Lovelock, NV
–
After 12-hours of competition, Nick Mit and navigator David
Juricic, both from the San Francisco Bay Area, won the
Nevada
Trophy-II, The 12-hours of Nevada.
Driving
Nick’s 1997 Land Rover Defender-90 Station Wagon (all stock),
the duo made an impressive run during Saturday’s event, scoring
40,250 points, of which 28,650 were from waypoints gathered.
During the Mandatory tasks, the Liew/Juricic combo moved ahead
with great scores. In the bow/arrow contest David scored third
behind Jason/Adam Walker and winners Todd Bringewatt/Doug
Walker. During Fred Cone’s tossing-slalom course, which
had drivers navigate a slalom course while the passenger tossed
rings on to PVC pipes, David drove while Nick tossed rings with
a time of 3 minutes/25 seconds, beating out Jason & Adam
Walker’s time of 3m-49s. The final task was a GPS navigational
task. Only one participant from each car would tackle the
course, which had four waypoints, the participant chose which
one by a draw. Like the other tasks, this too was on the clock.
Two-Time NVTR winner Wayne VanNorsdall won with a time of
5m-07s’ with Nick coming in with a time of 6m 25.9s. Third was
Todd Rueppel at 6m 45.7s. Nick and David’s task score would
total 11,600 points from a possible 12,000. Nick’s advantage?
Time management. Nick and David arrived shortly after the tasks
area opened for business, thus had no waiting. The others, for
the most part, arrived at the same time late in the day, thus
creating a back up, which was costly in regards to lost time
that couldn’t be won back.
Waypoints, which are listed in a route book by Lon/Lat, and
scattered all over the course in random order, will vary in
degree of difficulty. A 1000-pointer could be either on a very
nasty trail, or… easy to get there, but the hike to the tag is
a real bear. Whereas a 100-point waypoint could be as easy as a
road sign. Normally one would find a small tag with something
written on it, this writing needs to be put in the route
book to prove you have been there. These waypoints for example
could be a stick in the ground, or on an old building. Then
again the waypoint may be a road sign, a historic marker, or
such… in the route book it would ask you a question, the answer
would be on the sign somewhere. The roads these waypoints are on
vary too, from paved highway to two-track dirt roads, and the
driving conditions may vary too.
Though it was December 11th, the weather was
absolutely perfect! In the high 50’s with blue skies and no wind
at all, we couldn’t have asked for better. Sadly the snow was
new zero, though some roads were damp and wet in some areas.
Nick and David arrived at the finish in Lovelock at 10:02pm,
thus receiving a 400-point penalty, thus adjusting their score
to 40,050. These same penalties affected a few others too… Todd
and Lorie Rueppel went from second place to forth after arriving
4-minutes late, thus allowing Wayne VanNorsdall and Brad
Davidson (RR) in car #1, and W.W. VanNorsdall and Philip Turner
(D90) in car #2 to finish is second and third respectively.
Recent two-time NVTR winners, Team Walker from
Los Angeles,
ran into trouble during the day; Doug’s Defender 110 overheated
and Jason’s Range Rover had problems, which cost near
90-minutes, when the brake light switch failed and locked the
transmission in park (their thanks go to the US Government!).
Jason was able to finish fifth, with Doug and Todd seventh. Bill
Lockridge and first-time navigator Dave Bardsley finished sixth
in their 2003 Disco-II. Rounding out the top-8 was Greg & Greg
Chapel in their Pinzguer.
Though Land Rovers have been the dominant force since 1997,
NVTR is open to all makes of 4WD suv’s, and these owners are
encouraged to enter. NVTR creator, Michael Green,
recently stated, “some first time people are intimidated by
the modified cars, but let it be know, stock cars have won more
times than not. It would be great for NVTR to see some real
heads-up off-road competition between the manufacturers with
standard cars, and the bragging rights afterwards could be a
huge benefit too”. |
NVTR-II
2004 WINNERS