After a gruelling seven rounds over 11 months at a variety of sites in the south of England the 4x4 Adventures 2008 series finished with a bang on the final round. There was all to play for right to the end in each class.

In standard, although there were a low number of entries, Russell Lowton and Lewis Alderson returned for the final competition to beat off Simon Parsons and Chris Solway by one point. Simon had been unable to make the last round and paid dearly for it! Russell and Lewis had a good 4 wins in class and 1 second with Simon a strong 3 wins and 2 seconds not quite being able to catch him. 3rd Place went to Dan Need and Ian Stokes. Dan unfortunately couldn’t compete in the last few rounds and lost out dearly for missing these. Luckily Ian Stokes managed to find himself another seat codriving for Tim Jones in the Modified Class so at least Ian made the most of it, even if modified was a steep learning curve for him!

Standard + 1 wasn’t decided until the last round either. David Webber with codriver Mark Walford was hot on the heels of Shaun Houghton and Stu Guard and was keen to push Shaun to the limit to prove his worth in his first challenge series. Both David and Shaun along with 3rd place Paul Radford had developed their trucks specifically for the series and the Std + 1 Class. This is an ideal step up from Standard allowing them to attempt more punches but without the extra complication of going fully modified. How they managed on standard drive trains though I don’t know, although I believe Paul now has a good understanding of how to change CVs and Shafts!

Bob and Dawn Smith, the only husband and wife team to enter the series were close contenders for the Spirit of the Event Award. They worked hard throughout the series and proved their worth many a time with some good results against hard competition. However they were slightly unfortunate on several events with some breakages which affected their overall positioning.

Bob and Dawn were nowhere near as unfortunate as their sons Bert and Dan who were entered in the Modified Class. The two brothers didn’t manage one event without something going wrong from winch motors to lockers to ropes to diffs. They seemed to have more than their fair share of problems and it wasn’t due to lack of preparation either. Despite this they finished a creditable fifth equal overall and took home one of the competitor nominated prizes for the ‘Least Fortunate’ of the series. Tim Jones and Darren Church, who came in equal with Bob and Bert were again haunted by problems, despite yet again, a well prepared vehicle – in this case Nick Walker’s trayback Rangie – Tango. Despite these set backs they both came in equal 5th place overall.

Meanwhile, Kris Murphy put in a sterling performance first with Craig crewing for him, before taking on Bryony Passmore as his permanent co-driver. They worked exceptionally well together, taking things at a steady place, consistently returning a good punch count and always finishing well in the top runners. Bry’s confidence developed over the course of the year, as did Kris’ belief in her ability and they took on more and more of the harder punches and proved their worth again and again. Despite being very competitive they had an excellent approach to the series; friendly and helpful. They recovered people who were less fortunate than themselves with no concern for the fact they were losing their own time on punches and often stopped for a chat to catch up with people or have a closer look at someone in need of assistance. The series evolved off the back of some adhoc events in 2007 and the emphasis has always been on being a competitive yet friendly event. Kris and Bry epitomised this throughout the series and it was no surprise to see the competitors vote them ‘Spirit of the Event’. Hopefully the new Bowmotor will come in handy on future recoveries!

Shaun Harris and Steve Williams had some good and bad events, the scores throughout the year showing Shaun obviously liked the special stages and the speed elements! Some good technical team work throughout the series coupled with Shaun’s two front mounted 8274s reflected some good results and even with the disruption of Paul Milsom taking the helm as co-driver for the last couple of events they still managed to secure a sound 3rd place.

At the top of the ladder came Team OEC with Jase Farr and Rich Sims who had been pitted against Team Gigglepin; Steve Gittins and Mark Morgan. Both teams were running manual (for this year) 200tdi traybacked 90s with front/mid and rear winches. As with anything they all started the season for a laugh and as things developed, winning one here and there, it became more and more intense with more and more upgrades appearing on the trucks too. Despite this both teams continued in the vain the series was born, competitive yet friendly and helpful to all and by the end there was some great comradeship between not only them but all the teams across the classes. The scores went to the final round and in the end there was a tie between them for 1st place with 3 wins and 2 second places as the best of 5 from 7 between them.

The series is indebted to both its sponsors for their active participation and support throughout the year. Our thanks go to Simon Raffety from X- Eng who not only sourced all the event prizes but supplied Chris Watts to act as our main scrutineer and head marshall. We would also like to thank Anton from OEC for all his hard work in sourcing the series merchandise, overseeing advertising and bringing his team along to each event to help as marshalls.

Series Results

Modified

Maximum points: 95

1st = Team Gigglepin (Steve Gittins & mark Morgan) and Team OEC (Jason Farr and Rich Sims) – 93
3rd Shaun Harris and Paul Milsom - 84
4th Kris Murphy and Bryony Passmore – 83
5th Bert & Dan Smith and Tim Jones & Ian Stokes/Darren Church – 70
7th John Piper – 58
8th Mike Cuff and Sam Fletcher – 48
9th = Tony Cordell & Mike Dunlop and Paul Hooper – 47
11th Nick Watts and Guy Radford – 42
12th Martin Stainer and Alen Cousins – 38
13th Simon Buck and Matt Cook – 33
14th Ben Burgess and Ro Llonte – 29
15th Andy Smith – 26
16th Alen Cousins and Graeme Mitchell – 23
17th Graeme Mitchell and – 11
18th Pete Mitchell – 7
19th Martin Gilpin – DNS

Std + 1 (Slightly Modified) - two aids (eg 2 winches, 2 lockers or 1 winch and 1 locker)

Maximum points: 30

1st = Shaun Houghton & Stuart Guard and David Webber & Mark Walford - 26
3rd Paul Radford and Josh Jacobs - 22
4th = Ian Moulsdale & Ryan Price and Bob and Dawn Smith – 21

Std - 1 aid (eg 1 winch, or 1 locker)

Maximum points: 25

1st Russell Lowton and Lewis Alderson – 24
2nd Simon Parsons and Chris Solway – 23
3rd Dan Need and Ian Stokes – 10
4th Keith Knight and Simon Elvins – 3

Series Prizes - as voted for by the competitors

Spirit of the Event (Bowmotor) – Kris Murphy and Bryony Passmore

Most Unfortunate of the series (Recovery Kit) – Bert and Dan Smith

Biggest mistake – Sam Fletcher – For turning up at the wrong site on round 1! Having said that Rich Simms came a close second for booking the Exeter Travellodge on the final round instead of the Tiverton one!

Draw Prizes

TJM Compressor – Tim Jones

Exide Battery – Wayne Martin

X-Eng Ground Anchor – David Webber