As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death… with a few minor changes, these lyrics from the Gangsta’s Paradise song by Coolio perfectly describe the prayers of competitors when climbing through the Blue Moon Canyon at the Wild Boar Valley Challenge 2015 in Buzet, Croatia. Along with water, mud, rocks, narrow forest paths, the Blue Moon Canyon is just one of many different obstacles.
Heavy rain before the Wild Boar Valley Challenge 2015 did exactly what it was supposed to do. It brought hell to all the vehicles, especially on the prologue and the circle race that was held at the race course in a place near Buzet called Škuljari. Quiet, crystal clear water in a small creek and nice forest on a hill. It looks so calm during the foggy morning.
And then… hell breaks loose. One at a time, they start for the hard prologue, everything still looks OK. Oh, but after the circle race with a masive start… it’s like a warzone…
The first roadbook of the Wild Boar Valley Challenge 2015 was just an intro for the next few days. It was mainly driven on the Ćićarija mountain. Narrow forest paths and rocks weren’t technically so hard, but diff locks and strength of the winch was of utmost importance.
This little Italian Suzuki never made it to the finish of the race. But the performance of many high budget V8 cars was even poorer.
As i said, the ideal car for the Kamo oko vidi Wild Boar Valley Challenge doesn’t exist. It’s the spirit of the team that drove this car almost to the end, After working all night to repair the broken halfshaft and front differential , their performance was great. Unfortunately, they had to retire a few days later due to problems with finding the right spare parts.
Unlike the first roadbook, the Blue Canyon challenge on the third day of the Kamo Oko Vidi race was extremely hard.
More than 56 km long, seventy percent of it was just winching through narrow passages and high marble cliffs. Spectators and press that have been coming here for years agreed that this edition of the Blue Canyon roadbook was probably one of the best off road scenes in the history of Wild Boar Valley Challenge.
There was only one team capable of finishing the Blue Moon canyon without winching. It was Hajdu Offroad team from Hungary. This obviously wasn’t mission impossible. But close enough.
This is Luca Fontani in his Ultra4 Buggy. You would say he’s going to inish. But that wasn’t the case. He is coming back next year with another car for winch challenges.
The roadbooks at the Wild Boar valley Challenge are organized very good, each has several points for the press and spectators. Everyone get the coordinates, so they can move during the day and follow the competing vehicles. The most interesting part of the third roadbook was the Močane canyon.
Eibesnsteiner / Deutschmann finished the Wild Boar Valley Challenge on the second place.
The Super Extreme special stage on the last day of racing didn’t change anything in the final standings. But it sure was a real treat for the spectators, press and the competitors. It was held in Škuljari all over again, this time a different route was prepared… Four huge mud trenches to choose, up the hill through the forest and back down.
The Super Extreme special stage on the last day of racing didn’t change anything in the final standings. But it sure was a real treat for the spectators, press and the competitors.
The Wild Boar Valley Challenge 2015 race was consisted of 5 roadbooks, a circle race in the beginning and the Super Extreme special stage on the last day.
After a few years at this race I can only say: Due to the variety of terrain, my only conclusion is – the ideal car for this race doesn’t exist.
This race deserves more than it has. Next year a soft class will be available too. We sincerely hope to see you in October 2016
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TEXT: Emilio Mocibob
PHOTO: M-Pictures / 4WD Magazine / Inge Bloeming
