TIGHT AND TECHNICAL
AS ODYSSEY CHALLENGE
RETURNS TO HOME GROUND
OFF-ROAD SCENE jeepspares.com forfast moving service and repair parts
76 | AUGUST 2019 4x4
Words: Pip Evans Pictures: Nick HoodFOLLOWING ON FROM the
fi rst round of the 201 Odyssey
Challenge, which was fi rst eZer to
be held at TixoZer, the Viking x
Club returned to familiar ground
for Round 2. ;eekley ;oods, near
/ettering, is one of the long-running
winch series’ home Zenues, so this
time the competitors knew what
to expect.As we reported in a preZious is-
sue of x, Round 1 had been aban-
doned early on after an incident in
which one of the competitors was
seriously inNured.
This left the organisers with an
unclaimed prize pot ̄ so the club
was grateful to Round 1 sponsor
+oodwinch for allowing them to be
carried oZer. The competitors weregrateful, too, because +oodwinch
products are always in demand by
challenge teams.
This is the thirteenth year of the
Odyssey series, and trucks’ capa-
bilities haZe adZanced considerably
during that time. Thus obstacles
that would haZe been extreme a
few years ago seem fairly tame
these days ̄ which giZes organisers
a problem, because the terrain
they’re using stays the same
Viking x’s answer was to use
miles of cordon tape, forcing com-
petitors to access the punches Zia
the most diffi cult route. There were
0 punches to collect, all of them
concentrated into a fairly small area
of woodland, so that if anyone got
into diffi culty there would likely beothers close by who could step in
to assist.
Tight and technical was the order
of the day, so huge engine power
was of little use ̄ but winch power
was much in demand. In addition,
communication between driZers
and winchmen was key as the tight
nature of the sections reUuired
some imaginatiZe rigging techniUues
to get the trucks to their obNectiZes.
As per usual, there were seZeral
roll oZers, but these were gentle
and easily recoZerable by using the
trucks’ own winches with no need
for outside assistance. As is the ex-
treme nature of the game, howeZer,
breakdowns are part and parcel of
challenge eZent competitions ̄ and
sure enough, seZeral competitors