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This is the single-news section of the
marathonrally.com rally-live special of the Rainforest Challenge 2006. To navigate please use the upper or right Navigation Bar.
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Rainforest Challenge: Not for weak vehicles - or hearts.
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Long and emotionally awaited and after all because of the missing rain slightly less difficult than expected the Twilight Zone still kept up the fame of its name. The first participants started into the deep jungle on Saturday morning. Already on Sunday evening the first cars arrived after an 18 hour drive at the camp on the other side of the jungle stage.
Nonetheless compared to European standards the Twilight Zone exceeded everything known to us: dense jungle, completely overgrown tracks, rivers without bridges (which then had to be constructed out of logs), muddy and slippery 30 degree tracks next to 100m deep riverbeds. That all in a breathtaking jungle atmosphere and the unique sounds of the jungle. Who dared to enter had to make several sacrifices at once: the undoubting will to go through, damage their cars, a good physical condition, no fear of wild animals or wetness and and extreme courage.
Even the first 9 kilometers took their toll from the driver's and codriver's emotional state: The so called "tracks" - or at least the remains of them after 30 years of not being used - were hardly anywhere 2 m wide and in several places overgrown by trees that were only passable with a lot of momentum and tortured metal on the left and right. The numerous river crossings were due to the missing rain relatively easy (during the whole RFC it rained only on Wednesday). The tracks were less slippery than expected. However even that was enough to keep weak hearts permanently close to an attack - almost all of the time.
One of the tough points of the track was for instance a small 90 degree bend to the left side that had a nice and small looking 40 cm wide water gut on the left mountain side. When you however looked into it the average brain needed several seconds to process that what you saw. The small thing went approximately 3-4 meters into the deep and grew much wider at the bottom. The amazed driver quickly became aware of the fact that he and his car were more or less standing on a kind of inversed triangle of solid substance below himself with a mountain to the left and a 50 m deep valley to the right side. While going down the track the Sri Lankan "boat" exactly drove into this gut with his left fron wheel and had to be secured with both winches to keep it from falling over. After that passage the track had a 25 degree angle down towards the river flowing 50m deeper. The whole passage was wet and every car slid towards the river while passing the point almost sideways like a walking crab. Who now says that something like that "is crazy, dangerous and highly frightening" - this person is completely right. It is exactly this that makes the Rainforest Challenge what it is: hardcore, courage, mud, madness. "After all otherwise it would not be a Rainforest Challenge" smiles founder Luis J.A. Wee.
The winch was the most important and frequently used equipment part of the car - without it (and of course the specialized mud tires) it would be impossible to pass these tracks. Still the cars kept falling and flipping like leafs in the European autumn. In almost every section you could see cars lying on the side side or totally turned over. "This is already the second time today" so a participant from Borneo, "you almost get used to it". For most of the teams turning their cars is nothing spectacular. As a result especially the mandatory roll cages are well worth the investment (interestingly enough helmets are not required officially).
Both Jeep Cherokee of the Austrian Markus Osswald and the Danish Max Skjoeld passed the Twilight Zone without bigger problems. "The track was fantastic - however we originally did not expect to get through so fast" reports the always smiling Markus Osswald. The Landrover couple Janaszkiewicz from Poland had again some fights with their British car resulting in wild repairing sessions in the middle of nowhere. At the end they also reached the picturesque campsite next to a nice warm river. Only some participants had to cancel the stage because of technical problems.
In total not only the Twilight Zone but the entire Rainforest Challenge was especially for the numerous Landrover owners a "Repairing Challenge". At least that was the title given to them by the other participants. There was not a single Landrover that survived the RFC without major repairs while the Jeeps, Toyota and Nissan mostly got through without substantial repairs. The main problems were halfshafts, steering and the brakes. "We love our Landrovers" says a team member from Sri Lanka (who even has a Landrover tattoo on his right arm) who started with two Landrovers, "however we still have to make them harder as we are losing one or more halfshafts per day at the moment". The Philippines team only destroyed very few halfshafts in RFC terms. However - this was more or less due to the fact that they did hardly finish any special stage at all and the damages mostly occurred on the transport stages.
For a part of the press team and the numerous trophy tourists the Twilight Zone became a special experience. They went in by foot and were mostly faster than the cars. As a result some of the photographers were unlucky to hardly have met any participants at all. So an own challenge was created out of the Twilight Zone.
At the ending all jungle conquerors managed to cross the Twilight Zone more or less unhurt and without bigger problems. And together with the ending of the Twilight Zone the Rainforest Challenge 2006 came to its end. On Sunday morning a convoy escorted by numerous police cars and motorcycles took everyone again back into civilization into a luxurious hotel and golf resort to honor the winners together and enjoy the fought Rainforest Challenge 2006 in unity.
2006/12/05 | 15:50 CET | Editor: RFC Live-Team/js
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