AutoWeek America Adventure: A high-speed run to Vegas and a chance to win a new special-edition car

This fall is guaranteed to be filled with automotive excitement because, well, we're making it.

The inaugural AutoWeek America Adventure--a time-distance raid from Seattle to Las Vegas--will have great cars, incredible drivers, high-speed track stages . . . and the chance to win a 2011 special-edition Mopar Charger.

The run, sanctioned by the United States Auto Club, launches on Oct. 26 in the Pacific Northwest and wends its way to the City of Lights, Las Vegas, just in time for the start of the Specialty Equipment Market Association trade show.

While pit-stop specifics will not be revealed prior to the event--the start of each stage will have clues to guide competitors to the next stay-over location--the fact that the countryside is known for its scenic ocean vistas, redwood forests, high desert and wine country might give clues as to the terrain competitors will traverse. And the fact that Halloween falls on the night before the event finishes at SEMA lends itself to potential "ghostly" antics.

Winners of each day's timed stage will receive a key, and one of the keys will start a limited-edition Mopar Charger. The raid-stage winners will be brought up to the Mopar stage at SEMA and given a chance to see whether their key will fire up the not-so-stealth black Charger.

To date, 20 teams have registered for this first raid. Among the entrants are:

-- Lisa Matthews, a professional powerboat racer and world record holder as the fastest woman on water at 156 mph.

-- Brothers Mike and Mark Jenkins, who might be considered the kings of radio-controlled cars. As owners of Traxxas, a manufacturer of scale-model vehicles, they like their cars big and small. Mike has more than 100 full-size vehicles in his collection.

-- Sterling Pratz, CEO of Autonet Mobile, and Christopher Knight. Though he is teammate to Pratz, Knight might be better known as Peter Brady of the 1970s TV show The Brady Bunch.

-- AutoWeek's entry will have Dutch Mandel at the wheel at least part of the time. Otherwise, he promises to navigate, tweet and generally cause havoc along the way.

The event will be covered in a following issue of AutoWeek and in real-time at autoweek.com, and the raid will supply ideal video fodder as well.

If you're interested in being part of the inaugural AutoWeek America Adventure, be sure to check out www.theamericaadventure.com for more information.

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