drupal template files in different folders for different content types
See http://drupal.org/node/1089656 for more information on the possible file names that Drupal will recognize by default.  

Drupal will not recognize contest.tpl.php as it is not one of the patterns that it recognizes.  If contest.tpl.php is an override of node.tpl.php then you should name it node--contest.tpl.php

If you want to override a page template in the same manner, see this previous post: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5194109/drupal-7-candidate-page-tpl-name-for-particular-custom-content-type-entry/5194364#5194364