Last year did not prove too much of a deterrent as, once again, the event had attracted a good number of entrants. 52 vehicles booked in to participate in the majority of the challenge. Many teams travel a good distance to be involved and usually arrive on the Thursday or Friday before the official start. With this in mind and for the first time the organisers decided to add an evening section, on the Friday, to kick off the event. As with all the elements of any Munster 4x4 event, the night stage was completely voluntary and all to be done in the name of fun. The only competition to be found here is maybe within the teams but it doesn’t play a part in the organisation. The night section was run as an experiment, firstly the Munster team wanted to see how popular it would be and secondly they did not want to put any vehicle in a compromising position in the dark before the official start of the weekends action.

After registration on the Friday afternoon there was a short briefing. The 3 Peaks is always held on the third weekend in October, this being the weekend before a bank holiday in Ireland and also just before Halloween, the weekend the clocks go back. Halloween inspired the Friday nights challenge; it was called the ‘Witches hunt.’ It was set out as a navigational exercise. There were four marker points out towards the Boggeragh Mountains, south west of the event base in Mallow. These points had torches and luminous skeletons attached to posts on which there was one Halloween mask each. There was a werewolf, a Frankenstein’s head, a witch’s head and also a devils head mask. Teams were made up of the various volunteer vehicles available and two teams were sent out to each point in pursuit of just one mask. The target mask was picked at random by one member of each team.

It all sounds very simple and in principle it is, with only the last 50 to 100 metres of each trail being off tarmac you may ask, ‘where is the challenge?’ For some it was all too easy, with confident navigators and trusting drivers the teams that worked well together found the challenge was over all too quickly. The terrain that each of the posts was set in required the navigator to walk it just to be sure what was going on under-wheel. With only one marshal in the vicinity in case of emergency the challenge was undertaken on trust. The teams were asked to ensure all the vehicles got to the post and the final vehicles navigator should be able to lean out of their vehicle to reach for the mask.
For anyone that isn’t familiar with Irish roads this task became quite challenging. The roads don’t have the clearest signs and once caught in the dark it’s really possible to understand the terminology ‘black tar’. Pitch black doesn’t really do this justice; the very minor roads are maybe the blackest roads that it’s possible to come across. The narrow roads and high hedges in this area make it easy to get disorientated.

Being in its fifth year the 3 Peaks has evolved slightly every year. It began with a series of sections that had three particularly difficult sections along the route, these three were known as the peaks, later the event was held on three mountains. Nowadays the forestry commission have made the third mountain inaccessible and with the event attracting such a variety of vehicles it would be unfair to make the three hardest sections the peaks and unachievable to some. 2006 carried the name in its punches, making note of the letter cards, whilst collecting the punches, spelt out three peaks on the punch card.

2006 saw the challenges being run on two mountains, the Nagles and the Ballyhouras. Without doubt the Ballyhoura Mountain is the bigger of the two but for once the action was split pretty evenly between them. The teams ran in groups of four vehicles, although for some this varied as they rearranged themselves before heading onto the mountain. The number of vehicles isn’t really a problem on these mountains, there aren’t many incidences of teams catching up with one another and there are always enough sections marked out that there are no shortages of sections to keep even the fastest moving teams busy all day. Four vehicles per team has proven to be a safe number to travel in as well as enabling the team to move along at a good pace or split up if there are any problems.

The six members of the Munster 4x4 club work closely together to organise the events throughout the season, but for the annual 3 Peaks Challenge Jimmy Dean is regarded as head honcho. The mountains change every year beyond most people’s recognition as the forestry work continues, it is only Jimmy’s incredible encyclopaedic knowledge of the tracks that enabled all the sections to be laid out in just three days for the 2006 challenge. Jimmy has rallied and off roaded in these mountains since his interest in Motorsport began and now visitors to the event are reaping the benefit. Paperwork may take a little longer and persuading the locals that they want to help by way of allowing trailer parking and access to their land all weekend is an ongoing battle. Thankfully the access to the mountains is now done on trust and this year the forestry company was happier than ever before to allow the event, they have felt the pinch as the timber is becoming scarcer. They have also seen the benefit of vehicles using the lanes as they keep the firebreaks open without any effort by them.

Saturday morning started overcast and grey which was better weather than forecast. All the participants and organisers gathered in the Hibernian Hotel for a morning briefing. Led by Jimmy there was a minutes silence held for absent friends, Liam McGrath and Ray Stryker who have both sadly passed away since the last major Munster 4x4 event.

As each team left the parking area they were given directions to the mountain they would be based on for the day, they were also given an event pack in which they had contact numbers for the organisers, an itinerary and maps for the mountains, as well as a punch card and tie wrap to attach it to the vehicle. This being another sure sign that the event is non-competitive. With all the vehicles clear of the car park on schedule by 09.30 the event had officially begun.

Within a couple of hours it was obvious that all was running smoothly, the sections had been set out slightly differently this year. On the whole each section was shorter than in previous years with them being a loop off and then back onto the gravel tracks rather than disappearing across the mountainside. This enabled teams to judge the difficulty of each section much quicker and also find the co-ordinates to the next stage with more ease if they wanted to skip the challenge. Jimmy tried to avoid particularly stump strewn areas, the challenges were very much about the technicalities of making the way through the natural undulations, slopes, twists and turns, trees, undergrowth and, of course, water or mud that is naturally found on the mountain.

Catching up with the ever eager Dirty Langers team, there was much laughter and mickey taking going on as after just one section the super charged V8 truck cab 90, out on it’s first event, driven by Sean Kavanagh, threw it’s drive belt. The most vocal of all the mickey takers, Leo King, was in charge of replacing the belt but soon stopped laughing. In the very next section the fuel pump on his V8, rather battered but full bodied Range Rover, gave up the ghost, leaving him stranded in a stream whilst the collection of a replacement was organised. Much later in the day a similar problem was slowing Nick Field down in the, new to him, Ibex, unfortunately this wasn’t his only mechanical problem as he had lost reverse gear on the Friday, these issues aside he was impressed and pleased with the overall performance of his new acquisition. Transfer box problems were hampering Neil Redpath’s progress all weekend. It was with much relief that during the whole weekend the reported vehicle problems were mechanical rather than terrain created damage.

Surprisingly only just over half of the vehicles entering the event were Land Rover based vehicles. Irish four wheel drive team member Norman Vance smiled broadly as he made his way through a section whilst saying that he really should have a shorter vehicle than the Classic Range Rover on the mountains. It’s a reliable old beast and just keeps going and taking the punishment and therefore he’s reluctant to replace it.

A typical section for this event was McGrath’s Stream. Along the gravel track the start of the challenge dropped down to the right, quickly over a fallen tree trunk and continuing to get steeper towards the stream. The crossing of the stream, which was itself stepping down towards the bottom of the gully, meant a left turn, this created a good cross axle scenario with all the weight of the vehicle on the front near side wheel. Most people decided on a back anchor to stop the rear slipping as the front was winched across the gully. The vehicle was then onto a side slope working along the bank, drivers side high, after only a matter of 30 metres there was a climb to the right. This meant that the short winch up made the back of the vehicle pendulum into line. Without really flattening out for more than a vehicle length another left turn started the descent towards the bottom of the gully, once down the twists and turns through the undergrowth meant that the vehicle faced the start of the section once more. Two winch pulls, one short and steep, the other long but relatively gentle and slippery ended the section only 15 metres or so away from where it began. The technicalities of this short section took the teams approximately an hour to get all the vehicles through.

Amazingly at the end of the day reports came back to Jimmy that team after team were leaving the mountain at the right time and all in tact. With minimal time spent doing repairs, leaving more available bar time, it was a surprise to see all the faces fresh and eager to go once more on the Sunday morning. Fresh punch cards were handed out as the teams collected the directions for the opposite mountain; all the teams had the chance to see the two mountains.

The Ballyhouras offered longer stages and more in car time for the navigators as there were more transit sections that offered some fantastic greenlaning for the drivers whilst also giving everyone views over the plains to the surrounding counties. Soft ground was much more common on this mountain, both in the open sections and also in the trees. With low cloud on the highest points it felt like the weather was drawing in but thankfully nothing more than a little mizzle was in the air. Again the day ran incredibly smoothly, any mechanical problems were quickly sorted with the help of the organisers and the locals that kindly offered their help. With the clocks having gone back during the night before it was well into dusk as everyone headed towards the barriers. The temptation was too much for one team who decided to do just one more section on the way to the gate, they got themselves well stuck in and then had winch failures which meant that the organisers came to the rescue, as always with smiling faces and a typical level of Irish jokes to be made.

The evening flowed smoothly into the event dinner where the atmosphere was relaxed and friendly as many experiences were exchanged, not a mention of scorecards was heard. The general consensus was that the Steve Maddison 3 Peaks Challenge 2006 was the most technical to date and a fantastic success. There is no doubt that the reputation of this event will ensure a good turn out every year with many people wanting to book a place for 2007 before the end of the 2006 event. There’s really no limit to the number of vehicles that these mountains can entertain and with such a spectrum of off roading on offer it’s a must for the 2007 calendar.