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Rock crawl.
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Drivers' meeting.
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Fish Bowl - Once driving skills were taken to task, the addition of a fish bowl mounted to the hood ensured drivers keep it slow and smooth.
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Northwest Challenge winners.
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Team 2 - Doug Shipman and Chauncey Curl from Oregon do their best not to spill the fish bowl mounted to the hood of they’re Series Landy.
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Team 1 - Don MacDonald and Mike Vegh of BC work their way through the driving portion on their way to victory.
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Team 1.
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Team 3 Tire Change - Not all challenges are driven, but a test of field craft. Here Ben Olson and Richard Sheridan of BC, repair a tire under watch of marshals and the clock.
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Team 3.
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Tire Change - Gord'n Perrott and Carey Wright from Washington go to extremes to get the simulated flat tire off the ground without use of a jack.
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Trail Welding - Even a spot of trail welding was called upon for competitors.
Story and photos by Pamela Blair, Rover-Landers of BC and NWC2013 organizer
I admit it, I regretted jumping up and down like a silly bugger agreeing to host North West Challenge 2013, but it was BC’s turn hosting annual event and it was the 25th anniversary and… I wanted it. I co-hosted NWC2007 with my husband Dave and best pal Shawn Doherty, so duh!! I knew what I was getting into. I’ve volunteered many NWC’s over the years and co-drove with Dave for two years.
Back in 2012 I came up with an idea I thought would ‘shake’ NWC up, pulling away from the formula that was getting predictable. I wanted to see less vehicular damage and push the teams further in stamina and endurance, really make them work for it!
So… you ask, what is Northwest Challenge and what is this fascination we Land Rover peeps have with it?
In a nutshell… Northwest Challenge started 25 years ago between two Pacific Northwest Land Rover Clubs – The Pacific Coast Rover Club (PCRC) that governs Washington & Oregon and the Canadian Rover-Landers of BC. Quite simply it’s a 3-day Land Rover only off-road competition not for the faint of heart. Each year NWC is rotated between BC, Washington and Oregon through incredible scenery with challenges for drivers and their Land Rovers.
Three dedicated Land Rover fellows were behind it all in 1989 with two of the founders still active today as slick competitors. Doug Shipman from Portland, OR still drives the beast he started with in 1989! ‘Old Blue’ a 1967 Series IIa 88” is wrapped around a V8 on a Range Rover chassis and can run with the best Defenders out there. I think Doug has only missed two NWC’s in 25 years – and all round cool guy. Gord’n Perrott hails out of Seattle, WA, and returned back to NWC in 2011 with a 1991 bright orange Range Rover Classic. He’s a fearless competitor and literally gobs of fun. Lastly we have BC’s Aart Van Der Staar who retired from competition years ago. Aart was seen in early NWC’s with his red 80” ‘Beeper’. Times have changed since the days of Beeper – Rovers are faster, better, and yes, coil sprung now. Without the foresight, dedication and faith to Land Rover seen from Doug, Gord’n & Aart there would be no NWC today. Thank you Boys!
So… as the weeks in 2013 melted into months and calendar pages turned over, I grew concerned. I hoped I would feel more secure when the necessary information was up on the NWC website for July 1st – nope, did not feel better!
When the calendar page that said September was flipped over I was about ready for a giant wobbly as nothing was done. I knew what I wanted, how I wanted NWC’s 25th anniversary to be presented, I just couldn’t get there. You know, frog on a greasy pole scenario – two steps forward, one step back.
Then out of the smoke and gloom it gelled – teams entered, sponsors were on board, prizes promised, volunteers signed up in droves and NWC2013 took on its shape with 600 square-kilometres of trail marked! By September 15th we were turning volunteers away as we had too many.
As a rule NWC doesn’t attract a large amount of teams, but these teams come ready to test their Land Rovers, knowing anything and everything could and would be thrown at them over the competition. My plan for NWC2013 was to design a Nevada Trophy Challenge-like event. Meaning, run the teams 24-hours straight, and overnight – sleep was at their option only. I knew the winner of NWC2013 would be the team hungry for the win and not balk at doing the work needed to earn the coveted title of NWC Champion in the end.
NWC2013 officially started at 6 pm with a Drivers Meeting. The teams then embarked on a 24-hour endurance drive, completing as much as they could along with seven challenges before rolling back into camp for 6pm Saturday – points deducted if late. A final Challenge on day three (Sunday) saw the teams and volunteers gather as a group at an abandoned quarry for a trials-type technical event.
Backtracking to the actual timed sections, Dave and I threw the teams a variety of challenges, from technical, navigational, Land Rover knowledge and driving skills all marshalled by the volunteers. Out of our 6 Teams every team won at least one challenge. These included Wacky Truck; Pumpkin-Eighter; How Prepared RU?; The Tired Challenge; Trail Welding; Land Rover Q&A; Rock & Roll Quarry and the point earning biggie… GPS Rovers.
In the end, BC took the win making NWC history with 2 wins back to back and it was our own Don McDonald from North Vancouver in his 1993 NAS Defender 110 with Mike Vegh taking over co-driver duties from Dave Blair the year before, earning 961-points.
In 2nd place with 804-points, rising through the ranks with a year off was PCRC president Mike Bach (WA) in a 1991 Range Rover, co-driven by former NWC driver Ryan Phelps. Grabbing 3rd place was the Oregon team of Doug Shipman and Chauncey Curl in Old Blue with 657-points. 4th place was Washington’s Gord’n Perrott and Carey Wright in the orange 1991 Range Rover 564-points. Two new teams from BC, Ben Olson and Richard Sheridan in a 1995 Defender 110, and Scott Dumas and Mike Salo in a 1989 Range Rover rounded up 5th and 6th placing with 492-points and 428-points respectively.
They say it’s all about the teams, but the volunteers working as one team really makes it happen. Thank you to our NWC2013 volunteers – you were amazing! And a huge thank you’s to our NWC2013 sponsors: Rover-Landers of BC; PCRC; Lordco; Rovalution; Hesp Automotive; Rocky Mountain Products; Backroad Mapbooks; Lamorna Garage; Ship’s Mechanical; UK Trek & Traction; Warn Industries; Rovers North; OFORC; Overland Journal and Kelowna Autosport.