The finalists for TReK 2020, to be held in Palm Springs, California, have been announced. Trials were held in September at The Biltmore in Asheville, North Carolina, where 53 teams were pitted against each other in a test of off-road skill and outdoors ability.
Those challenges included rock crawling, vehicle maneuvering skills, communications challenges, recovery exercises, water fording, and other physical and mental challenges. Each of the 53 participating dealers was given an identically-equipped Discovery 5, outfitted with winches, recovery boards, lights, and off-road tires.
Participants in each team came from all departments of their dealerships. Sales representatives, service staff, and technicians came together to combine their skills.
The eight finalists come from dealers across the United States and Canada. The finalist dealerships are:
- Land Rover Alexandria (Alexandria, Virginia)
- Land Rover Baton Rouge (Baton Rouge, Louisiana)
- Land Rover Buckhead (Atlanta, Georgia)
- Land Rover Columbia (Columbia, South Carolina)
- Land Rover Edmonton (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada)
- Land Rover Fairfield (Bridgeport, Connecticut)
- Land Rover Minneapolis (Golden Valley, Minnesota)
- Land Rover Roaring Fork (Glenwood Springs, Colorado)
At the finals in January, they will pit against each other to see which dealership becomes the TReK 2020 champion, using the brand-new Defender. TReK originally ran from 1996 to 2003 in North America, and its return alongside the return of the Defender gives hope to somewhat of a renaissance of what many consider Land Rover's modern high-water mark in the 1990s.
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