2009 Nevada Trophy Report

As most of you may or may not know, Redline and I competed in the 2009 Nevada Trophy GPS Navigation Rally-Raid (NVTR). Our goals were simple, yet ambitious. Have fun, learn and WIN . Being complete rookies to this event the winning part may have been ambitious, but everyone should have a goal.

We assembled a very well rounded team. Redline would be driving his 4Runner and would have our lead navigator with him. Our lead Navigator teaches Navigational classes and is very familiar with the Nevada outback. In addition to being an avid outdoorsman, he has also recently competed and finished his first marathon.

I would be driving my 80 series and have the secondary navigator/mechanic with me. My navigator comes from the extreme rock crawling world and not only is an accomplished mechanic, but a very well rounded athlete.


Tech Inspection was to start on Thursday at 2:00 p.m. in Lovelock NV. and end around Midnight. We met Thursday morning for a team breakfast in Reno and then headed out. After fueling our bodies and rigs we were off.


Here's a picture of Redline's 4Runner somewhere along the I-80 corridor.


We arrived at the NVTR Host Hotel at around 1:45 p.m. I was imagining a parking lot full of kitted Rovers with a few other vehicles thrown in for color. We arrived to an empty parking lot... I'm not early a lot of times, so this was a new experience for me. After confirming that we were in fact at the correct hotel and had the right weekend, we retired to our perspective rooms to unload the non essentials and regroup.

After a couple of hours had passed (We were still the only people there. I'm not talking about competitors either. We had the parking lot to ourselves) we decided to drive into Winnemucca for a great Basque dinner.

While we were loading up into my Navigator's 4Runner, Michael Green (The Event Organizer) and Rob pulled into the parking lot in their Defender. They quickly threw some stuff into their room and said tech would start later that evening. At this point, we knew we had some time to kill as the organizer had just arrived in town and as fast as he arrived, he was gone again.




We ate a great dinner and enjoyed a few Picon Punches at the Martin Hotel in Winnemucca. Voted #1 out of the 11 restaurants in town.

http://gbae.org/wordpress/

Here's some info on the Picon Punch. A great (Read Strong) Basque drink that is very popular in rural NV.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keMU6uG9co0

After dinner the drive back to the hotel was filled with a mixture of excitement, laughter and some friendly jabbing back and forth. This mixture was enjoyed the entire weekend and would keep the team in good spirits hour after hour in the competition.

Once back at the Hotel, it was starting to look like something was happening. Right now, it's starting to sink in. This is going to be fun. Much like the Scott Brady/Chris Marzonie team of years past, we were the only all Toyota team to compete this year. There was another 80 series (Lexus version) but he made the Trek sans teammate and was assigned one upon arrival. Something about it being hard to get a teammate from Colorado?

A 110 and an 04 DII. Followed by two D90's and a Series on a Rover Chassis/Drivetrain.




Heres the Series on the Rover chassis/V-8 Drivetrain.



LandRover Love...



A restored Series with a diesel (Non Competitor. Her husband competed in their 110) faces off with the Lexus.



More LandRover Love...



After a very thorough Tech Inspection, we received the first days coordinates/waypoints. This year the NVTR Staff downloaded all of the waypoints into your GPS/Computer for you in order of your completion of tech. inspection. This was as long as your GPS/Computer accepted Garmin Data Base (GDB?). If not, you were one of the unlucky ones and had to manually enter the waypoints, the good news was that if you went without sleep, you had about seven hours to enter this information. They did not give you the point values associated with the waypoints at this time.

The next morning we had a drivers meeting scheduled to start at 0730. At around 0800 a.m. the meeting started. You were lined up side by side with your team car, then in order of your start time.






During this meeting we noticed that we were being filmed by a TV Crew. The Episode aired today and can be seen by clicking below.

http://www.atyourleisure.info/episodes.asp?season=7&episode=34&category=2 (No Toyota Love in the Video?)



The first day of competition would be a 12 hour day. The start intervals would be one minute in between each team. I know One minute doesn't sound like much, but if your properly motivated you can make some distance...That's ground speed 92 mph and closing. As you were leaving the starting gate you were handed the waypoint value notebook. Not a lot of time to make changes to your plan of attack, but a lot of fun for the navigator's to figure out while the driver's went to the first waypoint.

We caught the first team (D-90 and DII) and blew by them like they were standing still, it was all smiles as we passed them. Afterwards the driver of the DII said he pulled in front of the D-90 and had the D-90 draft him to make some time. The race was on...

Here's a rare navigator's meeting after collecting one of the 1000 point value waypoints.



I say rare because most of the time we were "Running and Gunning" and there was no time for idle talk. Most of the communication took place over the ham radio's while enroute to the next way point.

Here you can see our Nav's (They look like small children) retrieving another waypoint.



Redline showing the proper way through some Nevada mud...Ih8Mud...








It was about this time, that we had our (Mine) only mechanical failure of the competition. The 5/8th's fuel line from my aux tank was getting sliced apart from the actuator on my rear differential. Every time I would fully compress it would get another cut. We didn't notice it until Redline ran passed my truck and smelled gasoline. Redline backed me over a dugout hole, so we could better access the underneath of my truck.

My navigator and I crawled under the truck and started the repair job. It was going great until I took a big direct shot of gasoline in the face. Namely my left eye. I stayed under the truck for a few more minutes helping until my eye couldn't take anymore. the burning sensation turned to more of a warmer heat and I needed to get the contact out of my eye.

Redline's Navigator quickly grabbed his water bottle and made numerous cuts into the top of it with his pocket knife. Instant eye wash station. I removed the contacts and replaced them with glasses. By this time my nav had completed the band aid fix and we were mobile again. This cost us about 45 minutes.


There was one mandatory Special Task the first day. It was called the "NVTR Hunting and Fishing Club." Here Redline is getting the instructions from the start proctor. It was a closed loop driving course that had to be completed in "Low." There were three points that the Na's had to exit the vehicle, complete a task, reenter the vehicle buckle up and take off again. The first were a series of traffic cones. Three in a row. The Nav gad to get out, move one the driver would pass him. The cone would be replaced and this sequence would be repeated two more times. Next the driver would race down a section, stop the nav would get out and cast a fishing lure at a cone. He would then re-enter the vehicle the driver would then continue driving to the shotgun stage. The nav would exit the vehicle, shoot a shotgun at three clay pigeons and re-enter the vehicle. The driver would then complete the course.

My Nav was the first to hit the cone with one cast and even with a failure to feed on the shotgun, he cleared the failure and smoked the drill. Redline's nav hit the cone on the second cast and also smoked the shooting.

Here Redline gets the instructions for the special Task.




The beginning of the closed course.



Both Redline and myself understood the directions the same way. We both asked questions and we both slowed/stopped at the incorrect time/place. Even with this miscommunication Redline took second in the closed course.


The team finding a waypoint, only for it to send us to another location.


Collecting more waypoints...If you look close to the guy in black you can just barely see the way point in the bush to his left. It's a little yellow circle.

We ended up with this view as we entered into the night.



We collected three more waypoints after this picture and ended up arriving at the hotel with 15 minutes to spare.

Even with the mechanical failure, we collected a total of 25036 points the first day and I was told by the other competitor's that we "Were the team to beat." Even though we were told that, only 1000 points separated the top three teams. It was a good way to end the day.

Only the day wasn't over yet. We sourced some new 5/8th's line and replaced the entire hose assembly in the hotel parking lot. Numerous other teams were also making needed repairs into the night.


After another mandatory special task (10:00 p.m. in the Casino) we were given the waypoints, minus the point values. This was at approximately midnight. A short team meeting regarding tactics and we were off to bed.




The start of the second day and the driver's meeting started at 07:30 sharp. Today would be a 15 hour day with no mandatory special task.

Our start time was 08:02. We had made a strong showing the first day and hoped to do the same the second day. After all, we were the only rookie competitor's to make it into the top three.

The start intervals today would be two minutes apart. The #1 start Team (The Rover Team we caught the day before were onto our tactics and didn't want to be caught twice). We caught them and Redline could have overtaken them, but didn't want to get them in between us. That worked out well for us because just over the next hill we were all flagged to stop by the event organizer M. green. Turns out this was a secret checkpoint to make sure all items in the vehicles were strapped down and the occupants were still wearing boots. As soon as they cleared your car, you were free to leave.

I owe a big thank you to Adventure Trailers for their rear drawers and Wagon Gear for his tailgate storage lid. M. Green (Who did not do the tech inspection) took one look at my 80 and complimented me on how organized it was. The only item not in the drawers, the tailgate or the Storm cases that were strapped down in place of my back seats was Redline's PullPal. The PullPal was secured to factory bolt holes via quickfists. I'll add the pics to my build thread on the storage solutions for the event.


One of the slow moments during the second day...


I didn't take as many pics the second day as we were really on a mission.


We were approaching one of the three peaks and the mud was very slick and deep. Redline made it through a steep incline and had to winch me through. We were the first competitor's in this area and saying that the mud was bad would be an understatement.

Pictures are deceiving...





The nav's made the decision to run to the three waypoints that were up this mountain from our location while the driver's extricated Redline's Runner. Turns out the Nav's travelled over one thousand vertical feet in about 1.4 miles (One way) to collect a little over 3000 points.

The extrication took a lot less time and allowed Redline and I a chance to enjoy a hot afternoon Espresso (I'm laughing as I write this). Yes, we really did enjoy an Espresso while they worked their butt's off for our team. In all fairness, we waited for an Espresso until after we had taken care of the vehicles, made them turkey sandwiches and peeled the oranges, so they would have a nice reward waiting for them upon arrival.



After all, one must remain civilized...


Once they got back to the vehicles it was time to make up some time and we were off again.

One of the slot canyons we drove through...








Here's a waterfall we went down to exit the last slot canyon.




As we exited the canyon, we still had a lot of ground to cover.

We were quickly losing daylight and the waypoints proved hard to find in the day light. They were going to be impossible in the night.




Here's a screenshot from Redline's Nav to illustrate what we still had to accomplish.



Under the cover of darkness we decided to challenge Jobs Peak Pass and pick up as many points as possible. We were about 64 miles as the crow flies from the hotel and we had about an hour to get there. We knew we would be late and would suffer the time penalty points, but we hoped that we would have a big enough cushion to still secure the win. Jobs Peak is at 8790 ft elevation, little did we know, we would be the first and only team to summit all three passes.

As we approached one of the last turns before the Summit, Redline let's out a cool "Hey guy's, my driver rear tire is off the cliff edge and I'm stuck in the snow" over the two meter. Fearing the worst, we rounded the corner to see the Redline was not exaggerating. His driver's side rear tire was most definitely off of the cliff's edge. His runner was almost 70* across the trail. The trail was an off camber pitch with about four feet of snow on the passenger side and two feet of snow on the driver's side.

We exited the 80, hooked up my winch line to the Runner and assessed the situation. We decided that the PullPal would be the best and only course of action, as there were no tree's available to use as an anchor. This was about 1030 p.m. Our due back time was 11:02 pm. Redline's Nav took off with the two meter handheld and collected more points while we worked to extricate Redline.

The PullPal provided just enough of an anchor to pull him out. We kept him attached to the anchor and he was able to make it to one of the more secure spots on the trail. I hooked up to him and he acted as a daisy chain with the PullPal pulling my 80 across his tracks. Tire off the edge and all. We had to repeat this process another time each before we reached dry level ground. It was from this Summit that we watched 11:02 come and go.

We were free of what would be the last stuck of the night. We entered base camp an entire hour and half late. We had collected a total of 34,400 points in way points.

We were greeted by the driver of the DII and race officials. We thought we had finished Dead last. After talking to more people, it turns out that quite a few people were late that night. Not as late as us, but late nonetheless.


The next morning at the awards breakfast we were informed that we were the only team to complete all three passes. We were pretty excited about the accomplishment. The time penalty worked out to 7600 points off of the top. 200 points a minute is pretty steep when the waypoints vary from 100 to 1000 points.

Our Saturday's total after time penalties was 26,800
combined with Friday's total of 25,036
For a Grand Total of 51,836


What does all this mean?



Even with the time penalties, we still secured a Third Place Win.

The event was a total blast. We will compete next year as the same team, barring any unforeseen incidents. I highly recommend you pick people that will work together for the goal. This could have been miserable with personalities getting in the way of the team success.

The 2009 NVTR winner's were the #1 start team (D-90, DII) that we spent a lot of time jockeying with. They were third time competitors, previous winners and great guys.

Wow, great write up.

Congratulations on the third place finish.:victory::victory:

Jack

Sounds like lots of fun. Nice report, congrats.

Nice job guys!!! Looked like a lot of fun.

Wow...Looks like a blast!


Little rain = ALOT of mud!

Can't wait to hear what Redline has to say about how his tires did....

Congrats on the finishing 3rd place!

Nicely done, lads. Great story and pictures.

Hmmm... Cruising around dixie valley after a big dinner at Martin. Can't think of a much better way to spend a weekend. Thanks for sharing.

Very cool, sounds like it was a blast. :victory:

Good job guys!

I'm just wondering if my 70 series would do 92mph even if it were thrown out of the back of an airplane....

-H-

Great story, nice pictures, I'm glad nobody went rolling down any cliffs :Wow1:

Willman said:

Wow...Looks like a blast!



Can't wait to hear what Redline has to say about how his tires did....

Click to expand...

Redline and I used the same exact tires on purpose. Between the two of us we had three mounted spares and two different tire patch kits.

Thanks for the compliments guys. It makes it worth while.

I'm working on posting some comments and pics of my own now that my friend 24HRS has pushed me into action...

We both used Maxxis Bighorns in 255/85. The only difference being that mine are siped and 24HRS are not. I think we have similar tread depth, mine are at about 14/32". My Bighorns are suffering from some cutting/chipping, much of it due to the aftermarket sipes, now worse after the Nevada Trophy workout. I've been back and forth on the siping issue for my next set of tires, but think if I run another set of Bighorns as my primary off-highway tire I might not have them spied even though the factory sipes are not very deep.

Our Bighorns performed well, but for all the mud we encountered something with more center void might have worked better (the exception, we don't like, seek out, or have lots of mud), clearing/cleaning the center lugs more easily. Maybe the reintroduced Remington Mud Brute in 255/85! But I don't think I want to listen to a Mud Brute on the highway while on a long overland trip.

Even with a higher void tire, I don't know that we wouldn't have become stuck a few times as some of the conditions were challenging, even locked front & rear forward momentum was not always possible.

Chains would have helped, but taking them on & off, or leaving them on would have been a hassle. Chains would have helped the most on the last pass with the snow that necessitated our mini winch fest and cost us over an hour of time, pushing us into 3rd from a solid second place.

24HOURSOFNEVADA said:

Redline and I used the same exact tires on purpose. Between the two of us we had three mounted spares and two different tire patch kits.

Thanks for the compliments guys. It makes it worth while.

Click to expand...