A lot of hard work from our regular workers up the woods has made it possible to create a fun but safe area with loads of challenges.
Turning a site into an offroad site is easy enough, if you bulldoze it and then go in with a 20tonne plus machine, but trying to work so as to create something whilst not affecting the character of the site is far more difficult and time consuming for everyone.
The whole idea was to create somewhere that would be like all the tricky bits from 100miles or so laning, crammed into 25ish acres, so you are never more than a few feet from having to think again.
Also that the site should be challenging for the driver, but not so much the machine, such that a really good driver in good conditions in a standard machine would accomplish as much if not more than someone with all the gear and no idea. This is not easy, but I think we managed to get it right though with everyones input.
Site maintenance and the abundance of different routes now helps us prevent the site getting badly rutted with the number of vehicles in the winter months, and by being careful to recover before too much damage is done by a stuck car, as mentioned above, has really payed dividends up there. Restricting and reducing the number of meets in the winter has helped no end, as has giving the site a rest in its "growing time" by scheduling in the annual meet.
Everything up there was created with a fronty in mind, some of the major mods had to be bit extreme to start so that they packed down and weathered into good challenges after, but the more experienced lads with the more tricked cars enjoyed packing them down for us I think.
Because the woods arent a commercial venture we dont have to cram 100's of cars in there every week, which would wreck the site, to pay off huge bank loans and wages etc...With the busier meets and weekenders, and quieter meets over all we just about manage to cover the rent, and maintainance of equipment and gradually get more stuff to use up there, thanks to the participation of our regulars and their generosity...so we dont need 100's of cars.
We always said it was much better to have fewer of the right people, than loads of the wrong ones up there...and as such the respect that everyone shows the site has again paid dividends in how it looks now.
Also we have managed to keep the land owner happy, he now has somewhere he can walk his dog with tracks to follow sooner than battling through a jungle, and even his daughter commented that she doesnt get lost up their any more and knows where she is going!
Well done everyone involved, and its gonna be great to share this at the weekenders this year.
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