Day 2

On June 9, the stage was set for the most exciting Hummer off-road competition in years. Seven teams from across the country would meet in St. Louis this weekend to crown this year's Hummer Off-Road Champion.

This challenge would consist of several events that would test the skill and the endurance of both man and machine. Those that were up to the task would soon cover hundreds of miles of Missouri roads, trails, and waterways.

Drivers line up behind Lynch Hummer at 8 am for a brief drivers meeting. At this point teams are purposely left to wonder how the day's events will unfold. All will be explained, however, when each team receives their information packets. Each packet contains instructions, schedule of events, and navigation points for the first navigation challenge...

...but since this is a competition, we're not just going to hand out the packets.

Instead, the teams race to find one of several packets that are hidden like Easter Eggs deep in the wooded trails behind the dealership.

These trails are used often for Lynch Hummer customer appreciation events and Adventure Driving Academy off-road driving classes, and can be pretty tricky.

Team Andres is the first to enter the woods and within just a few minutes...

While some teams raced blindly toward navigation waypoints, others carefully plotted their points and planned the best route. Here, Team Maestas plans their route to the last detail.

This navigation challenge would end about 180 miles away with close to 30 navigation waypoints to find along the way. Teams will have approximately 8 hours to complete this challenge before the canoe race at 4:15 p.m.

This navigation waypoint was worth between 2 and 50 points. 2 points for finding it, and one point for each clay bird the team could shoot down.

Here Team Harding takes aim as they are the first team to find this waypoint.

Team Sanders (the H2 team) showed the steady hands and dead-eye aim, nailing 33 of 48 birds. This would help to catapault the team to first place for the first challenge.

What a beautiful day for a canoe race, as Team Sanders handily wins their second event of the day.

Team Traeger had a little trouble getting started, but paddled fast enough to ultimately finish 4th.

Winners of the first 2 events, it looked as though Team Sanders in the white H2 was going to be the team to beat. Unfortunately, technical difficulties with their camera's flash would cost them precious points in the night nav.

After a good night's sleep Team DePew, or "Team Rubber Duck" prepare for the final day's events. With a slim 5-point lead and 150 ponts at stake in the next challenge, both competitors are nervous about how they will finish in the TSD.

TSD stands for Time-Speed-Distance, and the hard part about a TSD rally is not finding the finish line. The hard part is not finishing too early or late.

Here Team Harding finds the finish line within 3 minutes of their goal. This would have been good enough for second place had they not been penalized for a late start.

With the scores from the TSD tabulated, Team Sanders was back in front having scored a perfect 150 of 150. It was beginning to look as though an H2 might possibly win the first Adventure Challenge.

Team Andres quicly set the bar for the RubberDuck Skills Challenge at 120 of a possible 150 points.

For the skills challenge teams had to navigate a tight, challenging course without backing up, touching cones, going out of bounds, or getting stuck.

The top prize for this event, the RubberDuck Hood Lift Kit, was provided by RubberDuck 4x4. RubberDuck 4x4 is an official sponsor of the first ever Lynch Hummer Adventure Challenge.

Team Farrand in the '06 Alpha slant-back also finished with a score of 120 of 150, which resulted in a 2-way tie for first place.

Heavy rain halfway through the skills challenge meant that the remaining teams may find the skills challenge even harder.

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