- by Brian Byrne
in Moab, Utah
Fighter flyer wins Land Rover GR4 Challenge
26 April 2003: The first Land Rover G4 Global Challenge has been won by Belgian F16 fighter pilot Rudi Thoelen (above), after a final stand-off in Moab, Utah today between the 16 contestants. The Irish participant, Dingle man Paul McCarthy (below), came sixth, after gaining two places in the 'Separator' finals.
"It's a good result," McCarthy said afterwards. "I can go back to Dingle OK now."
Paul and his fellow contestants from 16 countries in total had travelled an odyssey which brought them through the snows of New York State and New England, through South Africa, Western Australia and Sydney, finally to the canyonlands of Utah.
Over the month-long journey, they had undertaken numerous endurance tests in running, mountain-biking, climbing and abseiling, as well as using skills in navigation and offroad driving.
In each of the four geographic locations, the contestants drove a different Land Rover vehicle: the Freelander on the east coast of the US, the Defender in South Africa, the Range Rover in Australia and the Discovery in Utah.
The participants were teamed with different partners on each leg, and were individually given points for completing each of the endeavours. This morning in Utah, they were told their placings in groups of four, and Paul McCarthy was eighth, or end man in the second group.
In a special event today, the members of each group competed with each other for new placings within their own group over an arduous course of offroad driving, abseiling (above), mountain-biking, kayaking, a special navigation exercise in a 'matrix' where they ran a set of coordinates to build up a code to a key for their penultimate task, driving a Range Rover over a short course and then climbing back up the ropes they abseiled down, to the finish.
Though starting out with a 25 second handicap against the leading contender in his group, McCarthy overtook two of his fellow contestants - the UK's Tim Pickering and Russia's Sergey Polyansky - to finish second (below) behind group leader Guy Andrews from Australia.
The overall winner - the winner of the first group - got the keys to a brand new Range Rover as a prize.
Asked just before the final event was he disappointed at not being in the running for the main prize, Paul said he wasn't. "Everyone wants to win, but this is such a big event that just taking part is a prize in itself," he said.
The full result was 1. Rudi Thoelen, Belgium; 2. Chris Perry, Arabia; 3. Franck Salgues, France; 4. Cuneyt Gazioglu, Turkey; 5. Guy Andrews, Australia; 6. Paul McCarthy, Ireland; 7. Sergey Polansky, Russia; 8. Tim Pickering, UK; 9. Chester Foster, South Africa; 10. Erik den Oudendammer, Netherlands; 11. Inigo de Lara, Spain; 12. Dirk Ostertag, Germany; 13. Kitt Stringer, Canada; 14. Alberta Chiappa, Italy; 15. Nancy Olson, USA; 16. Shinichi Yoshimoto, Japan.
Chris Perry received the event's Driving Award, a bottle of champagne, for his performance in this section of the Separator, 'despite trying to turn a Range Rover into a Submarine', Matthew Taylor, Managing Director of Land Rover, said.
Chester Foster was presented with champagne for doing the Separator in the fastest time; and Tim Pickering was presented with the award for Best Team Spirit, as voted by the competitors.
The next Land Rover G4 Challenge will take place in 2005.
©2003 irishcar.com