- Title: USA: AN AUTOMOBILE WEEK-LONG ENDURANCE TEST ENDS WITH A TOSS OF A COIN
- Date: 3rd January 1998
- Summary: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES (JANUARY 03, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. SLV OF CONTESTANTS HOLDING ON TO CAR 0.08 2. SV CONTESTANT RICK WOODWORTH HOLDING ON TO VEHICLE 0.20 3. SLV CONTESTANTS' WIVES SITTING NEARBY 0.24 4. SLV MEDIA SURROUNDING CONTESTANTS (2 SHOTS) 0.33 5. CU SIGN ANNOUNCING "MAZDA MILLENIA HANDS-ON CONTEST" 0.37 6. SV OF CONTESTANT FRANK GILROY LEANING ON CAR (2 SHOTS) 0.54 7. MCU CONTESTANT WOODWORTH SAYING: "FRANK AND I HAVE BEEN HAVING A BALL, ABSOLUTELY, YEAH( YOU KNOW, IT IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS, EACH ONE ONE OF US, AS DISAPPOINTED AS WE WILL BE IF WE DO NOT WIN THIS, WE ARE GOING TO BE HAPPY FOR THE OTHER ONE. HE IS A GREAT GUY, HE HAS GOT A WONDERFUL FAMILY, IF HE GETS THE CAR, GREAT. IT IS... IT IS ONLY A CAR, IT IS NOT LIFE IS A CAR, YOU KNOW." (ENGLISH) 1.17 8. SV CROWD CHANTING "TWO CARS... TWO CARS" 1.23 9. SLV CONTEST SPONSOR ANNOUNCING END OF CONTEST, PAN TO SV WOODWORTH AND GILROY HUGGING 1.36 10.SV CROWD APPLAUDS 1.40 11.SLV CONTEST SPONSOR TOSSES COIN INTO AIR AND CALLS "HEADS" 2.00 12.SV FRANK GILROY, WHO WON THE CAR AS A RESULT OF THE COIN TOSS, SEEN ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SCREEN, AND THE LOSING CONTESTANT, RICK WOODWORTH, ON THE RIGHT 2.03 13.SV WINNER FRANK GILROY SAYING, " AFTER WHAT WE WENT THROUGH, WE BOTH DESERVE THAT CAR AND THAT CHANT MADE THE WHOLE THING WORTH IT." (ENGLISH) 2.14 14.SV OF GILROY AND HIS WIFE TRACY INSIDE CAR (2 SHOTS) 2.27 Initials P3 S3 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 18th January 1998 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVACDRJQGL9MKNNM75F08DEU1YE4
- Story Text: It may have been somewhat anti-climatic,but in the end it was the toss of a coin that on Saturday (January 3), decided the winner of a new automobile in a week-long endurance test.
There is something of a cruel irony to it. Rick Woodworth and Frank Gilroy spent the past six days never more than a fingertip away from a $30,000 Mazda Millenia.
They ate touching the Millenia, they slept touching the Millenia and they passed time -- hour upon hour -- right there keeping in touch with the Millenia. All in hope of winning the keys to the luxury car which was up for grabs as part of a promotion at the Washington automobile show.
It takes a certain stamina for a restless man to station himself next to an object and never lose contact with it -- not for a moment and not for the breadth of a hair. How to sleep? Leg wrapped around tailpipe? Knee wedged into chassis? These are the decisions that faced Rick Woodworth and Frank Gilroy for six days.
Contestants were not allowed any form of entertainment: music, reading, writing or drawing. Neither were they allowed to shower or change clothing. There were given 15 minute breaks every three hours and their food was supplied by their spouses and relatives who were forced to go home every day at 1800 EDT (2300 GMT).
Woodworth could not outlast Gilroy and Gilroy could not outdo Woodworth.
Nevertheless, the two men became friends during the long tiresome hours of those six days. Woodworth said that they were "having a ball," and that despite the disappointment one would feel if the other won the car, "we are going to be happy for the other guy," adding that Gilroy was "a great guy, he has a wonderful family. If he gets the car great. It is only a car, it is not life," he said.
But in the end, the contest was decided by the arbitrary toss of a one dollar coin.
Gilroy called heads and that's just how it landed. His eyes welled with tears at the thought of what they had both endured and the feeling that they both deserved that automobile. And the loser, Woodworth, was most likely driven home by his wife in their "family van," as she had told Reuters.
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