4×4 Jamboree on tomorrow

Collin Matiza Sports Editor
ONE of the country’s most popular motorsport events, the hp lubes Castrol 4×4 Jamboree, will be held tomorrow and Sunday at Donnybrook in Harare.
This year will see the 20th running of this event which is sponsored by hp lubes, the authorised distributor of Castrol products in Zimbabwe.
And according to Tim Thorburn, the Jamboree’s chairman, this year’s event promises to be bigger and better as all the country’s top 4×4 drivers have already confirmed their participation in this exciting two-day competition.

“This weekend will see us hosting the 20th edition of the 4×4 Jamboree. It’s a two-day event starting on Saturday where we will have the standard trials. Basically, we do six trials in the morning and another six in the afternoon. We will also have the balancing see-saw in the morning and then the popular or crowd favourite mud run in the afternoon on Saturday.

“On Sunday, there are six more standard trials plus the see-saw balancing again and then at 11:30am we will have some sky divers before we stage the foot-up motorbike demonstration at 12noon. And then at 12:30pm, we will start the Toyota extreme trials in the extreme pit and that’s another crowd favourite.

“At 3:30pm on Sunday, we will start the final Big Sky mud run,” Thorburn said.
He added that they were expecting between 30 to 35 competition vehicles plus up to between eight and 12 SUV vehicles “so that we can show the people what their cars can do without damaging them”.

“In the 30 to 35 competition vehicles, there will be four classes. The first one is the standard short-wheel base vehicles and then there are two classes for the short-wheel base standard modified class, which is our biggest class in which we have vehicles with quite a few modifications.

“And in the final Special Class, there are vehicles with extreme modifications that will include four-wheel steering, individual brakes and traction controls such as diff lockers and suspension lifts,” said Thorburn.

Clinton Mayes, BJ Lawry, Aubrey Bennett, Jason Young, Maurice Ades, Gareth Geach and Jesper Kirk are some of the country’s top 4×4 Jamboree drivers who will be in action this weekend at Donnybrook. There will be prizes for each class from first to third place except for the long wheel base class. Entry fees have been pegged for US$30 per vehicle while spectators will pay US$5 for adults and US$1 for children under the age of 12.