The Campulung Muscel Off Road Contest that took place between 29th of November and 2nd of December marked the end of the competition year in Romania. This, of all the contests, was the most important because it was the last phase of the national championship.
The contest was organized by Off Road Adventure Romania and had Goodyear, Mountain Dew, Binar and DeTeren magazine as sponsors.
As usual the contest classes were:
Auto - Extreme & Open
Moto - Extreme and Open
ATV - one class
Again, all sorts of cars, motorbikes, ATV's and strange looking vehicles, amongst which the one worth mentioning here for the sole reason of being it's first appearance in Romanian off road contests was the Polaris Ranger Rzr, who participated in the Extreme class, having Florin Radu as pilot and the youngest co-pilot this season, Filip Stoica. The cars were parked outside of city hall, in the place specially made for them, awaiting next day's start.
Friday morning the contestants made the final check-ups on their cars, the technical inspection took place, the road books were handed for the cars and the GPS's with the map for motorbikes and ATV's. The sky was cloudy and grey when the start was finally given and the drizzle did not add anything positive to the landscape, still the contestants shot like the bullets from a gun, filled with enthusiasm for the road ahead.
Problems started quite early when, at the first climb, one of the cars got lost, ending up in a ditch, which, because of the ice and mud, managed to pop up one of the tyres. Being in a difficult position, uphill and in a tight place, the crew lost more than one precious hour in the process. After the exciting forest stage came the special section, situated on the Navrap Valley. The first to have a go were the motorcycles. Filled with courage the racers climbed some hundreds of meters of mud and ice and, one by one, the overheated engines started to leave huge trails of smoke and steam. They continued to climb, helping each other along the way, but after 3 hours of hard work, they weren't even half way through.
Drizzle went on and made way for cold and heavy rain which did nothing to make the contestants' work any easier. On the contrary, the big rounded boulders from the river bank got even more slippery, leading to a thin layer of ice that made the day's special stage impossible, thus cancelled, even though everybody was pushing the gas pedal to the ground, waiting anxiously to get on the course.
On this occasion, the problem of the RZR's participation in the Extreme class was pointed out. They passed the health and safety and technical inspection with flying colours and therefore were allowed to participate, performing wonderfully.
Unfortunately for everybody attending, the first day of contest ended around lunch time for everybody in the extreme class. Each contestant left, found a car wash to blast off the dried and frozen mud from the cars and parked them, with hopes for the next day.
Even though the prognosis for the following day was just as grim, contestants kept hoping, talking at dinner on how they would attack the new terrain given the conditions and what they would like to change in their driving approach so that they can get better times. Come morning everybody was surprised to see a bright sun shining, and all their worries and fears regarding a possible cancellation of yet another stage were quickly dispersed. Even though the stage seemed easy through the wonderful forests around the Iezer dam, the road was curved in such ways that contestants would meet, coming from opposite directions, making some believe they were going the wrong way. Even on the freezing cold and thick ice slopes, the co-pilots did their job to get out of the car and look for clues and markings found on the road book, fighting with time and competition.
Saturday's special stage was passed by the majority of the contestants, even though it was again, covered by ice. Like always, the Extreme class had some unpleasant events, of which:
- at the Extreme Moto class one of the contestants fell and broke his hand, being found by Silviu, one of the Open contestants.
- One of the ATV racers failed to see the signaling for hair-pin turn, figured that he has no way to stop and so jumped off the quad, leaving it to plunge into a rather deep and unpleasant looking ravine. He abandoned the race, since the ATV could not be salvaged.
Sunday morning, under the same wonderful sun, and having the high mountain peaks covered in snow in the background, the contestants set of for yet another day of adventure, this time having the trial stage near the Matau ski slope. The locals got used to this event, thus participating in great numbers as spectators and supporters of the teams. Campulung is, on the other hand, the town where the only Romanian off road car was born, the ARO. An old acquaintance of the teams came with a home-made off road car that he uses around the farm for work, which apparently attracted just as many admirers as the competition cars did.
Two tracks were laid down, one for the Open and one for the Extreme class. After the usual opening meeting, everybody did the track by foot so they would have an idea of what they are up against. There was also a demonstrative stage with one motorbike, after which the start was given. The frozen grass and land, in alternation with muddy areas from the sunny parts created big problems. This was the part where the extremely light weight of the RZR's came in handy, not having problems with the grip. One of the larger cars tumbled on a portion of ice, owing that to one fraction of a second where they should have accelerated. The crowd was quick to get to the car, put it back on it's wheels without losing too much time. The driver attacked the icy slope again and got to the top, passing by the cheerful crowd who had the pleasure of seeing a car tumble over without any damage to car or drivers, see the bottom of an off road car ( you don't see that everyday lying on the side ), knowing they did their little bit to help the show go on, and watching great sport and determination.
Another two, less happy tumbles took place, where the angle of the slope was too high, the cars tumbled down to a nearby forest where they stopped in the trees. Happily nobody was seriously hurt, the roll cage and other protection equipment doing their duty superbly. Later on the cars abandoned the race due to technical issues.
The motorcycle stages did not pose a serious threat to anybody, racers fell down, got up on the bike, fell down again and so on... One motorcycle slided down a slope and again the crown was quick to help. “Oh my God this is heavy” I heard someone say from the crowd. The racer gets on, accelerates and gets to the finish line.
After yet another great day, everybody gets in a column to head back to the city hall for the prize festivity. Everybody had their 15 minutes of fame given the occasion. The youngest copilot, 15 years old, on one of the RZR's had the joy of standing on the first place at the Extreme Auto category. His father was also co-pilot on another one of the Extreme teams. During all the festivity everybody wore the jackets representing the clubs they belong to, and got cups, medals, champagne, prizes from the sponsors.. a lot of joy.. for all others diplomas and for the viewers a great weekend out in the company of extraordinary men and drivers, open, strong, brave and cheerful and... with a huge desire for adventure
Radu Tudoroiu
Radu Tudoroiu is a photographer and an editor for 4x4 Off Roads and other publications as well as an off-road enthusiast. Radu lives in Romania.
