Lawrie and Hobzee Score 2nd in the 2009 Outback Challenge!

With only 3 winches made in the whole event and not one DNF Lawrie and Hobzee proved that smart thinking and smart driving combined with a reliable vehicle is a great combination for success in the Outback Challenge. Hobzee is now preparing for the leadup to the Ironman Cliffhanger 4wd Event.

here's a little blurb from hobzee about the event:
"Paul and Sharyn had a win this year. The new format worked a treat. The weather and road closures were not a problem and we were all together. We saw a lot of Paul as a marshal as well as regular driver briefs and that was a treat.

A great thing was after last stage Paul called up 1 car at a time to discuss scores, stage results, outside assistance. If you had a beef then speak now or forever hold your piece. So cool! If there is controversy then the person pointing the finger is a fool. Well done.

The field had thinned right down by the last stage and even those still running were barely hanging in there. Such as Dave Cameron on 3 tyres, no brakes and couldn't re-start the engine. Jeff Redman finished on just 2 tyres. Greg Scanlon on 5 cylinders and no diff locks. Max lost a panhard and had no brakes. Huddy broke his chassis clean off at the steering box.
Lots more stories like these and a credit to each team and the mateship between teams to keep each car going. All for 1 and 1 for all.

We missed the Nundooka stages. Not as much winching this year - I'm happy with that. We only pulled the winch rope out 3 times.

Pop and I were delighted with the Lux. 2 x punctures and that was about the extent of carnage for us. Oh yeh - Pop jumped the lux a bit harder than usual and we bent the front diff (straightened just prior to OBC) but it's back to normal bent diff with -ve camber. With the smallest engine in the comp (4ltr lexus) we lacked the ponies but made up with light weight and plenty of noise. Well done to Sean at SEQLD 4x4 for building a great rig. No DNF's, no penalties - happy with that!

Pro Comp extreme Muddies worked a treat. Drove a lot of the mud and they were just 35's. Averaged about 10 psi per stage. 4 psi on sandwall with 5 point nav. We took it steady in that nav section given the low pressure but our aim was to get up that bloody sand wall fast .. and we did.

I was very pleased to be a part of a very successful OBC. Paul and Sharyn agreed we should get together soon and plan next year with Cliffhanger and Outback Challenge working closer together.

And last but not least - It was an honour and a pleasure to have a ride with Lawrie sternbeck (Pop). He was great fun and he is a fabulous driver."

The sms inbox has been quiet with updates from Hobzee....

Places after SS12

Place Car # DRIVER NAVIGATOR State Total
1 22 Greg Scanlon Liam Nunns VIC 1016
2 27 Lawrie Sternbeck Steve Hobbs QLD 936
3 15 David Cameron Daniel Dewit VIC 931
4 3 Brett Chynowyth Rob Bartch VIC 868
5 6 Neil Cooper Chris Hummer VIC 837
6 28 Huddy Adrian Parker VIC 817
7 2 Max Baerlocher Cosmo Scarpin NSW 765
8 12 Alan Mai Stuart Schoof VIC 759
9 4 Graeme Filer Jeff Winter QLD 758
10 14 Nunzio Coffaro Daniel Meneses VENEZUELA 745
11 24 Jeff Redman Jason Forssan VIC 728
12 11 Nick Mannell Torben Hansen NSW 709
13 5 Alan McMullin Shayne Barkly VIC 694
14 21 Andy Miller Robbie Calvert VIC 667
15 9 Renny Rodriguez Daniel Avellaneda VENEZUELA 663
16 8 John Clemens Tony Bright NSW 605
17 20 Laurie Griffiths Mani Kafantaris NSW 422
18 16 Brett Burns James Simonds VIC 342
19 7 Michael Hingerty Tim Hunter NSW 126

Credit goes to AJ from Outers for this image.

Current Places as of Wednesday 1pm

Places as of Wednesday 1pm

Place Car # DRIVER NAVIGATOR State Total
1 22 Greg Scanlon Liam Nunns VIC 921
2 27 Lawrie Sternbeck Steve Hobbs QLD 849
3 15 David Cameron Daniel Dewit VIC 831
4 3 Brett Chynowyth Rob Bartch VIC 804
5 17 Peter Mihaloff Alan McGilvray VIC 794
6 6 Neil Cooper Chris Hummer VIC 778
7 28 Huddy Adrian Parker VIC 759
8 19 Bruce Borchardt Kean Peard NSW 701
9 5 Alan McMullin Shayne Barkly VIC 694
10 4 Graeme Filer Jeff Winter QLD 690
11 2 Max Baerlocher Cosmo Scarpin NSW 689
12 14 Nunzio Coffaro Daniel Meneses VENEZUELA 673
13 12 Alan Mai Stuart Schoof VIC 668
14 24 Jeff Redman Jason Forssan VIC 655
15 18 Bill Tsaousis Warren Shipp VIC 640
16 11 Nick Mannell Torben Hansen NSW 626
17 9 Renny Rodriguez Daniel Avellaneda VENEZUELA 602
18 21 Andy Miller Robbie Calvert VIC 601
19 23 Anthony Kilner Andrew Norman VIC 591
20 8 John Clemens Tony Bright NSW 542
21 20 Laurie Griffiths Mani Kafantaris NSW 360
22 16 Brett Burns James Simonds VIC 285
23 7 Michael Hingerty Tim Hunter NSW 72

Update from Tuesday Night

Another sweet day from the duo of Lawrie and Hobzee gaining top ten places all Tuesday with No DNFs. Good work lads.

Got the mud stage tonight. Will this see Hobzees first run on the winch rope?

Update from Monday Night

As of monday night Lawrie and Hobzee were in outright second place firing on all 8 cylinders, behind Scanlon on 5 cylinders with 3rd place being Max Baerlocher with no rear brakes.

2 x DNF boys

These boys have had 2 x DNF.

Huddy rolled and back without losing a stage - impressive. Roll Bar straightened and then re- braced, new screen and door and re-scrutineered in very fast time. Their front shocks are totally stuffed (1 is missing). Not mentioning brands as it is no indication of quality - they abuse evreything they touch - you know how some kids are just like that!!!

Dave Cameron in the green dual cab (15) is winning stages but did a drive shaft in the opening creek run, did a CV while backing out and then a winch motor during recovery. Yesterday they bogged down on the sand wall - but hey these boys can boogie. V8 5.0 stoked to 5.7 with a supercharger plonked on for good measure

more

These guys have only had 1 x DNF.

Ant had a fire but all fixed - can't rev too hard coz will cause damage.

Bruce has to get under car to change gears in Car 19. He was doing really well. Hang in there - Kean has to get under car to change gears but stay in his harness - speaking of which - it was a harness penalty that caused the zero point DNF.

Alan Mai is doing well - melted the battery clamp on the sand wall just a half car length from the top. They guys are resting while others working on their cars - that's a good sign.

Hummer and Coops

If there is someone trying very hard to get third place it's Coops and Chris.

They have had great runs and pushing very hard. Quite a few stage wins but rolled last night in the sand. So they are making sure they wont win or come second. (These guys only ever get 3rd place) Yesterday they changed transfer case over because they had only 1 range - not sure whether it was high or low only. Not a bad repair in the bush huh!

Of the teams with 1 DNF - these guys would be leading (say 4th place is a safe bet).

Nice new paint job - Grabber tyres are certainly tough and can be driven very fast - but only thing is that the only 2 cars to roll are also the only 2 with Grabbers. DOH.

Top 3

Here are pics of top three as of Tuesday lunch - not official but based on the fact that these are the only ones that haven't yet had a DNF.

Greg Scanlon doing great times and pushing hard. Down to 5 Cylinders and running hot now - Hang in there buddy!

Lawrie and Hobzee so far always top 10 and clean runs so far. Got a second last night in the sand and a 3rd on Sunday. Car going well. Voted best sounding V8 by spectators.

Maxi is doing nice clean runs consistently - no DNF's and enjoying the pointy end for a change. He is launching his new designer unddies and need the Hammer he uses on people's teel to shut off his rear brakes. - My advice is dont be the car in front of him in transport.

Saturday Night

Well for just a little while we were winning the outback challenge. Laurie did a great drive on his first run with a 4.03 minutes but then about 5 cars did better - Coops was best I think and Huddy did great in carby 4.2 (Funny how that's the motor everyone was taking out to fit a V8 and yet he beat almost all the V8's in a speed stage).

Major carnage for some as follows ...

Dave Cameron (fist car) did a tail shaft.
Laurie Griffiths busted the A Frame in the rear.
Nick Mannel was most impressive - not only ripping the front right hand wheel off with hub and all, but also front right guard completely off as well.
Mick Hingerty did a fuse - it ran computers as well as 6-8 x spottiesso he got just 50 feet into the stage.
Not sure what happened to Hoon but he lost power and coasted back to the finish inside DNF (5mins) but got towed back to B'Hill.

Second run was much less breakage an ran without a hitch. Times got faster. A sub 4Min was the goal and we were happy with a 3.50 from the Lux. But alas the fast guys got faster too.

Notable great performances from the following ... (I am tipping this might be top 10 ish but no particular order ...)

Neil Cooper & Chris Hummer
Greg Scanlon
Huddy & Muppet
Brett Chenowyth & Rob Barton
Alan Mac & Shayne Barclay
Lawrie Sternbeck & Hobzee
James & Brett - PGS - I think they did a pwr steer pump on 2nd run but still did great.
Bruce Borchardt did a blinder 2nd run and worth noting.

Not much sleep at Silver City tonight me thinks.

Pics tomorrow.

We had to stop for a cold one - lemon squash of course ... almost there. Topar is about 45 mins from Broken Hill.

Update Friday 15th

Hobzee and Lawrie went through registration today - 28 cars due for registration. They are Car 27.
Lots of race trucks about town. 2 Teams from Venezuela.
Hobzee is fitting internal beadlocks for Team Venezuela on Sat am.
Show and Shine is on Saturday am. Stay tuned for pics.

4WD Action photographers and Hole Shot Images did a photo shoot on Lawrie's rig ... while it was still clean and straight.

Hobzee has been practising on Lawries Garmin 2006C GPS - he is normally a Magellan FX324 guru but claims he is now a convert. He believes that although he can enter waypoints faster into the Magellan the Garmin is heaps faster to Route and Go To with arrows and data also on the map screen that also shows all the waypoints. This means travelling to a waypoint is possible while assessing what the next waypoint will be and that it takes just 2 clicks to Go To the next way point. Lawrie hopes that this means they just dont stop out there plotting the next waypoint and that this will mean extra points achieved in the time given.

Stay Tuned for pics

Hobzees Hittin' the Outback Challenge

Lawrie Sternbeck (Driver) and Steve Hobbs (Hobzee - Navigator) team up this year for the 2009 Outback Challenge. Lawrie is convinced that Steve can run faster than Wayne Smith and all that work that Hobzee has been putting in at the gym just might pay off this year.

Some words from Hobzee via Broken Hill,

"Car all great. Lights fitted and behaving well. Lawrie is happy. We took a practice run today. 110 klm in 2nd high at 6500 RPM. 120klm in low range at 7000RPM ... Impressive. Very loud - very impressive."

Lawrie Sternbecks Car in Action in a 2006 Xtreme Winch Challenge Comp.

We'll be constantly updating this blog with current info during the competition along with lots of pics of both Hobzee and Lawrie and the other competitors. So stay tuned!