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Rumble in the Jungle
In
typical Malaysian fashion, the 9th edition of the Malaysian Rainforest
Challenge (RFC) was launched with an assortment of speeches and lots of
song and dance. The participants already had their OD of song and dance
at the welcome dinner and wanted to get to the business end of things.
A few traditional dances was fine but having the same artistic boys
having a time of their life on stage and VIPs crooning on an RFC karaoke
was a bit.. never mind.
As the
hot blooded competitors sat patiently in the shade of the Alor Setar
Tower through this entire proceeding of more speeches, song and
dance, one could read their faces being torn between
wanting to get into action and delaying what was installed for them –
eight full days of hard, all out 4X4 off road competition
"Where sleep
becomes a stranger, exhaustion is a constant companion, cleanliness
becomes a mere memory, but where man becomes the master of ingenuity,
resilience & endurance."
Opening remarks by Luis Wee on
the X-Men.
There
were a few exceptions, Filipinos Mike De Leon and Joe Guerrero were in
high spirits as they came to enjoy themselves and not worry about the
competition. Sri Lankan Navin and Indika were also very relaxed as they
had the backing of family members and a workshop crew – yes, they
brought a shipload of parts and workers.
The
first two days of competition are prologue days, held on the fringe of
Alor Setar in full view of locals, fans, sponsors, and industry
supporters. Atek (Rate DaSilva), Martin Lewis and the
X-Men team did an excellent job of designing a 4X4 playground with
SS running all day and into the night on Saturday and on Sunday morning.
Hills, humps, drops, axel breaking holes, steep traversing sideward, log
bridges and mud holes were some of the obstacles prepared. No one could
anticipate how a flat piece of land could be turned into 9 torturous
special stages (SS).
Cont Page 2 |
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Festivities at the Start |
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Flags of all represented nations were at the flag off in front of Alor Setar Tower |
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Scrutiny |
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A Land Rover Defender buggy from Sri Lanka comes under close scrutiny from Malcolm of borneo4x4, Peter Taylor -chief scrutineer and Devlin Fogg from ZA TV. |
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The RFC Big Balls |
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(L-R) X-Men II Leader, Peter Taylor, Atek, Luis Wee, Jong comp manager (partial hidden) and Martin Lewis |
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X-Men and Marshals |
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Pre event brief with X-Men and the many marshals who helped in the RFC |
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Max and Min |
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This is Minimum, son of Maximum of Denmark |
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Aysin |
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That's Aysin editor of Turkey 4X4 Magazine in the shadows of Alor Setar Tower |
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4X4 Central |
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Alor Setar became 4x4 central during the RFC |
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Jedi II |
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That's Atek's famous Jedi II, the apprentice took over from the master... |
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Not for the RFC |
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This Hummer is not for the RFC but was seen at the official hotel |
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Mud bath |
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that's the best way to conclude the prologue. Picture by Aldrin Bernard |
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