Istra Challenge 2009 (English Version)
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Exide Istra Challenge 2009
During the summer we registered ourselves with 2 teams for a top off-road event, the Istra Challenge! Gunther & Bart (JeepPOWER 4), and Freddy (JeepPOWER 1) represent themselves for the JeepPOWER stable.
On Sunday 1 November we left to Croatia with 7 other teams from Aartselaar near Antwerp. Axel of team Offroadterror provided 2 trucks with trailer and mobile home to get all the jeeps, spare parts and crew on site. Thank you very much for that!
After a long drive of about 20 hours we arrived Monday morning in Tinjan, the home of the Istra Challenge. Such as the previous year we could station the trucks in the garden of our friend Schummi, a local pub owner.
First we unloaded the trucks, set up camp and then we all went to eat a nice “mixed grill” at Didi’s.
After the meal we went with the Jeep to the technical control. Everything was ok.
That evening there was a drivers briefing around 21 hours. There the organizers informed us what we could expect the coming days. The daily road book consisted out of specials, Timed Sections and liaisons. The specials and Timed Sections were started and stopped with a chip which was linked to the Jeep. Considered afterwards it is a good system because they didn’t need a lot of crew for such a large event.
We were told that Tuesday morning at exact 9 AM we had to be at the start for a short briefing concerning the road book of the day.
The start was by number of inscription. We got number 26 out of 32 participants. So ideal was different.
There we went !
Approximately 200m in the first special I made a steering error and put the Jeep on his side. Luckily the next competitor was right in my tail and helped us back with the wheels to earth. Scarcely 400m further we drove the jeep true a mud hole and there it fell on his right-hand side. With the topwinch we put the Jeep back on his wheels and clocked off.
In the next special we caught up with our team mates JeepPOWER 4. Their windshield was gone. They got struck by a tree. That tree went straight true the windshield and ended 1m past the vehicle.
JeepPOWER 4 was already waiting for 20 mins because of the previous competitor. They were hanging like a puppet on a string with the rear winch cable. The winch was out of order. In the meantime my co Freddy went to explore the surroundings. 10m before the normal track we decided to take on the steep descent between the trees. Without problems we reached the river and then thru the finish.
Around 9 o’clock in the evening the daily results were posted. Guess what ……..
We, JeepPOWER 1 where listed on the second spot !!
Nice surprise !
During the night the weather went really bad and it was raining cats and dogs.
One hour before the start the weather got finally better.
There we went for 2 road books of approximately 80km. The first special goes really good. Then we drove slowly further to the 2nd special. Somewhere in the road book we had to go thru a kind of moon landscape with deep gutters. There we met Axel with the Rubicon. He told us that the road book was also timed! We didn’t listen carefully at the briefing and effectively it was marked in the road book. T.S. (Timed Section).
Without hesitation we proceeded thru the canyon. On certain points the Jeep fell on his side, but by driving in reverse from time to time brought the wheels back to the ground. After the canyon we arrived at a river which we had to follow approx. 3 km. The road book marked “check water level”!. Then we proceeded thru the river over 3 feet high rocks, when suddenly the nose of the Jeep disappears under the water level ! We couldn’t go in reverse because the rocks where to slippery. A bit of good old throttle and hoping that the engine doesn’t stall. The jeep disappears under water like a submarine, but we got traction and 15m further we came back out. Oefff… The sweat was gushing from under my helmet.
We drove further thru the river and approximately 1 km further a fellow competitor got stuck in a deep hole. The driver was still sitting in his car with the shoulders at water level ! Together with Boros the leader in the competition we winched the sinking 4x4 on dry land. Approximately 500 m. further we finished the special and proceeded with the road book. In the meantime it was pouring again and we had to drive over very narrow tracks thru the Croatian woods. Some tracks where so dangerous that we had to secure the Jeep with the top winch otherwise we could slide into the deep. A few km further we finished the road book and headed to the restaurant to get a nice meal and prepare for the night stage. The night stage started at 7 o’clock PM.
In the meantime is it still pouring!
