Pajero Challenge - Origin of the Phil Viney Award
Each year the Club presents the Phil Viney Award to a participant in the Pajero Club Challenge – a participant who, more than other competitor, went out of the way to assist another participant.
Phil Viney was a well respected Club member with a big heart and a big fun filled, welcoming character. He added value to our lives.
Barry Walker and I were with him on the day of an incident during the 1999 Challenge. It led to the creation of the Phil Viney Award. This is the story behind the award.
I had participated in the 1994, 1995, and 1996 Challenges, not as a competitor, but as a navigator for officials. In the lead up to the 1997 Challenge, Phil asked me to navigate for him as part of his three person crew. It was the first time Phil had entered the Challenge.
About a week before the Challenge, we had a crew meeting. As the navigator I knew that we needed an on-board compass because in that era, navigation had to be done using only paper maps, compass, odometer etc. So I knew that a properly set up on-board compensated compass was essential. A compensated compass is one that has been adjusted, after a series of tests in the vehicle, to compensate for the interference to the compass by all the vehicle’s metal and electricals. Phil’s vehicle did not have a compass however the third member of our crew (long since left the Club) said he would bring one. I should have known better. About an hour before the Challenge started, he presented me with a compass that looked like a Woolworth’s kiddy-compass and I knew we were in big trouble before we even started.
In those days the Challenge went for close to 24 hours with breaks at 1/4., ½, and ¾ way points. On that first day, while I had the sun to help me navigate, we did surprisingly well but doom was around the corner as we tired and the sun set. Twice that night we strayed way off course and some might say we became lost. We lost so much time that at ¾ way, the official told us to skip the final stage and drive straight to the finish. Despite our massive failure, Phil remained upbeat when another person may have thrown a brick at the navigator. That was Phil.
In the lead up to the 1998 Challenge, Phil asked me to again navigate for him. To put it mildly, I was surprised. The third crew would be Barry Walker. By then, Phil had a compensated compass. In a field of probably 50 vehicles, we were placed outright second.
Phil entered the 1999 Challenge with the same crew and we were determined to go one better. In that Challenge, the organisers tried to provide radio coverage across the event by placing Club vehicles on various hilltops, but radio coverage was poor with no coverage in significant areas. Many of the 50 competitors were not Club members and I suspect some had less than enough 4WD experience to face the challenging circumstances they encountered in stormy, wet, and slippery conditions that night. We did really well during the first day and our hopes were high when heavy rain hit around midnight. The competitors were in steep high country. I think we were at the back of Marysville. From a ridge line above a steep valley, we heard a cacophony of radio transmissions from vehicles in trouble down below on steep slippery tracks. I recall hearing radio call that sounded like the driver had lost his nerve. There was a Pajero crew down there somewhere with a rear spring displaced sideways. There was a Range Rover that has suffered a severe transmission break and the vehicle had shot backwards in darkness till it hit a tree. Phil followed the field down the slippery track to the floor of the valley where the track rose straight up the other side to towards the damaged vehicles. Somewhere up that track, they were blocking the route. Half a dozen vehicles were parked at the base of that track. Phil asked me to plot an alternative course to get around the whole mess.
pajeroclub.com.au
Vol 35 No.2 - Mar/Apr 2018
19