Nightmare Challenge Punch-hunting in the dark. Ideal for beginners

Viking 4x4 Club takes a shot in the dark with a one-off running of the Nightmare Challenge

Words: James Watts Pictures: Tomasz Jarecki

As we plunge into the depths of midwinter at the end of another season, most competitors are spending long hours in the workshop getting their trucks ready for the spring. After all, nobody likes off-roading in the dark, do they?

Well, maybe they do…

The Nightmare Challenge has traditionally been run by the Midland Off Road Club. But in 2022, the lingering knock-on effects of lockdown meant they weren’t in a position to do it – so the Viking 4x4 Club approached them and received their blessing to keep this iconic event going.

Why is the Nightmare Challenge so special? The answer is simple: it’s the only winch event in the UK to be held at night.

Weekley Woods, near Kettering, is one of the Viking 4x4 Club’s regular haunts, and that’s where the teams headed for to take part in an event that was sponsored by Fullfl ex Springs, Damar Webbing Solutions, RA Land Rover and Britpart.

The event took the familiar format, with 50 punches laid out around the site – 15 of them particularly awkward to reach and worth twice as many points as the rest. But of course, what was very unfamiliar was doing it in darkness.

This makes it much, much harder. The punches are set out on marker boards, which are easy enough to see from a distance by day but at night might as well not be there. So to help the teams fi nd the punches, they were marked with blue and red glow sticks.

Putting on an event like this in the middle of summer would mean starting in the middle of the night and fi nishing, well, also in the middle of the night. But this was early February, so the teams were fl agged off at 5pm – by which time, of course, it was already dark. They had until 11pm to get as many punches as possible, with a 100-point penalty per minute of lateness back to the pits ensuring no-one would be tempted to try and burn the midnight oil.

The week leading up to the event had been dry, but on the evening of the event drizzly rain set in that stayed all night. That made it quite slippery and tricky for the teams, but thankfully it wasn’t worse – in years gone by, the Nightmare has had terrible weather and freezing temperatures.

It’s always great to welcome new competitors, and one such at the Nightmare was Jake Joannides. He had managed to bag Tom Wilson to co-drive; Tom is a well known and very experienced winch man, who had won most events he’s taken part in.

Jake, though, was the fi rst person to have issues, just a few minutes in. He was running standard alloy wheels and no beadlocks, so perhaps it’s not a surprise that he took a tyre off its rim. Every event is a learning experience, so no harm done, and a quick wheel change saw the pair away again.

As with every winch challenge, there was a special section. This has one punch and is done against the clock so it can act as a tie-breaker in the event of scores being even at the end of the day, which is why it’s mandatory for all competitors.

It needs to be done quickly, too, as it closes early in the event – in this case, at 6.45pm. This leaves enough time for everyone to run the section, but many headed straight there and queued up – the reason being that while it’s tempting to bag a few other punches while everyone else is sat around waiting for their

turn, if you have an issue that needs a trip back to the pits you risk missing the closing time and suffering a no-score, knocking you out of the event.

The section was a very quick blast up a hill and back to get the punch and across the line. The hill had two lines you could take, however, which made the section very interesting – as well as the darkness, this caught out a few people and lost them time. Even then, to give you an idea of how good these competitors are, the average time was a mere 70 seconds.

Another new competitor at the Nightmare Challenge was Holly Evans, who had competed at the fi nal round of the previous year’s Odyssey Challenge, co-driving for Duncan Smith. Holly is the most enthusiastic person in the paddock and absolutely loves her racing but she had decided that the driving seat is for her – and arrived with a well established, Defender-based challenge truck which she had recently purchased. She was incredibly nervous but showed no fear has she competed in Class 1 with co-driver Barney Burton. To think

that this was her fi rst ever event as a driver, to choose to do one in the dark aboard a car she had just bought was as brave as it gets.

The teams were pushing on and the rivalry was friendly as ever but fi erce nonetheless. Scott Haines and James Watts are no stranger to a winch challenge and have competed for many years, but their truck was not ready to enter the event so Johnny and Tracey Johnson loaned them theirs for the evening, meaning they were running in Class 2.

Even without their own vehicle, they were soon fl ying through the punches. They were the fi rst team to complete all 50 in the event, indeed, coming back for a second card so they could go back out and do it all again.

Alex Clarke entered in Class 3 with his Defender-based truck. This was also his fi rst time competing in his own vehicle, with co-driver Luke Wakelen showing him how it’s done. The pair were keen to push on, maybe a little too much as they suffered an impressive three broken CV joints. It’s not uncommon for axles to break in the harsh conditions, especially with a tuned engine and very aggressive tyres putting them under yet more stress, but even so Alex and Luke showed admirable resilience and stamina to keep going.

There was no award for the team to complete the special section in the fastest time, but Hugh Gascoigne and co-driver Jack Watson deserve a mention for being the quickest. They were running in a Class 2 truck with open diffs, putting them at a distinct disadvantage compared to Class 3 trucks which are allowed lockers.

In Class 1, Holly Evans fi nished in second place with a strong score of 2793 points. A very impressive, nay incredible achievement from a competitor whose name we’ll be hearing more of in the future. Ahead of her, though, Will Baker and Mikey Archer won Class 1 with a score of 4948 points.

In Class 2, third place went to Tim and Matt Wyborn on 1194 points. They blew up their winch motors early on in the event, which halted their progress. Second were Hugh Gascoigne and Jack Watson with 5072 points, while fi rst place went to Scott Haines and James Watts. Their score of 9040 points was impressive and also placed them second overall, beating all but one of the Class 3 trucks.

As it was, Class 3 was pretty evenly matched, with a lot of good teams and some very close scoring throughout the fi eld. Third place went to Zac Dambrauskas and Paddy Burman; Zac’s brand-new bespoke buggy, which he built by himself, was still having a few teething problems, but they managed to get past this to end the evening on 6830 points. Second place went to Jake Joannides and Tom Wilson, on 7013 points, but the star of the show was Henry Papworth – who, along with co-driver Ben Tinkler, showed great skill to amass a winning total of 9543.