Racing originated with the marathon, based on the distance a messenger ran from the battlefields of Marathon to Athens. (He died of course). The concept of pushing oneself past the limits has evolved from polite joggers to Triathlons and Ironman competitions where swimming and biking is integrated so that the competitors could tan and have an excuse to buy a $2000 bike to ride through the park on weekends. It seems that when TV and sponsors become involved these simple tests of personal best became more akin to the events held at the coliseum of ancient Rome. Now people who desperately fear aging or being a wimp can travel to exotic lands and do silly things for the benefit of cameras and sponsors. The Camel Trophy (which sells off road vehicles, clothing and subliminally cigarettes), The Raid Gauloise (which sells those nasty Francophone cancer sticks) and the Eco Challenge (which sells anything you want to wear logos for) are the new breed of adventure racing. Of course there is also the Olympics with mountain biking, pentathlon and other rugged sports. The only major difference is that you have to beat out 1. 6 million people to be part of the Camel Trophy and the rest requires a checkbook and a disclaimer.
P.O. Box 15095
Boston, Massachusetts 02215-0002
(617) 266-5637, FAX: (617) 266-7680
http://www.tempestco.com
A web site dedicated to adventure racing
P.O. Box 270862
Fort Collins, Colorado 80527
(970) 484-7485
email: BeyondAS@ix.netcom.com
The World's Toughest Cigarette Commercial |
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The Camel Trophy is the major marketing effort of Land Rover and World Brands, Inc. (WBI), a fully owned subsidiary of RJR Nabisco, the makers of Camel cigarettes and Oreo cookies. No longer directly flogging Camel cigarettes, the Camel Trophy is an event designed to create the imagery that sells about $400 million a year in licensed watches and about 80 different styles of boots. Pretty sneaky. This is an ideal way to push imagery (sans cigarette) in countries that don't allow overt cigarette advertising. WBI does not release budgets for the Camel Trophy, but DP estimates the total marketing cost worldwide at between $20 and 30 million, with each division kicking in funds from their advertising budgets. They fly in 120 journalists from around the world to cover not only the main event but also the qualifications trials usually held in a European location. Simple math would tell even the most gullible that licensing revenue (typically 5-15 percent of the gross) from $400 million sales would barely cover the event cost, let alone the corporate and advertising campaign. There is also a "coincidental fascination" with countries that are open to this macho brand image. You don't see a lot of Camel Trophies in North America or Europe. In fact, there have been none. Asia, South America and Africa are the venues of choice. There is also a growing disaffection by journalists who find the increased emphasis on yuppie sports, macho posturing, unabashed posing for the PR cameras and RJR's denial of tobacco hype to be a little too much. Many yearn for the bad old days when it was a group of young men trying to get from Point A to Point B in their Land Rovers. The fact that a cigarette company paid the tab to sell more smokes in Europe and the Third World was fine since it was no secret. Now team members come from countries where the people smoke a lot of cigarettes but don't buy a lot of adventure wear. For example, why do the Canary Islands (I never knew RJR could confer sovereignty on areas), Russia and Poland compete when Canada and Mexico do not? It obviously has to do with the presence of RJR cigarette entities, not potential clothing purchasers. Now things are a little too posey and murky, and the journos I talk to don't like it. U.S. journalists who want to participate should contact Glenn Campbell, public relations representative for Land Rover North America, (818) 799-0877 FAX: (818) 799-0878, or Mark Shirmer at Land Rover North America, (301) 731-9041. The actual event can range from comical to magical to pathetic, as the organizers try to create as much havoc and "toughness" as possible. I enjoy the camaraderie and exotic locations of the event, but the overall mindset of the organizers should be questioned once in a while. My claim to fame in Africa was having a knife pulled on me by event leader Ian Chapman, who was terrified that I would throw him in the swimming pool with his pretty little kilt on. The Camel Trophy does afford the regular Joe an opportunity to compete for and get a spot in a world-class competition that pits him against the best that other countries have to offer. Rather than compete, the participants are united by adversity, and winning the team spirit award can provide a lot more weight than the actual trophy. The team spirit award is voted on by the competitors, while the overall trophy is decided by some voodoo method only the organizers understand. What kind of people make the cut? Triathletes, joggers, weight lifters and racers shouldn't even waste the postage. The key is teamwork, a sense of humor and the stamina to go through a lot of crap and keep smiling. Hard-core athletes rarely have the team spirit or stamina required for a two-week event. Musclemen and racers couldn't handle the bad days, when two to three miles seem like a long way. Finally, who makes it? Stable, good-humored people, who can endure being squeezed in a vehicle with three other people for two weeks. Professional racers are disqualified automatically, and females are welcome. The initial cut is based on experience-can you drive off-road, pitch a tent, read a map or change a tire? Once accepted, you will spend a miserable frozen weekend in Grand Junction, Colorado, with team organizer Tom Collins. You will be run through the standard officer candidate tests, silly things like sliding people through rope webs, balancing on a log, even winching vehicles places they should never fit into. Forty-eight hours later, sleepless, bagged and tired, you will find out if you made the first cut. If you make it, you get to go to the finals, usually held in Europe. Here, they mess with your mind and run you through junior commando school, fun things like dragging a Land Rover half a mile with its wheels locked the wrong way (it can be done), building bridges, getting dumped in freezing cold water and playing the Flying Wallendas while crossing high wires-all posed for the cameras and designed to generate a sinking feeling of self-doubt for the real event. The real event is quite different. A convoy of yellow vehicles will snake its way across some fetid hellhole. There are few roads and fewer reasons why trucks should pass here. The event is usually run in the wet season so that there are plenty of opportunities to use your winch or slide down hills. The competitions are great fun and deadly serious. High-speed driving is not a factor in any of this. Rally driving is being phased out in favor of more ecosensitive events like building research facilities. You are graded on how well you perform in these tasks as well as how you perform as an overall team member. Few people can claim the honor of having been on the Trophy, and most people would never want to. But, hey, that's adventure. The Camel Trophy
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9899 Santa Monica Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90212
(310) 553-8855, FAX: (310) 553-7497
www.ecochallenge.com
The Eco-Challenge is sort of a Raid Gauloise-Lite. Designed to appeal to American Yuppies who buy a lot of brightly colored gear and created by Mark Burnett, the event is a direct, unashamed attempt to sell sponsorship and provide a TV show load of pathos and agony by people who actually pay for the experience. Burnett got the idea after he took part in three Raid Gauloises and despite some rather disastrous setbacks he decided that Americans would pay to be lost in the woods and grimace a lot. Like any new venture the Eco Challenge had its financial setbacks, screw ups, outraged environmentalists and tenuous existence. But now the Eco Challenge has graduated from MTV and has a multimillion dollar deal with Discovery Channel so it should hit the big time soon. You know things are getting a little too Yuppified when you have team names like Team Land Rover, Team Rolex, Team Nike and Team Reebok.
Here's the scoop. You must go from point A to B, a distance of around 350 miles. You must enter as a team of five people with at least one person being certifiably female, (women buy yuppie gear too you know). It costs about $15,000-$40,000 to compete, $10 grand for the entry fee and the rest for travel, gear and training outings. Between points A and B contestants must utlilize a virtual sporting goods store of conveyances: canoes, horses, rafts, mountain bikes and climbing gear. It is expected that about half of the logo-festooned teams will drop out. (If one of your team flakes, you're out.) The race is usually won by Europeans who have been doing these things for years.
In Utah, it took the winning team 7 days, 16 hours and 12 minutes to win. Not bad considering they had a 35-mile horseback ride and run, 25-mile hike/swim through a canyon, a 60-mile desert hike, 30-mile mountain bike ride and a 75-mile raft trip (23-miles of it whitewater), a 24-mile hike through the mountains, a 1200-foot vertical ascent, a 14-mile hike through a canyon, and a final 52-mile canoe trip.
Burnett figures it costs $2.5 million to stage the event and with about 75 teams competing, it should be around for a while.
(800) MARLBORO
A newcomer and somewhat panty-waisted event asks that team members have expertise in four wheeling, dirtbiking, whitewater rafting and horseback riding. An 11-day adventure that covers 600 miles in the American Southwest, the Adventure team event is beautifully photographed be Pete Turner and amply promoted complete with Adventure Gear and plenty of print advertising. This event is open to anyone who can fill out a form and pass the initial knowledge tests.
Applications can be had by calling:
(800) MARLBORO. (Closing date is around April 22 each year.)
470 Waverly Drive
Beverly Hills, California, 90211
(310) 271-8335
www.raid-gauloises.com
Created in 1988 by a French journalist who felt that the Camel Trophy was too easy. Gerard Fusil put together a 300 mile, 10 day torture test that attracts masochists from around the world. Unlike the Camel Trophy which is free, participants in the Raid Gauloise must pay their own way plus the $13,000 entry fee for the privilege of walking, climbing, riding, rafting, parachuting and canoeing themselves to exhaustion. There is no cash prize, little fame and a lot of camaraderie. The event takes place in a different exotic location each year.
8855 Appian Way
Los Angeles, California 90046
(213) 848-8685
Everything's clear to this outfitter that can take you on four-wheel-drive tours around Southern California and Baja.
P.O. Box 171 888 68
Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia
FAX: [088] 426-180
An event that's been around for 6 years winds and grinds through Northern Borneo (Sabah). DP always has a blast but if you don't like mud, very large insects, not sleeping and noodles, forget it. Open to competitors, participants and journalists.
44 Tulloch Avenue
Maryland, New South Wales 2287
(049) 515815
Garry Walthers will yank you out of a tight spot, train you not to get into a tight spot or set up four-wheel-drive tours.
Cape York Guides
Post Office Box 908
Atherton, Queensland 4883
(070) 911978, FAX: (070)912545
Four-wheel drive trips through the top end of Australia. You can bring your own or rent one of theirs. Travelers can rely on good cooking and expert guidance.
McVeigh Associates, 7 12th Street
Garden City, New York 11530
(800) 726-5655
FAX: (516) 742-9103
Land Rover organizes off-road expeditions worldwide with itineraries including a seven-day safari in North Africa, eight days in Colorado's Rocky Mountains, five days on the pioneer trail in the Red Rock canyons of Moab, Utah, a 10 day safari through the dunes and wadis of Oman, nine days in Australia's Outback, and more. Accommodations are ultradeluxe, and the tab isn't cheap, but what price can you put on unforgettable experiences?
Suite 172
11919 North Jantzen Avenue
Portland, Oregon 97217
(503) 731-3030
Billed as the longest, coldest, toughest winter rally in the world, The Lost Patrol is a quick run up the Alcan highway in the dead of winter. Using standard TSD rally methods, the idea is to have the most accurate and consistent times. Sometimes this means driving as fast as the law of gravity and friction will allow and sometimes crawling to make up time. The Rally leaves Seattle at the beginning of February with about 30 entries and ends up in the Arctic about a week later.
The winner might pick up about a grand (depending on who donates the purse) and side bets are encouraged. Economically, the entry fee of $2500 doesn't make this a paying proposition, but what better things could you be doing in the dead of winter?
6022 Victory Lane
Harrisburg, North Carolina, 28075
(800) BE PETTY
Talk slow, spit far and drive fast in a real Winston Cup stock car. There are five courses to choose from and three locations (Las Vegas, Atlanta and Charlotte). Does not include oversized hat or sunglasses.
P.O. Box 410
Queenstown, New Zealand
[64] (3) 442-3660,
FAX: [64] (3) 442-3667www.southerntraverse.com
The grand daddy of them all, The New Zealand race was the forerunner in covering long distances in short periods and then tossing in mountains, roaring rivers and no sleep to make it interesting.Entry fee for a five member team is NZ$2,750. They also offer a rental and accommodation package. Entries are limited to the first 50 teams.
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