OST 3 - Foster - Sunday June 2nd

It was an early morning start for some and a late night for others as we either made our way down to Foster or enjoyed the Terry and Sheryl Stritch hospitality by arriving the day before. Either way it was a pleasure to be amongst the greenery and beautiful countryside of South Gippsland only a comfortable two-hour tow from the big smoke.

The Stritches had gone through a lot of effort to accommodate the trial with advertising on the local radio station, hiring portable loos and even killing "Tassie" - the fatted cow (really!).

We had quite a few interested parties join us as we made our way into the unfamiliar paddocks that form part of the property and quickly realised why Gippsland is so green - there's lots of slippy grass and water to keep it growing throughout the year!

We started the morning on a rutty slope which shook us up the breakfast a bit, most managed a decent 9 points but Greg Cox, Peter Hill and Keith Mitchell fell into a rut by the 1-2 peg which commenced their day on the wrong end of the scoreboard. Peter had to make hasty repairs to the front end, which had dislodged itself in amongst the bumps.

Further down the paddock we were introduced to a deep gully with a washout wide enough (just) to get the trials cars down and back out again. We had a lot of fun and leaps of faith during the morning navigating through these in/out sections with much rope pulling to keep everyone fit. Craig Hansen faired well with his new engine and rev limiter being put to the test on many occasions, Craig even getting the car to perform a quarter roll onto its side after backing it over the edge of a ledge in one of his big power slides. In his first time out this season, local property owner and host Terry Stritch pleased the crowd by ending the morning as top point scorer, losing only seven points on the five difficult sections.

The normal lunchtime sandwiches were discarded in favour of BBQ steak, burgers and salads care of our hosts. "Tassie" the now deceased fatted cow certainly tasted good and it was with some reluctance and full stomachs that we headed back down the paddocks for our afternoon stint.

Our first section of the afternoon was an introduction to many Gippsland "tussocks" which seemed to have grown in abundance throughout the water catchment area we were trialing in. These tussocks were very solid affairs that were navigated with differing techniques varying from driving full speed at them to trying to go over and around them as diligently as possible.

Geoff Taylor appeared to have the greatest success with his high clearance back end and Keith Mitchell found himself tractionless on more than one occasion as his car slid over the larger ones only to lift the rear wheels off the floor and leave them spinning in mid air.

We worked our way down this boggy catchment area most of the afternoon with Steve Mason and Grant having the most success consistently getting to the high pegs. Mechanical woes befell Terry (broken brake pipe) and Greg Cox (CV joint and starter), both unable to complete repairs to finish the day running.

The gully we trialed in eventually ended at a dam and the last two sections - the first of which was on the inside of the dam wall, a quick two wheel dip into the edge and then out and up the other bank.

First up was Keith who suffered the indignation of having the car belly out between the start and one peg. A quick inspection of the surface saw Steve take a different approach with a faster launch off the start and a blast though the pegs for a 10 score. Craig followed Steve' s initiative and then it went all pear shaped for Peter Hill who hung on whist the car performed a slow half roll at the five peg.

Fortunately the dam wall had a big hole in it and the water level was only about six inches deep instead of the usual four to five feet so Peter and his wife Jenny only looked shaken and stirred but not dunked when the car was gently righted again.

With this excitement over we inspected the last section of the day which was down the other side of the dam wall, into some sloppy stuff and then a climb up the wall again for the finish. Most managed to get their front wheels up the embankment and through the nine pegs but none could find the necessary traction to end their trial on a ten.

With the points added up we found that Steve had gained well-deserved win, closely followed by Grant with Geoff filling the third spot.

After collecting the pegs it was back around the BBQ to enjoy more hospitality and big bits of "Tassie" which rounded off a perfect day out. The sun shone, the mud flew and fun was had by all, watch out for this venue next year, it's a must!