MOTORSPORT
Traction at a premium as heavens open to mark Odyssey Challenge’s return to Wormhaugh Words: James Watts Pictures: Tomasz Jarecki
S
ummer gave way to autumn, the Viking 4x4 Club returned to Wormhaugh for the first time in several years for the penultimate round of the 2022 Odyssey Winch Challenge series. The fifth of six rounds in the championship, the event was sponsored by Damar Webbing solutions, which for more than 28 years has been manufacturing lifting slings, ratchet straps, vehicle transport straps and 4×4 recovery straps right here in the UK. A perennial problem for event organisers is that the calendar is very full, with events on just about every weekend. This round came just after the Peterborough show and clashed with another event in the south of the country – but that was no problem, as the club had its biggest entry of the year to date. Wormhaugh is famous for its incredibly steep and tight gulleys, as well as huge drops down to the river that borders the site, and all the Odyssey teams were keen to take it on. The club has been lucky this year, with dry weather for every event prior to this one. Step forward the law of averages, bringing forth a series of thunderstorms in the week leading up to the event. Come the day, rain showers refreshed the wet surface, making it as slippery as ice. It’s the same for everyone, though, and you certainly won’t hear a challenge competitor moaning about a bit of mud. So come 10am, the whole field of vehicles got torn into the punches laid out around the site – as well of course as the special section, which this time took advan-
14 | WINTER 2023
3.5pp Scene Odyssey Nov 22.indd 14
tage of the fact that Wormhaugh has a giant seesaw on site. How could the club pass up an opportunity like that? The special stage involved a quick lap of the main field and over the seesaw, getting a punch while on it, then back round to finish where you started. Also, if you could balance on the seesaw there was an extra 500 bonus points on offer. This is where strategy came into it. Teams had to decide whether it was worth the time to get balanced, or leave it and get a quick time. About half the teams managed to balance their trucks, which was great to see. Everyone was going really well for the first part of the day. Slipping and sliding around in the rain showers, it really was like an episode of Dancing on Ice. The co-drivers were getting a real workout as they were having to winch the trucks much more than usual due to the combination of steep terrain and wet ground. Not many of the punches were really drivable, meaning the winches were getting a lot of use. The axles and driveline components of the trucks not as much, though – the lack of traction made it very easy to spin your tyres, thus reducing the load on the parts connecting them to the engine. So instead of breaking driveline parts, which is what you get when it’s dry, there were lots more winch failures instead. Scott Haines and co-driver James Watts were going strongly after their recent run of wins. They again showed their excellent teamwork
and well drilled techniques, clearing punches in good time. Like many other teams they had not been to Wormhaugh before, so they started slowly while finding their way around the site, then also like many other teams they had to repair a snapped rear winch rope. Other than that, they managed to complete all the
punches and the special section by lunchtime to get on to their second card. It was a flawless day for them, with no issues at all. Richard Evans and stand-in winchman Sam Nelson had a good start, bagging the 500 bonus points balancing the seesaw. Things slowed down a little after that as they
4x4 22/11/2022 18:36
