WITH all 120 car slots in the hugely popular The New Paper SUVival Challenge snapped up within a week, Mr Gary Lim felt left out.
Then came the good news: The overwhelming response prompted the organisers to squeeze in 10 extra spaces for this year's Challenge.
The 34-year-old technician was ecstatic when the organisers called him last week.
"I was very happy," he said.
"At first I thought, 'Gone, I'll have to wait till next year'."
Mr Lim, a first-time SUV owner who will be taking part in his first Challenge, is now looking forward to testing the limits of his year-old Subaru Forester with his brother and team-mate Danny, 31.
With the number of entries hitting another record high, an impressive 130 SUVs with 360 participants will take part in the two-day, one-night road trip to Kuantan this weekend.
The overwhelming response meant that registration had to close earlier than planned.
To appease its enthusiastic readers, organisers The New Paper decided to allow 130 cars to go on the expedition this year, 10 more than the maximum number of cars targeted.
To squeeze in the extra spaces, the organisers did a weekend recce in Kuantan to ensure the space allocated for the challenges can hold the extra cars, and got the events company to increase manpower.
The New Paper also requested the hotel to release extra rooms for participants.
Another lucky last-minute addition was MrKwok Chee Wei, 43, who has taken part in the previous three SUVival challenges - to Desaru, Malacca and Bukit Tinggi - with his family.
His daughter Kwok Fei, 4, literally grew up with the challenge.
She was less than a year old the first time she took part.
He said: "If I had missed it, I would be so sad! It's something very fun, a family-orientated event."
Agreeing, Mr Elvin Goh, a project sales consultant, said he and his wife, childcare teacher Ng Boon Leng, will take their daughters, Ginny and Brandi, aged 6 and 2, this year.
The couple left the two children behind when they took part in the Challenge for the first time lastyear.
Said Mr Goh: "Both are now much more manageable on road trips and we decided that they should not miss out this time round."
Madam Ng is also five months' pregnant.
So the family will be focused on having fun, rather than competing in the challenges with its more than $20,000 in prizes.
At a pre-trip briefing on Monday night, representatives from all 130 teams pored intently over maps and "tulips", which are simple graphical driving instructions that will be used on the trip.
They laughed over Stage Two of the games challenge, cryptically called "Get lost in Kuantan".
Participant Jay Gui, 60, a consultant and long-distance driving and riding enthusiast, said: "I hope we get lost! Then we can see how hardcore the roads are."
He will be driving his 4-litre Jeep Wrangler.
The event will be flagged off at 6am on Saturday from Raffles Marina and the Challenge will officially begin when the SUVs cross immigration at the Second Link.
Drivers will have to hunt for answers to encrypted clues and take on challenges planted at four different checkpoints.
The team with the highest points after completing the challenges will be the winner.
The top Challenger will receive a cash prize of $2,500 and a Pioneer in-car entertainment DVD unit with touch screen panel worth $1,000.
Two winners of the Best Decorated SUV competition will each get a Holux GPS navigation device and $250 worth of shopping vouchers.
East Gear, the distributor of Holux GPS navigation device, and Champion Motors, distributor of Suzuki cars, are the main sponsors of the TNP SUVival Challenge.
The event is co-sponsored by Pioneer and YHI Yokohama.
The participants will be staying at the Swiss Garden Resort in Kuantan, along the idyllic east coast of Malaysia.
