My friend Mike and I have recently formed a competition team over here (Western Australia) named "Green Oval Experience", comprising of my D3 (to compete in standard class events) and Mike's Range Rover 2dr (twin lockers, Maxi axles, 35" Baja Claws, to compete in the modified classes). So when the Stadium Racing group here, held their first 4WD mud drag competition on Easter Saturday, we just had to enter ;-)
Along with the 4WD dirt buggy racing and stock cars on the speedway, 6 vehicles turned up to brave the three 50 metre pits that they had dug out of the clay base and filled with water. Our two cars, a TJ Jeep with twin lockers on 36" muddies, a CJ7 Jeep with Detroit lockers on 37" muddies, a twin lockered Nissan GQ ute on 35" tyres, and a huge Toyota Landcruiser ute with 38" tyres, a huge lift kit etc etc. My D3 was the only standard vehicle there, so it looked like we'd be winning that class before we'd even got one wheel muddy!!
The three "pits" were rated "easy" (1 ~ 2 ft deep), "medium" ( about 3ft deep) and "no way through" (3 ~ 4 ft), run in that order. The clay-based mud was sticky enough that you couldn't put your foot in it and pull it out without losing a shoe - as I found out during the drivers' meeting :-(
I didn't actually think we'd get out of pit 1 (there was a sharp bank at the end of each pit, buried in mud).
Anyway, to cut a long story short (there were 8 runs staggered over 6 hours), we actually won the event
Yup, the stock standard (other than mud tyres) D3 beat all the modifieds - pics are at http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1941
By the start of the 7th run, only the Rangie and the D3 were still competing - suspension problems, detonating diffs and electrics all took their toll on the others. Even so, we still actually ran the whole course faster than anyone else, even before most of them started dropping out.
It was a great start for our new team, and the looks from both spectators and officials when I turned up at the start line in my "little" standard D3 were just priceless.
Enjoy the photos - there's also a lot of video, that I'll put up at YouTube later this week.
Cheers,
Gordon
Along with the 4WD dirt buggy racing and stock cars on the speedway, 6 vehicles turned up to brave the three 50 metre pits that they had dug out of the clay base and filled with water. Our two cars, a TJ Jeep with twin lockers on 36" muddies, a CJ7 Jeep with Detroit lockers on 37" muddies, a twin lockered Nissan GQ ute on 35" tyres, and a huge Toyota Landcruiser ute with 38" tyres, a huge lift kit etc etc. My D3 was the only standard vehicle there, so it looked like we'd be winning that class before we'd even got one wheel muddy!!
The three "pits" were rated "easy" (1 ~ 2 ft deep), "medium" ( about 3ft deep) and "no way through" (3 ~ 4 ft), run in that order. The clay-based mud was sticky enough that you couldn't put your foot in it and pull it out without losing a shoe - as I found out during the drivers' meeting :-(
I didn't actually think we'd get out of pit 1 (there was a sharp bank at the end of each pit, buried in mud).
Anyway, to cut a long story short (there were 8 runs staggered over 6 hours), we actually won the event
Yup, the stock standard (other than mud tyres) D3 beat all the modifieds - pics are at http://www.disco3.co.uk/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=1941
By the start of the 7th run, only the Rangie and the D3 were still competing - suspension problems, detonating diffs and electrics all took their toll on the others. Even so, we still actually ran the whole course faster than anyone else, even before most of them started dropping out.
It was a great start for our new team, and the looks from both spectators and officials when I turned up at the start line in my "little" standard D3 were just priceless.
Enjoy the photos - there's also a lot of video, that I'll put up at YouTube later this week.
Cheers,
Gordon
