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Fernley, Nevada... After 32 hours of driving, Wayne Vannorsdall and navigator Ross Dombrowski of Walnut Creek, California, driving a 1991 Range Rover, won the second annual "NEVADA TROPHY". The "NEVADA TROPHY" is surely a one of a kind event here in the United States. A little bit Camel Trophy, a little bit Warn Challenge, and a whole lot of work and fun, and sometimes nerve-racking. Above all the "NEVADA TROPHY" is a navigational event, one that pits driver & navigator against the clock and Mother Nature. Weeks prior to the event entrants would receive by mail a complete rule book and outline of the event, including a list of required items, these being a GPS, compass, DeLorme Nevada Atlas, among other things. The ability to navigate, plan a route and a sense of adventure are also required. This years event, like 1997, was filled with a variety of Land Rovers, the oldest being a 1963 88" Hardtop (NVTR98 was open to all makes). Day-0; Thursday December 3rd: Fifteen of the twenty scheduled vehicles begin arriving at the Best Western Fernley Inn for check-in. Weather en route was miserable to say the least, heavy snows over Donner Pass and light snow in Fernley itself. Day-1; Friday December 4th: Sky’s are bright and blue, the sun is shinning but a cold westerly wind brings in a cold chill that will be present throughout the weekend, temps hover in the 30-degree bracket. Registration and tech inspection opens at 8:30 a.m. During tech inspection vehicles are checked for a variety of items, including safety, survival, vehicle worthiness and navigational (laptop are prohibited, so best we find it now then DQ ‘em later). Everyone is anxious to get underway, but it takes time to complete the process and get all the vehicles teamed up into pairs. Each car is required to have a minimum of two occupants, a Driver and a Navigator. Each car is teamed with another for safety purposes, and it is mandatory they stay together throughout the event, the only exception to the rule being during a "Special Task". With that out of the way, a Drivers & Navigators Meeting is next on the agenda. Executive Director & NVTR creator Michael Green goes over the event in detail. Road conditions in some areas are of prime interest to everyone, September flash floods have destroyed a number of roads and trails, and small dips have now become huge holes, big enough to even swallow a Defender 90. Participants are told in no uncertain terms, "this is not a speed event, watch your speed on and off the road, penalty points will be imposed". Waypoints are the key to the NEVADA TROPHY, and 60 await them. Route books are reviewed point by point. Each of the sixty waypoints has a Lon/Lat coordinate and a hint as to what you may be looking for, and a point’s value. In order to prove a competitor has been at a particular waypoint, they must complete the question in the box provided, such as; "Complete Circle" ... when this is found in the box, the teams will be looking for a colored circle 4" in diameter with the answer written on it, such as; "MONICA" or "DEAD-END HA-HA", or... a Historical marker where you’d have to complete a particular line or date. To write it wrong is your route book will score you Zero for the waypoint. During Section-1 there will be two "Bonus Waypoints", and were described briefly, plus one "Mandatory Waypoint", which is just that. There is no way anyone can collect all sixty waypoints in the 12-hours allotted, and returning late will be welcomed with a penalty of 100 points per minute, thus route planning is critical. One of the tricks in taking part in an event such as this is the ability to follow instructions, both written and verbally. As the meeting nears its end "Special Task #1" is thrown at the competitors; Michael Green starts out like this... "Okay, here’s the deal, special task #1 will begin in 10-minutes.... I will only say this once, so listen up. We’ll begin with Team-A, scoring is per car against the clock, fastest time wins. The task? Tire changing contest. You will pull your vehicle to the prescribed spot; two floor-jacks will be used for safety reasons. Both Driver & Navigator will get in the vehicle with seatbelts on. John Gulliford will warn you FIVE SECONDS, then count you down 5-4-3-2-1-GO! At which point you’ll bail out and begin the task... You will jack to car up, remove the left-front tire, run around the car with it, and then refit it. Jack must be put back beyond its marker and both Driver & Navigator must get back in the car, when the last door slams shut the clock will stop. Each loose lug nut is a 2-second penalty. From this moment on you will not go near your vehicle! You will not open the door, you won’t get a coke, a jacket, nothing. This is an automatic DQ for the task" (Note: this was done so they’d be unable to get lug wrenches out ahead of time). With that the meeting was over. Team-A was first up, "A1" being that of Wayne Vannorsdall & Ross Dombrowski with the Range Rover, against "A2" of Chris Walker & Michael Bryan of San Diego, California in a ’95 Discovery V8i. Vannorsdall & Dombrowski would set a time of 2m 22s, fastest time of the day. "D2" was DQ’ed for getting in the car. One team began by changing the right-front, until they realized their mistake and switched to the left-front. As each team completed their task they were to report to the events Chief of Scoring, John Gulliford. At 11:05 am Team-A would get their Section-1 route books, they’d have one hour in which to study it, make a flight plan (of the first 5 waypoints they’d visit) then depart at exactly 12:05 PM, the last team departs at 1:35 PM… 12-hours lay ahead. Shortly after the last team departed, the remaining officials piled into two Rovers and head north, where they’d layout Saturday’s Special Task Area. En route they happen on Team–F. Both the Discovery and Defender-90 are from last years winning team, Kristofer Swanson (Overall ’97 Winner) is attempting a repeat, but the three new team members don’t click like before. As it happened, we came across them trying to locate a waypoint, which they quickly found, then roared off north. We pulled over to let them pass, and no sooner had we done so when both vehicles came to a quick halt. Someone had spotted a waypoint marker in plain sight on the side of the trail, a 4" red tag on a post with a green ribbon, the tag reading "Red Herring". We had a good laugh at their expense! After some hand gestures they roared off (Swanson would later be awarded this very same marker at the awards presentation). As Team-F continued north they came across waypoint #3 @ 40 02.982N/119.17.501W, value was 2500 points (a bonus, as normally maximum value was 1000 on day-1). The object here was to confuse participants and put their compass reading knowledge to work. Upon locating the main waypoint marker they’d come across three 4" red tags, each one containing instructions; "Bonus Waypoint", "Compass Heading 130", "Distance .05 mi.". After a short jaunt, which was difficult at best, they’d come across another stake & red tag, which read; "Compass 340 – Dist. .12 mi.", the end result being a triangle. The final stake was on the top of a small peak, a somewhat difficult climb, from there they would have to list the Lon/Lat (40 03.041N/119 17.437W) as the answer. In the dark this would be a very difficult task, and even worse had the weather closed in. As it was, Team-F wasn’t reading instructions, and instead of .12 of a mile, they drove some 12-miles and recorded 40 12.412N/119 22.183W. Later Swanson would state that the tag said "12 miles", but upon showing him the photo of the waypoint (all waypoints had been photographed) he saw his mistake. Team-B of Craig Almaguer/Brett Pemberton (B1) and Steve Wiedekamp/David Reinhardt (B2), both in D90s, were the only team to locate the correct final position, thus earning the 2500 points. Another "Bonus Waypoint" was really five waypoints; organizers had placed pieces of the puzzle on four waypoints scattered across the course, each worth 1000 points. The answer on one might be: "119 XX 04W". Your first order of business would be to locate all four waypoints, this in itself was a crapshoot. Having the correct Lon/Lat for the "Bonus" you’d still have to locate it and correctly complete the box, and only then would you earn the additional 3500 points. No team found all four. In addition to the two Bonus Waypoints, was the "Mandatory Waypoint", and it was just that. Penalty points would be handed out to those who missed it; in addition you’d lose again, as you wouldn’t earn the points given for the task. Bill Turpie and Beverly Hegg would marshal the Special Task hidden there. Upon arrival at the local you couldn’t help but notice Bill’s Defender-90 Wagon and off-road camping trailer parked next to a roaring fire. The game had changed, now each vehicle was given a new route book, this one being similar to those used on a Pro-Rally, meaning everything was via tulip and mileage readings. For those with the wrong size tyres fitted the fun had only just begun. The marshal’s would go over a few special instructions: The team would be split up, cars leaving at 5-minute intervals; This wasn’t a "fastest time wins"; And the object was to match the time officials had set weeks prior (though they wouldn’t know what that was!). Target time was 1h 10.30.89s. Scoring was on a sliding pyramid scale, the target time at the top. The idea was to keep the speed down. The course was 16 miles in length and terrain varied from low-range 2 mph to smooth two-track dirt roads (note: no one we spoke with afterwards had looked at the last page of the book to see how long the course was). Snow covered the start/finish area, while ice covered rocks in one of the bad sections en route. Sparks, Nevada residents Greg Chapel & Tim Patterson in their ’95 D90 clocked in a time of 1h 14m. Vannorsdall/Dombrowski at 1h 15m, and third place was that of Michael Michnay/Kieth Peterson (Disco) with 1h 5m. Believe it or not, Car "G1" took 2h 4m to complete the task. Todd & Lorie Rueppel in their 1963 88" arrived at 9:30pm. I approached the LR to speak with Lorie, as I did I thought I’d scrape the ice off the door window, that is until I realized it was on the inside! They completed the task in 1h 49m. Team-F missed the task completely, the only team to miss it. Team-A arrived in at the Best Western Fernley Inn at 12:40am, 25 minutes early, while Team-B would receive a 4200 point penalty for being 42 minutes late. Day-1 SCORING
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