Hello! For those who don’t know me – my name is Peter Stirling but everyone calls me Stirlo.

Where do I begin…

When I was growing up anything loud and fast was my thing…especially loud and fast cars!

I had passion for driving and riding fast and building cars!

Anything with a motor I had to have it or at the very least had to have a crack at it.

My first introduction to a winch challenge was when I went to one of the first events at Landcruiser Mountain Park and I was hooked! And that was that…my new obsession was winch trucks!

I built a 75 series Toyota Landcruiser cab on a 100 series chassis and painted it blue and red and started racing in the early 2000’s.

After a few more years of racing my final Hoorah came after a few roll overs where the car needed some serious attention… now the old girl just sits in the shed gathering dust.

Back in 2008 Helen & Alben asked me if I’d be interested in running a winch challenge at Landcruiser Mountain Park. Honestly it wasn’t on my radar…but after throwing out a few names Helen came up with this name and the rest was history…SSS Winch Challenge was born.

15 years we have been running for…15 YEARS!

Let me be honest with you, it hasn’t been easy…. This event is just a family run and without my wife and children and their partners support I wouldn’t be able to continue this event.

In saying that without our awesome officials who give up their weekends to come and our generous Sponsors and the competitors who come to race, there really wouldn’t be an event to speak of.

To us, everyone is like family – our winch truck family. My family have some fond memories from when I raced which they wanted to adopt. The list started with the top 3 – It had to be family friendly, everyone was welcome and safety.

What do I like about the sport?

For those that don’t know me, I’m a very competitive person so to see a little healthy competition for me is fun. I love this sport and seeing people give it a go and enjoy it as much as I do! My number one goal is for all winch challenges to keep growing! Even if I wanted to stop all 6 of my grandchildren won’t let me as they love this sport as much as me! They are already talking about competing and often say ‘Hey Poppy! At the next event you should have this or try that and are regular watchers of Go-Go’s (ie. winch truck on youtube everyday)…so who am I to say no and disappoint them…

Besides…truth be told I’d rather be doing this with like-minded people than being stuck at home doing boring old chores…

So I’d to thank everyone for the support over the years and many more to come. Let keep the winch family alive so we can watch our grandchildren and your children compete.

Cheers

Stirlo