I had originally planned to attend with Norman Hendry from Calgary but some last minute (one week to go) family illness came up with his co-pilot. So there I was, money spent, one week to go, a truck with a few recent repairs and mods, and no second truck for my "TEAM". I called a few people (OK, everyone I knew, who might be able) and finally convinced Chris Carden from Seattle to join me.
Our trucks were nearly the same build, Koenig winches, rear diff lockers, tall mud tires, parabolic springs and both 1966 Series IIA's. So now, it was on, and preparation went well into the early mornings of the week before. We had to be in camp for a 8am start Saturday morning, so with that in mind Dan Blois, my trusty co-pilot, and I took Friday off work to get down in time for a reasonable nights sleep.
We met Chris at his home in Seattle at around 2pm as he was busy sorting out his gear and packing. His co-pilot Christine showed up after work and we headed off around 4pm. We arrived in camp by about 11pm that night, found a camp spot and went straight to bed.
We got up late (7:30am), missed the drivers meeting, registered and had our tech inspections. This late registration meant we were one of the last teams to leave the start gates. It was a good thing Chris had competed in a few of these before, because, although we missed the drivers meeting, he had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
Stage one: We were given a package containing the instructions for the day and a punch card. Interpreting the instructions correctly, having an accurate odometer in miles, and knowing your compass bearings was crucial. It was also important to find the flags, which have the ever so important card puncher to mark our card and prove we had found them. Along the way there were special task stations set-up, where you awarded points, if you found them!
The special tasks were as follows:
- balancing a vehicle on the teeter-totter (timed and time limit)
- running a full jerry can around a wilderness course (timed)
- moving an engine block from one place to another without physically lifting it or letting it touch the ground (timed)
- Rock crawl through a man made boulder course (timed and time limit)
- Trials through some flags and around steep side angle (timed)
- Mechanical task (we had a good chance with two technicians on board but never made it
While being removed from the rock crawl course we managed to crack my exhaust right at the manifold. So much for a quiet ride home. Our tin can and hose clamp repair held up until just after we crossed the border around 1am and then fell completely off a few miles down the road.
Stage two: The night run. We were given compass bearings, a clue and map locating 23 flags half in one area and half in another. Teams left camp between 9 and 10pm but had to return by 5am the next morning for stage three. We went for 100% of one of the areas and opted out of the second area at 3:30am in trade for an hour's sleep. GPS, candlepower and the ability to put off sleep were important for this stage, and there were even some tricky driving sections. One bonus road, if you had time, (ya right) was apparently super tough and tight.
Stage three: The rallye. Drivers meeting 5:00am, it was cold waking-up, next time we'll set-up a tent at the base camp. We were given instructions and route information and sent out the start gates at ten-minute intervals. In this stage your speedometer and odometer are crucial. Since mine was out of calibration Chris lead and our logic was to go as fast as reasonably possible. We did all right and at the end I was glad I still had a vehicle I could drive home in. Back to camp for the show down.
The Run Off: the four top teams from the three stages were asked to meet with there vehicles down the road in a quarry where they would challenge for first, second and third place. There were three special tasks. The first was for one truck from each team to drive around and collect balls from three t-ball stands placed in awkward places. The participants could not leave their vehicles. Once the balls were collected they had to be returned to the t-ball stands by the second vehicle. This was also timed. The second task was for one of the team's trucks to pull the other through a set of cones without help from the vehicle being pulled. Again this was timed. The third and last task was to move an engine block from one place to a second place about 15 feet away. Same as before but this time the vehicles were not allowed within a 30- foot radius of the engine block, so all four teams used two winches from opposite side of a slight bowl to lift and move the engine. This was also timed.
Everyone had BBQ burgers, provided to participants, while the final results were being tallied. Although we did not make the top four we eventually found out that we placed 8th. This isn’t bad considering that there were 24 teams.
I wrote this article many years ago, but I wanted to share it and maybe inspire some others to get out there and participate with their Landrovers. Although this team challenge is currently on hiatus you can find more details and some history at: www.teamtrophychallenge.com
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