Outback Challenge 2009 - The Final Report

The location was the same - Broken Hill New South Wales, but that is where the similarities ended. After ten great years the Outback 4x4 Challenge took on some serious changes for 2009; A tighter field of 23 vehicles on the start line, everyone competing in the same stages together each day, no groups to rely on, everyone travelling together and the most dedicated group of marshals you can find.
There were 17 stages in all, some with DNF times of three and four hours, and when all of these were completed it was Car 22 Greg Scanlon and Liam Nunns with a score of 1462 who took out the title for 2009. Greg, who runs ARB Bendigo, has competed on numerous occasions but it was the first time for his navigator Liam who has proven himself already.
Second place with a score of 1369 went to 'Old timer' Lawrie Sternbeck with Steve Hobbs co-driving.
Third place was David Cameron and Daniel Dewit. These guys were first time entrants from Victoria and with a score of 1274 they did really well. Especially when you consider they did not finish 3 stages, getting only 20 points for each of these. Better watch these two in the future.

The international flag was flown by two teams from Venezuela, Cars 9 (Renny Rodriguez & Daniel Avellaneda) who were competing in Challenge Class, and Car 14 (Nunzio Coffaro & Daniel Meneses) who were taking on Huddy and Muppet within the Production Class category.
Their placing's were admirable indeed, Renny and Daniel placed 12th overall which is extremely good for an international and without years of experience in the Australian Outback.
Nunzio and Daniel finished 9th place overall, just one position under Huddy and Muppet who took out the Production Class trophy.

The first special stage at Stephens Creek has always been a favourite, lit up under the night sky thanks to Fuzz and the team from Perilya, there were plenty of nerves as the teams lined up. This was not helped when quite a number of vehicles failed to take a few corners whilst others literally ripped wheels off.
The vehicles needed to run the creek twice to score for this stage. Those who came to grief in either run were forced to DNF. This included Michael Hingerty (7) Nick Mannell (11) who spectacularly lost a wheel, David Cameron (15, Peter Mihaloff (17) and Laurie Griffiths (20).
Some competitors had really consistent times like Alan McMullen (car 05) who did 03:45:91 on the first run and 03:46:91 on the second - exactly one-second difference.
This stage was ultimately taken out by Neil Cooper and Chris Hummer who came in 12 seconds ahead of Greg and Liam, who were only 20/100 of a second ahead of Alan McMullen and Shayne.

The second and third stages of the event, known as the Southern Cross stages are popular with the locals and this year at the last minute we relocated to the Racecourse. Marty, Ron Forssman and the other boys in the crew did a great job to get the tracks built. The two tracks included a section out the back where the boys could have a bit of a squirt and they all loved it. There was only one roll-over this year which was Huddy - attention seeking we reckon.

Denian was calling and by Sunday afternoon the teams including spectators and officials were all off in convoy to the sandhills near Menindee for two nights.
The first stage was a new course called Jeep Konection run on Deadhorse Lake. Here a large number of GPS points were placed out on the dry lakebed and competitors had to record them and return in the DNF time.
This stage was completed in two groups and most of them did really well. We had to laugh when we looked at the answer sheet for car 17 Peter Mihaloff who hardly gave poor Alan McGilvray a chance to write down the codes. Luckily these two guys scored the best time within the group which found 21 points and recorded them correctly. If just one of these was illegible it would have seen Car 17 score only 20 nav points and drop him down to eighth place. This goes to show just how important it is to get all your gps points and ensure they are legible on the page you hand into officials. Often navis put the answers on the wrong page or section which is such a shame when they have done all the hard work. Other navis like Mani just write down anything or the same answer when they don't know it.

SS 05 Procomp XTerrain - another great fast sand stage. Here Alan McMullen and Shayne Barkly took out the honours in 3 mins 06 second and 45/100 of second. Car 19 Bruce Borchardt and Kean Peard came in second place which was only 11/100 of second ahead of Greg and Liam. This was a great stage with very few DNFs.

Sandwalls and Dunes sponsored by Jeep Konection was another new stage. A combination of a motorkhana type course and a sandwall competitors had to make the garage at the top of the dune before a certain time or they DNF the stage.
Exactly half the teams managed to complete this course, the rest were victims of the sandwall or their GPS.
Coops and Hummer in car 06 took honours on this stage with Peter and Alan in car 17 coming in second place. Third went to Greg and Liam.

Procomp Shifting Sands is a great navigation stage where competitors have a huge paddock full of GPS points to collect codes from.
The DNF time is only two hours and competitors have to ensure they get as many points as possible and allow enough time to transport back to the finish line without breaking down along the way, or getting a flat tyre.
Greg and Liam came in with the highest number of nav points (42) and also had the best time one hour 49 minutes and 13 seconds. Peter Mihaloff and Alan McGilvray collected 39 points in 1:53:28 and Neil and Chris 38 in 1:55:29 for third place.

Stages at Denian are not complete without a Night Motorkhana and this one was great. Spectators loved watching the lights bouncing around in the night and the high revving engine noises coming from the sand dunes.
Peter Mihaloff and Alan took out first place while Huddy and Muppet put in a great effort to come in 36/100 of a second ahead of Lawrie and Steve in car 27 who took out third place.

Tuesday saw a couple of great stages in the morning. One headed across the back country and some of it really, really rough although the competitors did say the loved it. Spectators were taken along to the last section to watch them as they completed the end of the stage. Greg and Liam came in first ahead of Nick Mannell and Torben Hansen, only 24 seconds ahead of David Cameron and Daniel Dewit.
The transport to Viewmont took on a life of its own as a special stage. It was fast and furious with Nick and Torben arriving at the Viewmont property first, Huddy and Muppet second and Peter and Mihaloff just ahead of Greg and Liam. We know they had fun on that stage. The finish marshals Ray and Jenny said they still had smiles on their faces as they crossed the finish line.

Viewmont is a superb station property and the first night stage was great, the mud and water were not too deep to have competitors working all night on vehicles but deep enough for some fun.
Although some might argue that were was more action at HQ where one of the Venezuelan spectators found a python in the shower.
No snakes on the stage though, David Cameron with his supercharged V8 easily winning the RRR mud stage ahead of Lawrie Sternbeck and Hobzie. Brett Chynowyth and Rob Bartch stepped up on the podium too with third place. It was a tight field at the top, there was only 2 seconds each between first, second and third place getters. Max and Cosmo came in fourth one second later and Renny and Daniel two seconds later.

Mud and more mud was the order for Wednesday and we had a downpour of rain just to ensure that everyone was part of the action.
Dave and Daniel took out the next stage with Greg and Liam a close second. Alan Mai and Stuart Schoof showing their prowess in mud with a commendable third place, from all accounts their run was quite spectacular to watch.
SS13 was a big stage, plenty of mud, more than 30 GPS locations to find and in the end a heap of stuck vehicles.
There were vehicles stuck in the mud holes everywhere at some stages. Poor Anthony Kilner was stuck next to a competitor who was revving his engine which saw him feeling quite ill due to the fumes. He was attended to by our RRR rescue crew but forced to DNF.
There were some great highlights though. Watching the real masters of the mud and cunningness of the 'old timers'. Hummer and Coops took a different line and then did some great winching to get across the worst of the holes quickly. Nick and Torben thought out of left field and did come from left field passing through all the stationary vehicles to make it across the other side - it was fantastic to watch.
Anyone thinking of competing in this type of event, watch the DVD and this stage in particular as there are lessons to be learnt and experience does make a difference in these stages.
Well done to all who completed that stage and to the marshals and competitors who stayed up late to get vehicles recovered. Better get that grader on standby next year.
Surprisingly 13 vehicles completed the stage with Coops and Hummer taking it out, Nick and Torben second and Huddy and Muppet third.

Rain on the Menindee Road kept everyone at bay until around 10am on the Thursday when the all-clear came through from the roads Dept. Many used it to sleep, others worked on vehicles, cleaning mud from radiators.

Competitors took a special stage into Poolamacca whilst the marshals and spectators headed for Willangee Station which was camp for the next two nights. Winners for SS14 were Greg and Liam, Lawrie and Hobbzie and Nick and Torben. All competitors did well on the Poolamacca rocks and there were no DNF in this stage.
There was one other stage on Thursday through Poolamacca called the Creek circuit - a short run which was won spectacularly by David and Daniel followed by Nick and Torben then Laurie Griffiths and Mani. Yes Laurie had been with us all week but had to deal with a couple of issues with the truck. His mates from Sydney would ring HQ each day to see how he was doing. It was good to report a third for this stage.
The final day of competition and there were a few crews who were looking at a podium finish. The excitement built as the competitors stood atop of the Paragon Mine and listened to the driver brief outlining a new stage that Paul Vanderhorst had devised.
Through The Gears Pegboard as it's known was new in concept. All teams were given a tag with their car number on it. The navigators were to go to the pegboard, select a tag with a GPS co-ordinate on it, replace it with their car number tag on the pegboard then run to their vehicles and head to the GPS point to collect the secret code. There were more than 50 different points out there and there were two different values to the points which were either 2 or 4 kilometres from the Paragon Mine. Each crew had to come back with the correct answers for one of each (2 and 4 km) to score for this stage. The best part is that it is all cross country over those rough Poolamacca rocks and through the gorges and the DNF time was four hours.
It was full-on for the competitors and exciting watching on too. The spectators could see them darting all over the countryside and returning back to the pegboards. Some were really efficient and worked swiftly to visit more than 12 points in that time. Others had marshals and spectators sweating as they kept going for the 4km points and leaving it until the last hour to get the other compulsory. If a competitor gained 20 of one type and not one of the other then they only scored 20 points so leaving it until last and risking a mechanical breakdown was cutting it fine.
Nick Mannell and Torben Hansen clearly took control early on and it paid off, they managed to get 23 points and finished in 3:32 with nearly half and hour to spare. Alan Mai and Stuart Schoof also did well getting 21 points finishing 10 minutes later. Lawrie and Hobbzie finished 20 seconds later than Nick and came third with 20 points scored. A rough stage it only claimed two casualties with a DNF and that was Brett Burns and James Simmonds along with Max and Cosmo - there were thoughts Max was having a chardonnay out there, turns out it was just the Jeep.
The final stage was a modified version of the creek circuit completed the day before just to allow the guys to put on a show and use up any pent up adrenalin from the previous stage. Greg and Liam took out this stage in an impressive 5:17 while Nick and Torben came in second on 6:04. Alan Mai and Stuart just pipped Lawrie and Hobbzie to get third place.

With such an exciting day it did not take much to convince everyone to head to the bonfire at Wilangee and the presentation of the plaques to all participants and the trophies to the winners. What ensured were conversations amongst old and newly formed friends and stories from the week, some taller than others.

Fascinating facts for 2009

• There were three navigators called Daniel.
• Nearly half the field was riding on Procomp Tyres.
• There were less than half the breakdowns during the 2009 event than previous years.
• The most common vehicle problem was drivetrain and diffs.
• Nine vehicles in the field had manual transmissions.
• Eight vehicles competed without spare winch cable.
• There was only one diesel powered vehicle Car 08.
• The most driving lights used was 8, the average was 4 per vehicle.
• The most popular brand of GPS by far was Garmin.
• 21 out of the 23 teams have previously competed in the Outback Challenge.
• Southern Cross Swags were used most by competitors and marshals.