The first two days of competition at the SSS Six Day Extreme being held at Landcruiser Mountain Park are now complete. The nine stages held so far have tested the limits of all eight teams, physically, mentally and mechanically. With the technical winch stages mixed with some speed and GPS elements to keep the competitors on their toes. The weather has been near perfect, with the chilly mornings making way for blue skies and sunshine, however some showers have blown in this evening making for potentially slippery tracks in the morning.
Racing has commenced each morning with a blast around the Coopers Rally Track to get the blood pumping before a GPS stage, which has featured a number of short winch walls en route to the days main stages. The roar of the V8’s has echoed through the park on these stages, especially the LSX 454 under the hood of RGM Racings GQ Ute.
The Scrub Paddock region of the park was the playground for Monday’s two winch stages. The two side by side stages weaved their way in and out of the creek bed, with Peter Stirling utilising the steep banks and rock ledges to perfection. Resulting in a number of blown winch brake shafts in the pressure cooker of competition. Both stages featured six winches and a DNF time of 45 minutes, with the quicker teams clocking in around the 20 minute mark.
Monday’s competition finished with another GPS stage after dark, which saw two teams have minor rolls after they fell into some monster sized holes.
Tuesday’s action revolved around Iron Pot Creek with two technical stages running in and out of a gully. Big wheel lifts were the order of the day with huge off camber angles and massive near vertical banks putting the winches and navi’s under enormous pressure as they snaked their way along it. Jacko and Griffo in the RGM GQ were looking unstoppable until they flopped the silver truck on one side then the other. They quickly self recovered and continued on the finish the stage.
Wednesday’s racing will be near Fourby’s Freeway before the competitors head to a neighbouring property overnight stay and more stages on Thursday. Competition returns to Landcruiser Mountain Park on Friday and Saturday, with the presentation held on Saturday night.
We’ll endeavour to bring you more information and photos later in the week. A full feature will be in Edition 35 of Dirtcomp in early July.
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