Members take part in Optima Batteries Power Challenge 2001

Four of our members Jonathan Wood, Steve Goddard, Graham Finch and John Pickles took part in this years Optima Batteries Power Challenge 2001.

Article by Jonathan Wood

We couldn't really refuse an invitation to an event organised by Club Off Road that was to filmed for television, so we duly sent off our entry form for the Optima Batteries Power Challenge 2001.

It even transpired that the event was to be held in our own backyard, on the moors at Saddleworth and at Tong near Bradford. The one-day challenge used the two sites by splitting the entry list in two by way of a prologue, with the quicker teams making their way over to Windy Hill first. We had just two hours two collect as many pairs of punch's as possible before returning to the start point via a bog section, with bad luck on our side we could not find the second punch to the pair we had chosen and whilst searching for it we frustratingly came across many more pairs of punches, but we could not get them without first returning to the start point and cancelling the first punch we had chosen.

The lack of traction on the moorland was unbelievable and our vision was impaired by the rain and thick fog, with only thirty minutes remaining we returned to the start point. Ruling out returning for a second go, we made our way back to Tong with no points to show for our mornings hard work.

It later became clear that this was a wise decision as only one team made it back to the start via the bog with a pair of punches in the time allowed. On arriving at Tong we found that we would have to complete a number of driving and winching tasks all within a given time limit. The Suzuki's made light work of the ground conditions here and we found driving in amongst the trees easier, when some of the other teams larger vehicles were struggling. We did however pick up some damage here; with Graham's Samurai buckling it's front wing and my own SJ becoming lodged in a gully on its side.

When all the teams were finished and with the second group still returning from Windy Hill in darkness, the points were tallied up. We were pleased to hear that we had won the Standard Vehicle Class (running with no differential locks and one powered winch on each vehicle); however we were surprised to learn that we had also finished fifth overall on the event. We had to complete a quick running repair on my SJ when the clutch cable snapped, before we could return home.