Transylvania Adventure Trophy 2009

As I’m writing this, most of the people we’ve met in the past week have already gotten to their home countries. The 2009 edition of the Transilvania Adventure Trophy has been a particularly difficult but also rewarding one.

We’ve started trekking and organizing for the event months in advance, but that’s another article altogether. Both extreme and open classes have been checked and rechecked for errors in the road books and everything fell in place at the beginning of the competition. It was clear to all of us that managing about 100 cars is not going to be a walk in the park but at the end of the day we were all working to make an off road event live up to the expectations.

This year, like every other, we had allot of international participants, with new competitors from England and Russia, most notable.

The start was, like always, from the center of Deva city, situated in the wildernesses of Transilvania. A street had been closed off, where all the participants from both Hobby and Extreme classes parked their cars to the public’s delight. Teams started to come days before the race, meeting each other throughout Europe and arriving together in small convoys. Walking on the closed street one could notice anything from standard Defender 110 , in Open class, to extremely modified buggies such as the Russian team’s Toyota powered creation, with portal axles but independent suspension on each wheel – also sporting a sticker from the Ladoga Trophy. We had a lot of trucks return from previous years, people who were fellow competitors, better prepared and ready for the challenge. Unlike last year, the rain in the area announced a certain increase in the difficulty of this year’s tracks.

With everyone ready and having passed through all the technical check up, the teams gathered for the start towards the extreme class trial stage. The front of the convoy was last year’s winners, a Wrangler/Suzuki team from Hungary. Soon after them, a first apparition in the race, British Defender 110 double cab, equipped with Unimog axles and huge tires, who’s height posed some problems in getting under the starting gate.

With everyone leaving the city center, the attention moved towards the trial stage, close to the Bejan lodge. It was a simple but effective section, with steep climbs and descents, mud and side slopes, especially designed to test and show the car’s abilities in any given terrain situation.

This is where we had the first accidents, most notably a Toyota and a Suzuki landing sideways, both safe and up and running in no time. On the same stage the 110 with portal axles that we mentioned before started to present the first signs of weakness. The 200 Tdi engine that powered the whole beast was far too little for the axles alone. Soon after they abandoned completely, as they couldn’t continue due to the size of the car. The Toyota 70 that the Extreme class track was made with was pretty much the standard for sizes, so the narrow sections were considered in relation to it rather than a car that was more than 50 centimeters taller.

Other than these things, the trial went somewhat smooth and we managed to run off to a special stage with the press convoy to see the rest. The said special stage was a 700 meter descent down a muddy slope where contestants performed admirably. All in all, the first day was rather easy and the Extreme and Hobby classes divided in the two main camps, North and South. As always, the organizers made sure that the participants had everything they needed at the sites, from the classical eco toilets to hot showers and Chinese food cooked by our Belgian friends. The Hobby class was sent to the North camp and Extreme to the South, awaiting the start of the following day.

This year, in a premiere, we implemented a new system of trekkers, which allowed us to view the exact tracks that the competitors followed, thus replacing real checkpoints with virtual ones. This particular method proved to be very useful, but, like any new implementation had it’s bugs, especially regarding the life of the batteries, which posed the biggest problem of all. Nevertheless, the new technique eased the creation of the winner’s list, as well as the centralization of information, which proved crucial.

The days passed slowly, the weather had been constantly shifting from sunny to thunderstorms and the race had become more and more difficult. We faced an increasing amount of teams abandoning for the day or the whole race due to car malfunction. Like every year, in the brief, the teams were especially remembered that this is a long trophy, concentrated on navigation and skillful driving and not a speed race. The cars must not be forced and must be cared for because depending on the driving behavior, competitors might run out of spare parts sooner than expected.

Throughout the rally teams faced varied terrain, with all natural obstacles ranging from muddy hillsides to extreme side slopes and river descents that shredded the cars. It was clear that the race was going to rise to its name and its reputation on the outside – TAT Krieg (Transylvania Adventure Trophy War). The classes moved between N and S camps, through the most beautiful terrain available. At one point, the Open class had an azimuth on the peak of the Gaina Mountain, 1450 meters – point from which one could easily see at least three different counties and dozens of mountains. Each year, just after the rally the peak is home to a traditional fair which is an important point of interest in the county

It’s the evening of the forth day and the leading Romanian – Russian team abandon the race five kilometers from the finish of the day’s stage. On a long steep descent, after more than ten lengths of the winch down the muddy hillside, the plasma rope gave in. The Romanian truck plummets down the hillside and stops in a tree, ripping the front axle off the chassis and damaging most of the car. For the team who had a few hours advantage in the first position, this meant the end of the race. The car was recovered with the aid of Extreme class cars and a tractor and was put on a platform, unable to continue. It became more and more apparent that teams in both classes were less able to continue, due to damages, exhaustion and lack of sleep.

The end was getting closer, and in the last day we were positioned on a dam, as referees. Past our green Discovery sporting plenty of battle scars, both classes passed in opposite direction. Last year’s winners, team 64 drove victoriously by our check point – all muddy and using only one engine. The team had a rough two days with one of the team cars engine failing. The decision was taken that, rather than abandoning, the second car was to be towed by the G-Klasse Mercedes throughout the whole two stages – action which quickly because a reason for awe especially since they managed to finish in third place overall. First place was snatched by new comers in two Toyota 70’s, bobtail and normal, driven by the Deputy Mayor – even after facing a rollover which left them without much of the bodywork and front lights, closely followed by last year’s second place, the Austrian team 51.

 

In the light of the recent leaders abandoning, last year’s winners, the Wrangler/Suzuki Hungarian team, took the opportunity to finish the race on the first place in their class, while places two and three were occupied by teams from the Netherlands driving Defender/Discovery trucks. It was the end of a rough week, where everyone had the chance to meet new people, make new contacts as well as already deciding to equip better and participate in next year’s edition of the competition – rougher and better than any before it.