; even crossing over one another as the course utilised two mining trucks to form a ramp/bridge configuration. The compulsory winch would see the two teams racing against each other and as if an indication of the final result; winners Rohan and Wayne competed against second placegetters Cass and Kevvy providing an unbelievable display of competition winching and driving skills for the crowd. Ask the competitors which stages they enjoyed the most and the response is closely related to how well they did on that stage.

The sand at Procomp Denian is always exciting and this year there were changes made to some of the popular stages such as the sandwall. This year organisers introduced a; Navi Chute' where the navigator disembarks from the vehicle at the top of the dune and whilst the driver heads down the dune solo, he must run the chute through the crowd with his ground anchor and prepare for winching. It makes it really exciting and he has to decide where to place the anchor and how far up he thinks his driver will make it.

Another popular event, which saw plenty of air, was XTerrain where drivers had a 10-minute DNF time to complete the high-speed event. Cass Jones did this one in only three minutes 16 seconds and put on an awesome display for spectators.

Safari Mud at Viewmont Station is the stage area most competitors feared. Rumours of how deep the lagoons were heralded from UHF radios through to satellite telephones. Many crews (28) opted not to even attempt the first stage which is held at night, in fear it would place them out of the event. Area Manager Ian Schultz from ARB Bendigo said "they would come to the brief and opt not to be included in the draw for start order. When they saw other teams get through, many were regretful, but that is part of the event, making decisions, but if you want to win, you have to participate 100%". Six out of the 24 crews who attempted, made it through and they were the top performers of the event.

Sink or Swim was an incredible special stage lasting three and a half hours where competitors started with high speed sections across mudflats, not unlike the Australian Safari stages, they then had to find gps locations and cross lagoons off the Darling River five times. Often all teams would get to the lagoon at once and have to make their way through the gates positioned in the centre of the lagoon. Resembling peak hour traffic it tested winching skills and tempers.

Warn Poolamacca houses some extreme winching stages not unlike the stuff we see in The States. First time competitors were blown away by the extreme winching exercises and for some on the first day, this was their first 'real' experience of winching – hanging more than two car lengths off a cliff face, in the middle of the Outback!

Many drivers and spectators come to the ARB Warn Outback Challenge to see Cliffhanger at ARB Nundooka and once again it provided plenty of excitement. Competitors were lined up on a creek bed and had 40 minutes to scale the vertical side of the cliff using their ground anchors and then make their way to the finish line via a gps reference. Amazingly, New Zealanders Roger McKay and Grant Guy did it in less than five minutes with a mind-blowing display of driving. As you would expect Sandy Bowman and Alison Grant also put in an awesome time of just over seven minutes. Local Broken Hill boys Simmo and Tony pulled fourth on this stage and surprised most of the other competitors by finishing the event and coming in 31st overall.

Paul Vanderhorst sets the courses in his Jeep Wrangler, which is fitted with OME suspension, and ARB Airlockers and whilst he is not under the pump, he still pushed the limits to ensure that the DNF times are suitable. "I really enjoyed designing the stages this year" says Paul. "The variation is the best part; from the USA style winching at Warn Poolamacca to the really fast sand driving at Procomp Denian, Incredible scrambling rocky stages at ARB Nundooka and finally the frightening water stages at Safari Viewmont. My vehicle did take a pounding this year, I might have to look at the new 4 door Wrangler next year.

Looking at the vehicle types entered this year, the most favoured continues to be the Nissan Patrol, mainly the GQ modified to a ute configuration, but if you have the money, the GU is popular. The number of Range Rovers was low this year and most were surprised to see the American entrants driving Land Rover Discoveries, most expected Jeeps.

Accessories – you would not enter this event without a reliable winch and more than 95 percent of competitors were running Warn winches, generally the 8274 model whilst the winning team ran two winches. In the past three years synthetic rope has become popular and many were running Dynamica rope on their winches.

Diff locks front and rear – you just would not attempt the event without them. ARB Airlockers are without doubt the choice of most teams with the top three teams all using ARB Air Lockers.

Tyres - Only three years ago there were real limitations in tough competition tyres available but now there are more options out there. The top two placegetters were running Procomp tyres.

Fascinating Facts

The event puts $1million in the Broken Hill region
Participants use more than 110,000 litres of fuel
400 people involved in the event
Red Desert Catering dishes up more than 1500 meals to marshals
Vehicles carried an average of 185 litres
Average sleep for competitors 6 hours
Average sleep for marshals 5 hours
Average sleep for HQ comms 4 hours

International Teams

Placing	Car #	Competitor 1	Competitor 2	Vehicle	Points
12	10	Terence Reinders	Marco Stanich	Hilux	1341
13	42	Roger McKay	Grant Guy	GU Patrol	1315
38	43	Sam Baddeley	Mike Porter	Landcruiser	599
48	44	Norman Hall	Keith Kreuter	Disco	120
52	45	John Michaels	Jason Michaels	Disco	0