6 May – Stage Eight, Final stage
May 7, 2011 by Damir Pildek · Leave a Comment
6 May 2011 Stage Eight, Final stage
Many congratulations to Jim and Wayne. It was only the first time they had worked together but they showcased a winning combination of professionalism, experience and talent. They also managed to demonstrate beyond doubt that a well-sorted but still relatively stock Td5 Defender, with only the usual high-street available mods, can be a competition winner in an extended event like this, an event which spans eight days of hard running in very challenging conditions. Reliability in such circumstances obviously becomes a key success factor and the Team Gigglepin Land Rover took it all on the chin without blinking. Indeed, Land Rovers acquitted themselves extremely well this year, several achieving high placings on the overall rankings, as the overall results table will show. All in all, a vintage year for the British entrants and for Land Rover. It was the first time the Trophy had such a large number of teams from Britain and they have spiced up the event wonderfully. Our thanks go out to them and to the large number of teams from far and wide – not just from all around Europe but from places as far away as Latvia, Israel and Malta. The sense of international camaraderie at this event is real and rewarding - popular diplomacy at its best..
The final stage was designed for fast and technical manoeuvring and the top runners were covering the 50 or so kilometres of the stage in around a couple of hours. Others, as usual, found the skill levels required more of a challenge to live up to and were lucky to cover over 10 kms in an hour of hard work. In fairness, of course, the deterioration in piste conditions as each car passed through was significant. The battling stalwarts gritting their teeth at the tail end of the field found themselves coping with growing morasses created by the dozens of drivers who had passed through before them. Sections Jim Marsden had passed through at speed when leading at the front had now become winching exercises difficult enough to tax even the most experienced drivers. A competitor looking to end up in the top ten of this competition really wouldn’t want to drop too far down the order in the early stages.
But part of the charm of the Croatia Trophy is the fact that, given it is so notoriously tough, just finding yourself at the finish line is a considerable achievement. Watching the beaming pleasure derived by some of the tail-enders and adventure class participants just from completing a stage, for example, was a joy to behold. It must have been frustrating for those who were forced to drop out completely on the last day, and even more frustrating for the team who managed to roll their Jeep over upside down in the river only 50 metres from the finish line. Fortunately both driver and co-driver got out as they were quickly and completely submerged. The car was eventually winched upright by the organisers but, with a wide river and a steep bank in the way, there was absolutely no way to push the now completely flooded Jeep over the line.
For those whose focus is not on winning but on simply enjoying a testing challenge in a beautiful environment, surrounded by positivity, friendship and sportsmanship, all professionally organised to the highest international standards, the Croatia Trophy is second to none. For those at the top end of the sport who come to compete for a place on the podium, success in this event confers upon them the highest accolades. A top ten place in this event is an exceptional achievement, respected throughout the international Trophy community. If you can score highly in this one, it is accepted you can be competitive anywhere.
As the final results still continue to trickle in and competitors, service support teams, press and spectators head back to camp to clean up and get ready for the prize giving ceremony and celebration meal this evening, this is your Croatia Trophy daily blogger signing off. I look forward to renewing this blog at the 2012 event. Happy wheelin’ to you all…
Carl Reuter
5 May – Stage Seven
May 6, 2011 by Damir Pildek · Leave a Comment
The refreshing cold snap continued today – perhaps a bit too refreshing for some, with frost on the ground at first light and a chill in the bones when watching the action deep in the forest and away from any patches of sunlight.
The stage began spectacularly for the extreme class with an immediate dowsing in the cold water of the river Glena, an upriver push in the bonnet-high current for about a hundred metres, before climbing up the bank again and up onto the piste. The level of sympathy drivers had for their now stone cold engines as they accelerated away spoke volumes about their approach to this event. Some floored it and maxed out the revs as they went up through the gears on the subsequent flat stretch of gravel road. Others changed up early and showed mercy on their engines until they were warm again. It will be interesting to see which approach pays off by the end of the final stage tomorrow. The ’supercharged hares’ are certainly still dominating the overall rankings but a few ’strategic turbo-tortoises’ seem rapidly to be climbing the overall results table as previously faster performers above them drop out.
At the time of writing some stragglers are still coming in from the stage and results are not yet available, but today’s substantial and very testing stage of around seventy-five kilometres shou?d have begun to bring things to a head. Two years ago, for example, Jim Marsden found himself in an identical position to the one he finds himself in now on stage seven. A well-developed but technically relatively straightforward Defender Td5 (plus of course his excellent Gigglepin winches), outstanding driving and navigating, a record of being ultra-quick through the early stages and an approach to Trophy events which clearly believes that driving to the max all the time is actually the best way of nursing your car through the stages. Then, just at the point where it seemed that he was running away with it and victory was inevitable, bang, major drivetrain damage during the stage and an enforced repair back at camp. He drove spectacularly to try and make up the time, and was by far the fastest on the final stage. However, that one breakdown gave his opposition the one chance they needed and three of his rivals (including a ’strategic turbo-tortoise’, the admirable Boros Czaba in his VW Golf engined Jeep) just managed to overtake him on the overall rankings.
Jim’s well out front at the time of writing, having a blinder of a Trophy this year. Will he stay there? Will his relatively simple but incredibly resilient Land Rover just keep on taking this extreme punishment in its stride? Will his 24 volt-zapped 12 volt winches continue to live up to their reputation? Is it conceivable that he and Wayne might make a disastrous navigation error whilst blazing the trail – always a risk when you’re leading the field – and let his rivals catch up at the last minute? Will he perhaps unsuspectingly sink into a classic Croatian forest mega-bog and take ages to extract himself whilst others benefit from his predicament and slip by using a different line?
Not long now before we find out… the final day of the Croatia Trophy 2011 approaches and the tension builds.
Carl Reuter
