Saturday morning arrived at Tuff Truck, being my first one, was unsure what to expect. But straight away could tell it was going to be an amazing weekend, Hundreds of trucks, mostly all modded in some way, bbqs going, and even early Saturday morning, it looked like a lot of people were on there 2nd or 3rd beer or Rum.
The Tuff trucks don’t waste much time, and from around 8 o clock, they were out hitting the tracks, We made our way to heart brake hill first up. It starts easy, and slowly builds to the bonus line (which im not sure if anyone actually made up) but the 80-100 point section was getting most unstuck.
The boys from Powerful 4x4 (AJOR Site Sponsor) put on a great show up top, unable to climb the hill, right foot, and plenty of it was used. After an impressive wheel stand, they flipped and rolled their rig under full noise back down the hill.
This section continued to trouble most all day, even rigs such as Anabolic, (Willys Jeep, with Full Hydro suspension) wasn’t till Sunday we witnessed the Boys from Gympie Offroad crawl up the section with control, and just the right amount of gas.
The trouble with Tuff Truck is that there is so much going on at once. For example, your at the All-terrain course, and you start hearing cheers coming from Heartbrake, you know you have just missed a rollover, or some great driving. Was hard to see it all (guess the dvd will be well worth the purchase).
Saturday night, Mud Rats revenge. Which is now going to be known as the “Dobbin night run’. Glenn Dobbin has been a big part of the 4wd industry, with products such as the x-link, and a very successful Tuff Truck competitor. May he rest in peace. The mud runs were great overall. Each truck starts on the ramp. Powerful 4x4, now known as the “entertainers” decided to try a different tactic to scoring well on the ramp. Instead of control and flex, the boys tried speed. Launching their rig from 10 meters back with the big V8. Result, made it half way up the ramp, before launching off the side barrel rolling and landing on the roof.
As the trucks made their way through the mud, most were having no problems, was very disappointed to see the first few trucks pull out at the 80 point section to avoid the deep mud. It only took one to give it a go, launching into it full throttle, and made it through no worries, after that the MOG (which did it easily) and the rest all followed with little dramas, tho the finnish section got very dug out, making it hard for the last few trucks to complete the course. With massive blow up balls, Mexican waves, “krystal talking shit” and plenty of streakers (will these make it to the DVD?), the atmosphere was amazing, and definitely a highlight of tuff truck.
Ajor resident Mud Guts drove well, especially Sunday where he seemed to be getting the hang of his rear steer, and wasn’t having any driveline troubles or popping unis. Made it through to the 100 point section on a fair few courses. Top effort mate. Opw FJ40 buggy did well on devils marbles, crawling the rocks without any troubles and being driven by Taz Baggley this year round. Was also great seeing the lone pajero almost do the same!
Mad Fab had some impressiving driving, and navi skills, proving that on Sunday after rolling his rig on the 50 point section, keep in mind they are only given 15 mins to complete a course, the navi set up the winch under a boulder, and with the winch, and snatch strap pulled the rig back onto its wheels, and continued to drive the rest of the course, making it to the 80 point section, was great to watch!
Overall saw some of the most amazing trucks, plus plenty of ones which surprised me with their budget performance. Its great to see you don’t have to be loaded to do very well in such a hard event. The winners this year proved that. Problem is now, I have so many stupid ideas I want to do to my TJ Wrangler. But it really pumps you up to keep doing what we love, building, driving, and enjoying 4wdriving. Im definitely going to be back next year, and will be there Friday to enjoy the show and shine, I'd encourage any Ausjeeper to do the same if they haven’t been!
Aaron
RESULTS FOR 2010 TTC
1 38 Pirate Dan Pitt Ben Haynes
2 31 Extreme 4wd Magazine Mal VanYsseldyk Nick Finch
3 39 Gympie Off Road Rhett Bryant Stuart Parkes
4 28 Anabolic Michael Depasquale Andrew Markezic
5 20 OPW Tazz Baguley Tristian Baguley
6 15 Advanti Racing Brett Thorpe Mitchell Thorpe
7 22 Mad Fab Wayne Murphy Shane Eslik
8 41 Run a Muck Greg Tinney Dave Andreassen
9 26 DGR David Burton-bradley Greg Heick
10 34 West End Boys Peter White Anthony Seddon
11 40 Long Shot Brett Long Buddy Dryden
12 18 Red Bitch Bob Watling Ziggy Koek
13 21 p90x Evolution Duncan Boyce Steve Morley
14 29 Unfinished Business Rob McKenzie Greg Finlay
15 16 Bright Sparks Chris Tierney Peter Sayers
16 33 Oh Deere James Gosper Glenn Gosper
17 19 Tuff Turtle Ben Henry Scott Henry
18 43 Outback Adventures Tony Richards Warren Brown
19 37 Tonka Nathan Handcock John Swab
20 9 Rush Daniel Jameson Ben Geyer
21 27 C & D Michael Rossen Ian Ross
22 30 Bundy Paul Harris Dane haigh
23 23 Overkill Shane Bakes Mick Dimunno
24 13 Newy Crew Anthony Neill Murray Hicks
25 11 Big Bangers Nick George Craig George
26 3 Bandaged Bear Mark Mitchell Anthony Haber
27 12 Salt & Pepper Robbie Cole Mick Dernedde
28 32 Macarthur 4x4 Matt Meddows Justin Dawson
29 6 Ol Skool Matt Dunphy Chris Dunphy
30 17 Rock Art Adam Williamson Peter Monk
31 4 Tractiv-Force Scott Rowan Tom Buckle
32 7 Powerful 4X4 Mark Sawyer Nathaniel Kirkman
33 35 No Navvies Sam Maugeri David White
34 5 Hazard Paul Schirripa Mark Worley
35 42 Rock Rash Racing David Camp Hayden Smith
36 14 Energized Racing Evan Staniland Dale Staniland
37 44 Mog Geoff Thompson Owen Griffis
38 8 Ice Engineering
In bold indicated Jeeps that competed. Please visit www.tufftruck.com.au for more info on vehicles.
Jeeps at Tuff Truck 2010
