Four of our members Jonathan Wood, Graham Finch, Steve Goddard and Trevor Kent took part in this years Bull Dog trophy sponsored by Optima batteries.

Graham and Trevor competed in Grahams Suzuki, with Jonathan and Steve in my lovely Suzuki LJ80!

I briefly mentioned this event in last month's newsletter, but I thought I'd give you a little more insight into this well organised event run by Brian Hartley. In its latest incarnation it requires a team of two vehicles and a crew of four. You can either compete in the special vehicle class or the standard, this year our team ran in the standard class.

Twenty-six teams had entered, so we knew the competition would be tough. Brian has a reputation for not only providing tough offroading, but also making you use more than a little brainwork (I don't know why we thought we stood a chance) with plenty of navigation work thrown in. The competition was held just over the Scottish borders, right at the end of the Pennine way at a small town called Kirk Yetholm.

We decided we would go Bed and Breakfast, not because we are going soft, but the last thing you want to be worrying about on an endurance type event is where your meals are going to come from. We also knew of the Saturday night section that would see us finishing at 10.30 in the rain and the fog. Graham, Trevor, Steve and myself travelled up on Friday afternoon and arrived just in time to sample the local brew in the pub, where we met up with a few other competitors.

After a terrible nights sleep due to Grahams snoring the Day dawned grey and miserable, after a good breakfast we made our way over to the farm where the event was to be based.

The running order on the first day is decided by a short prologue that splits up the teams and we were lucky enough to get in to the top group to start. As we ascended on to the open moorland to find the punches, the mist closed in and we became reliant on the GPS for our navigation for the rest of the day. We found our destinations reasonably easily; it was just difficult traversing the terrain in between them, as there was no path to follow over the massive expanse of heather. One false move saw you drive into invisible peat bogs.

It was early afternoon before we made our way back down into the valley where we received some bad news from one of the marshals. A Toyota had suffered multiple barrel rolls off the edge of the moor and the driver had to be taken to hospital, as we descended we could see the crumpled wreck that must have rolled for over 100 ft down the valley side. Luckily the driver suffered no more than cuts and bruises.

Saturday afternoon was run with more punches to find and also a number of tasks to complete, providing you could find the punches first which enabled you to take part in these. We finished when the time ran out and only managed to collect two punches and finish one task.

A meal was provided back at the farm and as there was no time to go back to the B + B we waited for it to go dark before we were all led to a different hillside for the night event. Weather conditions were now so bad we could not see the actual ground we were driving on. Having done this event last year we knew how hard it was to find the punches in the dark, so we had decided to hang back and see where the others were heading to, this was to prove a mistake, as the visibility was so bad we could not even see any headlights. When we eventually drove down into the valley twenty minutes had already elapsed from the allowed time.

Out of six punches to find we managed to get three before we headed back up the hillside. We had left twenty minutes for us to get back to the start, but the climb back up proved more treacherous than we had thought, with a number of ditches to cross. Just as we thought we would make it, Grahams Suzuki became wedged in a ditch at a precarious angle, we seemed to take an age recovering it and as we crossed the line the Marshall informed us we were four minutes over time, losing all the points we had just gained. We retired to the pub to drown or sorrows.

I mentioned Graham snoring the night before; in fact it was so bad Steve had gone to sleep in the bath! We were even wearing industrial ear defenders. The lady at the B+B kindly allowed Steve and I to sleep in the lounge to avoid another sleepless night.

After another good breakfast we headed back to the farm for the final day. For today's action we were to drive the reverse direction of the moor from the previous day. The teams were set off in order of the finish from Saturday. We knew the mistake from the night section would cost us dearly on the point's table and we were one of the last teams to set off. Hoping to make up some places we forged ahead of other cars as we climbed up from the valley on to the tops. The weather was much clearer and we could actually see where we were driving too, again progress was slow as we made our way from punch to punch. I could feel something was not right with the car and after an inspection of the underneath I could see that the u-bolts holding the axle to the springs had stretched, allowing the axle to rotate on its mountings, we had to stop to tighten everything back up.

The rest of the morning was completed without any problems, stopping one more time to tighten the u-bolts back up. The afternoon was a similar format to the previous day, with more punches to collect before we could attempt any tasks. I knew the bolts could not be tightened further for fear of snapping and the constant movement had rounded of the spring perches and torn the axle case, allowing oil to escape. The prop shaft was now locking up as the axle moved. I knew we could not continue, so we finished the task we were on and called it quits with an hour or so to the finish.

The sun had now come out so we sat down and enjoyed watching other teams complete tasks. When the event closed all the points were tallied up and our team had made up a number of places from the morning, so all the hard work was worthwhile. After the prize giving, we drove back to the B+B and loaded the Suzuki's on to their transport for the trip home. Driving back we made good time and arrived back in Glossop before Eleven.

Article by Jonathan Wood