Odyssey Challenge Penultimate event of an action-packed year’s winching

Traction at a premium as heavens open to mark Odyssey Challenge’s return to Wormhaugh

Words: James Watts Pictures: Tomasz Jarecki

Summer gave way to autumn, the Viking 4x4 Club returned to Wormhaugh for the fi rst time in several years for the penultimate round of the 2022 Odyssey Winch Challenge series. The fi fth 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 fi eld of vehicles got torn into the punches laid out around the site – as well of course as the special section, which this time took advantage 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 fi eld and over the seesaw, getting a punch while on it, then back round to fi nish 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 fi rst 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 fi nding 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 fl awless 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

settled into their pace and picked up punches steadily. Slipping around, they got 24 punches – not bad for a Class 1 truck. Again, no issues, and they loved the site.

It has been a good year for the Viking 4x4 Club, with lots of new members coming forward, and they are always keen to welcome new faces. This event saw another new team taking part – but not a new car, as brothers Joe and Ed Lewry arrived with a very familiar trayback Discovery. This used to belonged to Paul Curling, who has recently sold up to pursue another hobby; Joe, who was always interested in off-roading, jumped at the chance to get into competition.

However, they didn’t pick an easy site to start with – the huge drops at Wormhaugh would put off even the most experienced teams. Running in Class 2, they took it very steadily to begin with, learning the ropes together and taking care not to do anything silly and break their car. They took it all in their stride, though, and loved it, so we’re hoping to see them back again for Round 6.

Dee Fox and Henry Harris, who were newcomers at the last event,

were back to give it another go. Their truck was not really sporting any new add-ons or modifi cation, but as the day went on they were doing well and fi nding their way round the site. Their front winch was getting a work out on the steep hills, too – maybe a little too much, in fact, as they broke it.

Not ones to give up, they made their way back to pits, took out their front winch and put their rear winch in the front. Following this, they carried on at a slower pace – only to burn both motors out on that winch too. After that they had no choice but to call it a day, however they had given it their best effort and only gave up until they had no other options.

Simon Ward and Leigh Jefferies has missed Round 4 but now they were back to put the pressure on the leaders for the overall championship spots. They had a small roll early in the day but no problem, a quick check over to see everything was in order and on they cracked. In the afternoon, though, they lost their front winch brake. This made it very tricky for them, and somewhat unnerving.

The winch still pulled as it should, however after winching in the brake will usually come on and hold the truck in place. That’s the bit that wasn’t happening – meaning Simon had to use some real skill and fast fi ngers on the buttons to hold the truck where they needed it to be. It certainly slowed progress, but they still worked hard to put on a show and score valuable points.

Chris Taylor and Sean Baines are they only team to have competed in every round this year. They bagged a good haul of punches in the fi rst two hours but then noticed an engine oil leak. It was from a gasket that they didn’t have a replacement for, so in order not to do any more damage they decided to call it a day and spectate for the afternoon. A shame, but smart to stop before doing anything catastrophic.

Mat Bain and David Burton are hot favourites in Class 3. They are normally ones to watch, smooth and reliable. They too had their issues, though, once again winch-related. Having burnt out one of their solenoids, they had to spend some time in the pits trying to sort it out. They had a spare but not the same size, so they had to cobble some bush mechanic fi xes together to make it work and fi nish the day.

Johnny and Tracey Johnson’s luck ran out pretty much straight away when, only an hour in, they blew their rear diff. At least these are easier to change than the ones at the front, and thankfully they had a spare with them. Only an hour later, they had it swapped and were back out – and the rest of their day went very smoothly after that.

The remaining teams stayed out until the last minutes to grab every punch they could. Even with just one round remaining after this one, the championship scores were so tight that every point really did matter.

After the mud had fi nally stopped fl ying, third place in Class 1 went to Richard with Sam Nelson with a score of 3735 points, who are still trying to get that elusive top spot. Second place went to Jess Martin and Jack Watson – a great result for them on only their second time out in their newly fi nished truck. It was close, though – they ended the day less than one punch ahead on 3777 points – despite having an epic roll part way through the day. The club has seen close fi nishes before and this was defi nitely one of them. Ultimately, though, it was Georgie Smith and Will Baker who took the win in Class 1 win with 4600 points.

In Class 2, despite their winch problems third place went to Dee Fox and Henry Harris on 3127 points. Second were Hugh Gascoigne and Harry Watson with 4013 points, then in another close fi nish Johnny and Tracey Johnson got the win on 4333 – just three punches ahead of second.

Most of the entries for this event were in Class 3, where 11 trucks fought it out. Third-placed Mat Bain and David Burton, who just made it on to a second card, fi nished with 7090 points. Second place went to Simon Ward and Leigh Jefferies, with 7429 points while winners of the event and Class 3 were Scott Haines and James Watts. Showing once more their recent unstoppable form, they almost managed to complete two full cards, scoring 10,230 points – some margin ahead of the chasing pack.

Most of all, though, every single person on the podium had earned the right to be there. Wormhaugh is a superb site and with some fantastic punches which really made the teams think about what they were doing and how to achieve them, this was winching at its very best.