Team Run N Gun
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The final moments of Team Shitbox
GAR2: Ep. 3
La Paz, Bolivia. 27th August 2018.
We received our next waypoint early in the morning so we set off, intent on avoiding La Paz peak hour traffic. After leaving La Paz without incident, we motored along the highway, heading towards Chile. The organisers warned us to avoid altitude sickness and take the supplied viagras so, since Ben and I were no longer spring chickens, we didn’t hesitate and took the required dosage immediately. After a number of hours of monotonous driving, punctuated by lonely little towns and villages, we saw our first casualty for the day… An unknown team driving a Paginza 622 had terminal suspension failure and was out of the race!
Ben was gesturing that we help them, even as I was turning off the highway, and we offered the team a lift to the Chilean border, where they could get transport home from there. Since they had no good alternative, the Paginza team accepted the ride and were unceremoniously bundled into the cargo area, along with their ID papers and personal belongings, and we pushed on to the Chilean border.
(OOC: @Der_Bayer, feel free to contradict this action if you want to RP things another way, I’ll just edit it out later on!)
After the border crossing, where we said goodbye to our itinerant passengers, we got stuck into the climb up the side of the volcano. Unlike many of the teams competing in the GAR, our 4WD had a turbocharged engine. This meant that we were able maintain our pace long after the other teams were gasping for air. This sort of driving was what our car was designed for and it was reflected in our sudden competitiveness compared to the last couple of days racing. As we were climbing the slope, about halfway, Ben spotted a green 4WD tumbling down the mountainside… Team Mud Masters, out of their comfort zone in the mountains, had lost control when their driver suffered a blackout and the subsequent, disastrous, roll down to the bottom of the mountain had put and end to their ability to continue on with the race!
We arrived at our basecamp at the top of the volcano where we were treated to the most beautiful sunset I’d ever seen… Ben and I just sat and watched for a good ten minutes before setting up camp for the night. It was a shame that six teams had fallen prior to the completion of day three and would never get to share in the beauty of this moment…
RIP
Team Paginza 622
Team Mud Masters
TO BE CONTINUED