| Devon 4x4 Triumph in the Desert |
 Now in it's second year, the Outback Challenge Morocco is growing into one of the toughest off -road events in the World. A punishing week of navigation, speed navigation, technical special stages and camping in the desert pushes teams and vehicles to the absolute limit.At the start of the year, Devon 4x4 set out to build a competition vehicle and take it to the OBC Morocco in April. The base vehicle, a Land Rover 110 was sourced at auction and the incredible build began. Fully documenting the decisions and disasters on the Devon 4x4 website, the team set about the mammoth undertaking of building a world-class competition vehicle in just over 4 weeks. Given the compressed timescale of the build, the decision was taken to drive the vehicle down through Europe for a shake-down on the way to the Morocco ferry. This choice proved to be sensible, as 350 miles into the trip the vehicle developed running problems. With the help of the team back in the UK and with the assistance of the organisers and even Devon 4x4 customers, replacement parts were sent out to meet the car on arrival in Morocco and the team were soon back on the road in full force. The event started with a spectator-friendly prologue, where teams had to negotiate a man-made course against the clock. The Devon team were the penultimate runners, and managed to set the fastest time for the stage. This prologue set the starting order for the event proper, where the going was set to get much tougher. Over the course of the following days, the stages were varied, including a 300Km desert raid, a 150Km navigation exercise and a 50Km mountain night run. The sections were punishing on the teams and their vehicles with large, chassis-bending boulders on the technical rock-crawling sections, windscreen-deep water on the winch challenge stages and blistering 50 degree heat on the cross-country races. Rates of attrition were high as mechanical problems plagued the field, running repairs were common... OBC Morocco 2007 was becoming an endurance event in every sense. Stage after stage, teams from all across Europe battled with each other and the challenging terrain, vying for the top honours. The last day featured the daunting 'cliffhanger' stage, made famous in the Australian Outback Challenges, and another pounding navigation event. When the points were totalled, the team from Devon 4x4 came out on top, taking first place on the event, and bringing the event trophy back to the UK. Driver Simon Buck comments about the event, "It was tough, really tough. The amount of work in the cockpit was huge on the long stages but the car held together well despite some real challenges." Co-Driver Matt Cook was also worked to the limit on every stage, "There was less winching than most UK events", Matt explains, "but the navigation requirements for the event were non-stop. It was the difference between a stage win and a stage loss". Returning to their North-Devon base, Simon and Matt were greeted by friends and family at a surprise champagne reception. "I'm overwhelmed", comments Simon, "None of this would be possible without the staff at Devon 4x4, and the support from friends, family and customers is a great motivation for us all. This has been a monumental effort by everyone concerned, we're all extremely proud to bring the win back to the UK" The winning 110 will be on display at various events this year, and the Devon 4x4 team is already planning improvements for future events. |
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