MOTORSPORT
British-based Team Gumtree 4x4 wins Unmodified class in Kenyan Rhino Charge for the third time Words: Olly Sack Pictures: Shelagh Ballard
B
ritish based Team Gumtree 4x4 has completed a unique trio of sporting successes – by winning its class for the third time in the Kenyan Rhino Charge.
The team’s vehicle is a classic ‘bitsa’ made from a variety of Land Rover components that were lying around Gumtree’s workshop at the time – a 90 chassis, Series III bulkhead, 4.0-litre V8 engine, LT95
gearbox and axles containing a Detroit Locker at the back and Truetrac at the front. It qualifies for the Unmodified Class in the Charge mainly by not being equipped with portal axles or a twin-motor winch. The Rhino Charge predates challenge events by years, but in some ways it’s similar in principle to the way they operate. Teams are given 13 checkpoints and 10 hours in which to visit them all; the winner is the team that does so while covering the shortest distance. While this sounds simple enough, the distance between two
checkpoints may only be a couple of hundred yards – but it might also be up a cliff or across a field of carsized rocks. Teams have to decide whether to take the short, potentially extreme line or save time by going the longer way round. To aid them in doing this, a team really is a team. As well as a driver and navigator, each vehicle carries a crew of runners whose job is to scout ahead for hazards and routes through the terrain. It’s like walking a trials course, but in real time and on a huge scale. For Team Gumtree 4x4, the driver was John Bowden – founder of the famous Sussex-based Land Rover specialist of the same name and a long-term supporter of the event’s charitable aims. He was navigated by Lorian Campbell-Clause, making full use of satellite images as well
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