le compte rendu de jim sur FB :
Must apologise for the delay in posting this info.... its been rather busy... 
After the amazing result that was the EMC we sadly had no time to party as we had a car to prepare for the main event the following morning. The drivers briefing stretched on into the evening cutting short our time to prepare the car for the next days events.
The mechanics Mark Birch, Stephen Capeling roared into action and worked hard to make good any repairs required. Will Overton and Jonathan Hambro (JC) and the girls worked hard to support them as they worked.
We had again damaged the Rear Axle A frame stretching one of the bush mountings. Man this event is tough on stuff!
Myself and Wayne worked on getting our stuff organised including charging radios, fitting another tracking device (Needed a different unit each day) and helping the guys get everything prepared.
We were shattered and needed sleep badly.... the car had to be lined up at 6am sharp for a 8am start....
127 of the most amazing vehicles i have ever seen! The quality of the field was outstanding, i have never seen so many amazing Buggies and all with massive axles, Huge suspension, Big engines and quality crew.
I'll not lie was i more than a little worried as to how we could possibly compete against them.
8am arrived and sound of thunder descended on the valley as the top cars each unleashed 750 horses on to the course.
Soon it was our turn to start and we had the outside line against a huge Ultra 4 buggy. I gave it everything but just could not stay with them after the jump as their LS engine chucked down the power.
All to soon we had cleared the first obstacles and headed out into the desert and on to the flats.
At 85mph the car is hard work as unlike the rest of cars in both races we do not have any anti sway bars. Then at race mile 7 we pass Pier Acerni, King of the Valleys winner stationary and wondered what could possibly have happened. Sadly we did not have long to ponder this as at race mile 9 we hear some terrible noises from under the car and have to stop. We get off the course as quickly as possible and jump out to find the central rear A frame mounting has sheared. I have never broken one of those before !
This event is tough and we had taken to carrying the mobile welder. While we were making good the first of the led cars came past us. Shannon Campbell leading Robbie Gordon and then Randy Slawson. We were rather surprised to see them and could only think "Wow"
5 minutes later we are back on the road and are now driving to survive. That does not mean we are driving slowly just not as fast as we had been. The number of broken and damaged cars was staggering and we knew that if we could keep the car together we would have a good placing.
The first big move for us was at race mile 49 where we passed 15 cars winching up the dune covered with boulders and the same place we had passed John Currie the previous day on our way to finishing first at the EMC. This was just the motivation we needed and we upped the pace passing Ultra 4 buggies in the desert and the canyons.
We arrived at the first pit stop and the team jumped to action refuelling the car and checking nuts and bolts as Wayne and i took much needed fluids.
We have to to complete the infamous Back door and Resolution trails on one of the three laps. We really wanted to nail them and got their to find it almost clear of cars. The plan was to arrive and winch over the top and show off the winch.... did not go quite go to plan and as we winched over the top we got caught on a boulder that did not want to let us go! 5 minutes of playing around later we break free. We are pretty embarrassed and laugh at ourselves and our performance on Backdoor. Back on the trail again and soon passing broken buggies along the track.
Wayne is loving the superb traction the car has in the rocks, although we cannot believe how the trails have changed since the previous days race with huge rocks having been moved and sand dug away making almost impossible trails even tougher.
The car felt alive and was responding fantastically well as we pushed on through the trails. At Hell's Gate and Sunbonnet pass we got a shock as we had yet to see these trails and they where brutal with Sunbonnet being very cool.
Next it was into highway 19/20 and I was confident to clear them quickly as they are trails i had already driven. As we arrived at a waterfall where during pre-running we had rescued another car, we heard the terrible click click of doom from the rear axle and i knew our race was over.
We winched the next mile and had the pleasure of seeing Randy Slawson and Shannon Campbell come past us, again simply "Wow", so much control and speed it was very impressive.
We made our way to remote pit 2 and decided to call it time.
We knew that even if we could repair that we had no chance of completing the course in the time remaining, plus if we broke it a again then we could find ourselves in a bad situation trying to recover a vehicle in the dark of night.
But we hold our heads high, we are so proud to be at King of the Hammers and are gutted not to complete the course.
At 10 o'clock in the evening they close the course and we are staggered to find that only 28 cars completed the toughest course in the events history. We would have loved to have been one of them.
We came here as a winch challenge team, and if i'm honest we totally under estimated the intense difficulty of this amazing event. We had a game plan that worked well on the EMC, but the car was simply not strong enough for savage environment that is Johnson valley and two days of hardcore action was just to much for the our battle scarred warrior.
Our little Defender car is fantastic but was found lacking with the smallest engine, the shortest wheel base and no sway bars. Not an excuse, but a reality and we are still a little drunk on what we have managed to achieve with our wonderful little car.
The support from home and abroad has been mind blowing and we feel so proud to be part of the action.
I have more reports, pictures and videos on there way soon. Our biggest head ache has been internet coverage and i have to thank my team for their continued efforts in travelling a 30 mile journey most days just so we could use the Wifi at McDonalds! A superb effort
More stuff to follow, and Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
After the amazing result that was the EMC we sadly had no time to party as we had a car to prepare for the main event the following morning. The drivers briefing stretched on into the evening cutting short our time to prepare the car for the next days events.
The mechanics Mark Birch, Stephen Capeling roared into action and worked hard to make good any repairs required. Will Overton and Jonathan Hambro (JC) and the girls worked hard to support them as they worked.
We had again damaged the Rear Axle A frame stretching one of the bush mountings. Man this event is tough on stuff!
Myself and Wayne worked on getting our stuff organised including charging radios, fitting another tracking device (Needed a different unit each day) and helping the guys get everything prepared.
We were shattered and needed sleep badly.... the car had to be lined up at 6am sharp for a 8am start....
127 of the most amazing vehicles i have ever seen! The quality of the field was outstanding, i have never seen so many amazing Buggies and all with massive axles, Huge suspension, Big engines and quality crew.
I'll not lie was i more than a little worried as to how we could possibly compete against them.
8am arrived and sound of thunder descended on the valley as the top cars each unleashed 750 horses on to the course.
Soon it was our turn to start and we had the outside line against a huge Ultra 4 buggy. I gave it everything but just could not stay with them after the jump as their LS engine chucked down the power.
All to soon we had cleared the first obstacles and headed out into the desert and on to the flats.
At 85mph the car is hard work as unlike the rest of cars in both races we do not have any anti sway bars. Then at race mile 7 we pass Pier Acerni, King of the Valleys winner stationary and wondered what could possibly have happened. Sadly we did not have long to ponder this as at race mile 9 we hear some terrible noises from under the car and have to stop. We get off the course as quickly as possible and jump out to find the central rear A frame mounting has sheared. I have never broken one of those before !
This event is tough and we had taken to carrying the mobile welder. While we were making good the first of the led cars came past us. Shannon Campbell leading Robbie Gordon and then Randy Slawson. We were rather surprised to see them and could only think "Wow"
5 minutes later we are back on the road and are now driving to survive. That does not mean we are driving slowly just not as fast as we had been. The number of broken and damaged cars was staggering and we knew that if we could keep the car together we would have a good placing.
The first big move for us was at race mile 49 where we passed 15 cars winching up the dune covered with boulders and the same place we had passed John Currie the previous day on our way to finishing first at the EMC. This was just the motivation we needed and we upped the pace passing Ultra 4 buggies in the desert and the canyons.
We arrived at the first pit stop and the team jumped to action refuelling the car and checking nuts and bolts as Wayne and i took much needed fluids.
We have to to complete the infamous Back door and Resolution trails on one of the three laps. We really wanted to nail them and got their to find it almost clear of cars. The plan was to arrive and winch over the top and show off the winch.... did not go quite go to plan and as we winched over the top we got caught on a boulder that did not want to let us go! 5 minutes of playing around later we break free. We are pretty embarrassed and laugh at ourselves and our performance on Backdoor. Back on the trail again and soon passing broken buggies along the track.
Wayne is loving the superb traction the car has in the rocks, although we cannot believe how the trails have changed since the previous days race with huge rocks having been moved and sand dug away making almost impossible trails even tougher.
The car felt alive and was responding fantastically well as we pushed on through the trails. At Hell's Gate and Sunbonnet pass we got a shock as we had yet to see these trails and they where brutal with Sunbonnet being very cool.
Next it was into highway 19/20 and I was confident to clear them quickly as they are trails i had already driven. As we arrived at a waterfall where during pre-running we had rescued another car, we heard the terrible click click of doom from the rear axle and i knew our race was over.
We winched the next mile and had the pleasure of seeing Randy Slawson and Shannon Campbell come past us, again simply "Wow", so much control and speed it was very impressive.
We made our way to remote pit 2 and decided to call it time.
We knew that even if we could repair that we had no chance of completing the course in the time remaining, plus if we broke it a again then we could find ourselves in a bad situation trying to recover a vehicle in the dark of night.
But we hold our heads high, we are so proud to be at King of the Hammers and are gutted not to complete the course.
At 10 o'clock in the evening they close the course and we are staggered to find that only 28 cars completed the toughest course in the events history. We would have loved to have been one of them.
We came here as a winch challenge team, and if i'm honest we totally under estimated the intense difficulty of this amazing event. We had a game plan that worked well on the EMC, but the car was simply not strong enough for savage environment that is Johnson valley and two days of hardcore action was just to much for the our battle scarred warrior.
Our little Defender car is fantastic but was found lacking with the smallest engine, the shortest wheel base and no sway bars. Not an excuse, but a reality and we are still a little drunk on what we have managed to achieve with our wonderful little car.
The support from home and abroad has been mind blowing and we feel so proud to be part of the action.
I have more reports, pictures and videos on there way soon. Our biggest head ache has been internet coverage and i have to thank my team for their continued efforts in travelling a 30 mile journey most days just so we could use the Wifi at McDonalds! A superb effort
More stuff to follow, and Thank you, Thank you, Thank you
