Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage Adventure Competition - Finale

IRVINE, Calif., May 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Just twenty miles north of the bright lights and lavish casinos inLas Vegas, Lisa Lieb (Durango, Colo.) and her partner Tom Lyons (Reno, Nev.) won it big - taking top honors at the 2008 Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage which wrapped up four days and 1,000 miles of adventure competition at Nellis Dunes on Friday, May 9.

With this victory, Lyons and Lieb move on to the G4 Challenge International Selections event at Eastnor Castle in Herefordshire, UK in early 2009 along with the second place team of Peter Hanson (Minneapolis) and Sarah McMahan (Incline Village, Nev.). At the UK event one male and one female competitor from those two teams will be selected to representthe United States against teams from 17 other countries in the three-week-long Land Rover G4 Challenge finals inAsia mid-2009.

"The Land Rover G4 Challenge epitomizes the spirit of adventure," said Finbar McFall, Vice President of Marketing for Land Rover North America. "After such an exciting week following these amazing athletes through the state ofNevada, we've found the four competitors that are moving on to representthe United States in the Land Rover G4 Challenge International Selections event in the UK. The International Selections event determines the two competitors that will move on to the G4 Challenge Finals in 2009."

The final event last week brought teams slipping and sliding in their LR3's at the Nellis sand dunes until they got stuck - then a winching competition broke out. Winching is the art of getting your vehicle out of trouble using the 100-feet of coiled steel-braided cable mounted on the front of each competitor's Land Rover. In this case the "trouble" was getting buried in deep, soft sand with a couple hundred feet of steep sandy hill to go.

Pulling a fully loaded LR3 complete with a kayak and two bikes strapped to the roof straight up a sand dune isn't an everyday occurrence, but a skill that will come in mighty handy should the situation ever arise on the adventures these athletes embark on and was excellent training for the teams that advance and will face similar challenges inEngland.

With Land Rover's carving their own unique configurations in sand bowls at Nellis, recreational ATV and dirt bike riders having some fun, and fighter pilots zooming overhead on their way back to nearby Nellis Air Force base, being in the middle of the desert couldn't get much more fun and clearly is one of the reasons why National Geographic Adventure Magazine namedLas Vegas, America's No.1 Adventure City.

Team Red -- Jim Perkins and Brandyn Roark-Gray -- posted the fastest winching time of the day at 14:52, eight seconds better than Phil Glenn and Laura Home of Team Lime Green -- but the story of the day was Lyons and Lieb winning the four-day adventure race.

The pair won the kayak and mountain biking stages, placed second in the trail run and communications stages, were charismatic and charming in the face of adversity, and steady everywhere else leading to the overall victory.

"This was just an unbelievable experience," said Lieb. "It was a week worth of constant overstimulation and I'm totally exhausted but in a good way. The landscape here inNevada is really breathtaking and being able to see it all behind the wheel of a Land Rover that can handle just about anything made it all that much sweeter."

Twenty athletes, 10 teams, 1,000 miles acrossNevada's spectacular wide open spaces, camping under the stars, adventure worthy Land Rovers, amateur athletes pushing the limits of human potential, discovering hidden talents, and ultimately living life to the fullest -- the Land Rover G4 Challenge Nevada Passage was all that and more.

Nearly 100 hours of video was captured by the 20-member strong TEAM Unlimited television crew during the week, creating perhaps an even bigger challenge than the event itself -- editing it all down for a one-hour show. The broadcast will start its run in national syndication in August, with airings through February of 2009.

    Log on to www.nevadapassage.com for daily highlights and photo galleries,
and follow along at www.landroverG4challenge.com as Lieb, Lyons, McMahan, and
Hanson strive to become the first Americans to win an international G4
competition.


    2008 TEAMS LIST
    Name                   Age          Hometown             Occupation
    TEAM GREEN
    Tim Menoher            37        Erlanger, KY       Bank Sales Director
    Linda Lindsay          43        Petaluma, Calif.   Office Administrator

    TEAM ORANGE
    Nate Brown             31        Cedarburg, Wis.    Hyperbaric Technician
    Sage Grossi            30        Tempe, Ariz.       College Professor

    TEAM ROYAL BLUE
    Adam Chase             42        Boulder, Colo.     Attorney
    Caroline Colonna       44        Taos, NM           Doctor of Oriental
                                                        Medicine

    TEAM BURGUNDY
    Scott Fredricksen      33        Greenville, SC     Sales Manager
    Rachel Cieslewicz      29        Salt Lake City,    Personal Trainer
                                     Utah

    TEAM LIME GREEN
    Phil Glenn             31        Reno, Nev.         Emergency Medical
                                                        Technician
    Laura Home             34        Santa Cruz,        Middle School Teacher
                                     Calif.

    TEAM TURQUOISE
    Peter Hanson           43        Minneapolis        Sports Medicine
                                                        Physician
    Sarah McMahan          36        Incline Village,   Sales
                                     Nev.

    TEAM GRAY
    Dean Kruuse            35        San Diego, Calif.  Repair Shop Owner
    Emma Garrard           27        Truckee, Calif.    Photo Journalist

    TEAM PURPLE
    Tom Lyons              47        Reno, Nev.         Real Estate Investor
    Lisa Lieb              37        Durango, Colo.     Property Manager

    TEAM RED
    Jim Perkins            33        Huntington Beach,  Construction Company
                                     Calif.             Sales
    Brandyn Roark-Gray     29        Sandpoint, Idaho   Mental Health
                                                        Counselor

    TEAM YELLOW
    Garrett Wheeler        27        Waitsfield, VT     Glass Blower
    Marne Smiley           25        Ann Arbor, Mich.   Director for Michigan
                                                        MTB Assoc.


    FACT SHEET

    The 18 participating nations:


    -- Australia             -- China      -- Netherlands       -- Turkey
    -- Austria               -- France     -- Norway/Sweden     -- UK
    -- Belgium/Luxemburg     -- Germany    -- Russia            -- USA
    -- Brazil                -- Ireland    -- South Africa
    -- Canada                -- Italy      -- Spain

Land Rover G4 Challenge

Land Rover has a lasting heritage of adventure, with one of the best known expeditions run in 1970 when two Range Rovers became the first vehicles to complete a land crossing of the Darien Gap swamplands that divideNorth America fromSouth America. The Land Rover G4 Challenge was inaugurated in 2003, when Belgian fighter pilot Rudi Thoelen emerged victorious from a cliff hanging finale inMoab, Utah. The next Challenge, in 2006, went deep into rugged, remote locations inThailand,Laos,Brazil andBolivia, coming to an end at an altitude of over 13,000 feet with South African Martin Dreyer emerging victorious.

TheNevada Commission on Tourism

TheNevada Commission on Tourism is the marketing agency for the state of Nevada. It developed the Nevada Passage in 2005 to showcase the state's outdoor activities to the world. Viewers can watch the Telly Award winning 2005, 2006, and 2007 shows online at www.nevadapassage.com .

Land Rover North America

Land Rover North America is part of Ford Motor Company's Premier Automotive Group with headquarters inIrvine, Calif. Land Rover established operations inthe United States in 1986, and now imports and distributes Range Rover, Range Rover Sport, LR3 and LR2 vehicles manufactured by Land Rover in Solihull and Halewood,England. Land Rover's worldwide operations are wholly owned by Ford Motor Company,Dearborn, Mich. For information about the Land Rover retailer nearest you, call 800-FIND-4WD or log on to www.LandRoverusa.com .

Vehicle specifications and features are subject to change. For the latest Land Rover pricing and product information, contact Land Rover North America Product Communications at (949) 341-5800. Land Rover-related press releases and electronic photos of the company's products are available on-line in the Land Rover section of Ford Motor Company's news media Web site ( media.landrover.com ).

SOURCE Land Rover North America

Copyright © 2008, PRNewswire
Copyright © 2008, NewsBlaze, Daily News

Tags: nevada, Sports, california

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