Cold, wet and windy … but nobody was miserable at this amazing off-road event
Located down in the valley of the Werribee Gorge, you would have found the team from Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles flat out, preparing for their 2018 Spirit of Amarok. This massive event held at the 4X4 Proving Grounds over the 10th and 11th of May, saw 48 two person teams compete across three disciplines. On the day, the team with the most points obtained from the technical, rally and regularity stages were given the opportunity to represent Australia at the finals of The Spirit of Amarok, in South Africa. With such a big prize on offer, the nerves were high on day one. The smallest of mistakes saw teams dropping points at crucial moments.
Everyone was keeping an eye on competitors and on the cold front, as the weather was quickly swirling. Luckily the weather held out and the winners, team ‘Dwayne Johnson’, were ecstatic to learn their fate. However, letting the wives know they would be heading to South Africa without them was heard to be just as difficult as the driving…
On day two, even the Melbourne locals were embarrassed as to how bad the weather had turned. Teams went out in the morning and safely competed in two disciplines before coming in to warm up over the lunch break. Sadly, weather and general conditions had proved too difficult, with fairness of the competition a priority, along with the safety of the competitors, the VW team moved to Plan B.
The team on the highest points for each group had a sudden death playoff, with the team who gets closest to the pin winning the trip to South Africa to join team ‘Dwayne Johnson’. That team was called ‘Team Tombstone’. A massive congrats to all participants and those lucky buggers heading off to South Africa to represent Australia.
If you think you have what it takes, enter the 2019 event here.
