OK, I stand corrected. I should have finished reading 'Daughter of the Desert' before making references to Gertrude Bell, who was in fact the second (not first) European woman to visit Hail. In 1913 she was effectively imprisoned there whilst the Rashid clan indulged in their favourite pastime, viz. plotting against and murdering each other. Small wonder that she favoured the Sauds as a more suitable tribe to rule the nascent Kingdom.
The question is, how do they feel about women now? The Saudi Motorsport Federation have to make a simple but unpalatable decision: allow Sheila to compete as my co-driver, or have the event excluded from the FIA calendar. The ball is in their court, and we await developments.
Meanwhile, I took the race car out for what us rallyists call a 'shakedown' - basically an excuse to go out for a blat in the desert. I was accompanied by Nick Edwards, who has left his job as a rally driving instructor at Silverstone to take up work at the Dubai Autodrome, and hopefully to advance his rally driving career. We drove a couple of stages of the 1000 Dunes Rally, then the first two stages of the recent Dubai International Rally, to give him an idea about the terrain of local events, then back home across country near Al Maha Resort. We were fortunate to meet some Emiratis who were training their falcons for another 'big race' - the Abu Dhabi Falcon 400m! Our passing alarmed some gazelle, which bounded off across the dunes - it's always good to see wildlife. As regards the car, there are a couple of minor issues to sort out, but the it's pretty much ready for the Hail Baja.
Having worked out how much it would cost to fly there and send the race car by truck, I decided it made more sense to spend a bit extra and buy a decent trailer from Ifor Williams in the UK. It will be in a container which arrives in Dubai on 10th January - inshallah. Then we'll use Sheila's Supercharged Prado to tow the Patrol on its trailer the 1800km to Hail over two days. As an added adventure, we hope to make a side-trip after the rally to Madain Saleh, 400km west of Hail, to visit the spectacular Nabataean tombs.
For now, nothing much to do but wait and see. Once I have news from Hail, you'll be the first to know!
These are the voyages of the starship 'Newtrix'. Its multi-year mission: to compete in any rally within striking distance of Dubai, and to acquire shiny trophies. To boldly go wherever this quest may take us, as long as we can be home in time for tea.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
In the footsteps of Gertrude Bell
Since the Challenge, the race car has resided at Carwise, where Rick has been rebuilding the damaged right wing. After a lot of welding and reinforcement, the battery is now supported from the chassis rail on a resilient mount, so that the cantilever load on the inner wing is removed. This should prevent any recurrence of bodywork failure in this area. The mudflaps have been replaced with lighter, more flexible material which should be less susceptible to damage, and an improved mounting for the Maxtrax has been installed. Finally, the spare wheel mounts have been modified to allow easier access for the wider 285 section tyres.
We had expected to compete in the final round of the local UAE 4x4 rally series in Ras Al Khaimah in November, but the event was postponed at the last minute. A subsequent meeting at ATC (apex motorsport body and FIA delegate) with EMSF (local rally organiser) revealed that EMSF was in financial difficulties. Mohd Bin Sulayem now has the unenviable task in the present economic climate of asking the Dubai government for extra cash to fund the organisation. A more cost-effective format for rallies was proposed by John Spiller, which met with general approval, and the drivers lobbied for a calendar of 6 local events instead of the current 3. Adding to this the UAEDC and the Saudi Hail Baja, we would potentially have one event per month through the winter season, providing far greater exposure for the sponsors on whom the sport largely depends. The future of saloon car rallies, however, is in the balance – poor attendance has made them unviable, and none of the saloon car drivers attended the meeting. So far nothing further has been announced and the entire local rally scene remains in limbo.
The 3rd edition of the Hail Baja has now been announced, and will run from 26th-29th January 2009. Last year the event became part of the FIA International Cross Country Baja Championship, but we were informed that no women would be allowed to compete – in contravention of stated FIA policy. Since we weren’t ready anyway, the issue was moot, but this year we have decided to enter and see what happens. Good news was provided indirectly by Derek Ledger, the FIA regional representative for the Middle East, who advised that a female co-driver would be accepted as long as they didn’t drive on the public roads. So hopefully, we’ll be competing in this event, which comprises a short prologue and two legs of 200 and 265km – rather like a mini-UAEDC. Many potential competitors will be otherwise engaged on the Dakar, and other local entrants have decided they can’t spare the time and/or the cash to do it. Our friends Team Saluki (Mark Powell) and Spirit of the Desert (Fadi Melki) are planning to compete, and we’ll maybe share transport costs.
Hail is a provincial centre some 700km north of Riyadh, and almost 1800km from Dubai. Mainly agricultural, the Baja is clearly a major event there and last year’s were given a very warm welcome, with huge crowds turning out to support the rally. A female co-driver will definitely be a first, in this deeply conservative heartland of a traditional Islamic kingdom.
So who was Gertrude Bell? She was a Victorian lady, brought up to a life of privilege as the daughter of a steel magnate. Intelligent and rebellious, she spent much of her life exploring the then Ottoman Empire, the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, and became deeply involved in the complex politics of the region, along with her contemporary, T.E. Lawrence. She was almost certainly the first western woman to visit the location of our next rally – Hail.
We had expected to compete in the final round of the local UAE 4x4 rally series in Ras Al Khaimah in November, but the event was postponed at the last minute. A subsequent meeting at ATC (apex motorsport body and FIA delegate) with EMSF (local rally organiser) revealed that EMSF was in financial difficulties. Mohd Bin Sulayem now has the unenviable task in the present economic climate of asking the Dubai government for extra cash to fund the organisation. A more cost-effective format for rallies was proposed by John Spiller, which met with general approval, and the drivers lobbied for a calendar of 6 local events instead of the current 3. Adding to this the UAEDC and the Saudi Hail Baja, we would potentially have one event per month through the winter season, providing far greater exposure for the sponsors on whom the sport largely depends. The future of saloon car rallies, however, is in the balance – poor attendance has made them unviable, and none of the saloon car drivers attended the meeting. So far nothing further has been announced and the entire local rally scene remains in limbo.
The 3rd edition of the Hail Baja has now been announced, and will run from 26th-29th January 2009. Last year the event became part of the FIA International Cross Country Baja Championship, but we were informed that no women would be allowed to compete – in contravention of stated FIA policy. Since we weren’t ready anyway, the issue was moot, but this year we have decided to enter and see what happens. Good news was provided indirectly by Derek Ledger, the FIA regional representative for the Middle East, who advised that a female co-driver would be accepted as long as they didn’t drive on the public roads. So hopefully, we’ll be competing in this event, which comprises a short prologue and two legs of 200 and 265km – rather like a mini-UAEDC. Many potential competitors will be otherwise engaged on the Dakar, and other local entrants have decided they can’t spare the time and/or the cash to do it. Our friends Team Saluki (Mark Powell) and Spirit of the Desert (Fadi Melki) are planning to compete, and we’ll maybe share transport costs.
Hail is a provincial centre some 700km north of Riyadh, and almost 1800km from Dubai. Mainly agricultural, the Baja is clearly a major event there and last year’s were given a very warm welcome, with huge crowds turning out to support the rally. A female co-driver will definitely be a first, in this deeply conservative heartland of a traditional Islamic kingdom.
So who was Gertrude Bell? She was a Victorian lady, brought up to a life of privilege as the daughter of a steel magnate. Intelligent and rebellious, she spent much of her life exploring the then Ottoman Empire, the Levant and the Arabian peninsula, and became deeply involved in the complex politics of the region, along with her contemporary, T.E. Lawrence. She was almost certainly the first western woman to visit the location of our next rally – Hail.
Monday, November 3, 2008
31st October - UAEDC Day 5
The final day is split into two special stages, with a road liaison between. And whereas we have had generous limit times on the preceding days, the timings on Day 5 are tight because we have to get to the ceremonial finish to meet the TV schedule. The other problem is that the service point at SS5 finish is a huge distance away by tarmac, so we have planned an off-road route, which means we can’t take the 2WD pick-up. Instead, Gip will take Maurice in his FJ, and hope to get through in time, while Cesar loads up the pick-up and heads for SS6 finish.
SS5 starts with some nasty drops, one of which I manage to miscalculate, and we land hard. There’s no obvious damage, but shortly after the flexible inner wheel arch comes loose on the font right, and starts to flap around – the tyre must have touched it in our hard landing. I decide to ignore it, then seconds later the engine dies completely. No electrics – nothing. I leap out, look under the hood, nothing obviously wrong, the battery is still in place and connected. I’m in a state of panic, what the hell can be wrong? Suddenly I realize that the only thing that can kill the car this way is one of the three emergency cut-off switches - and the wheel arch liner has flapped around and hit the one on the right wing! I rip the liner off completely, re-set the switch, and sure enough the engine fires up – hurrah! I’ve lost 5 minutes, and that’s a lot on a short stage. We reach the finish without any further dramas, and Gip arrives as we’re airing up the tyres. Maurice only has time for a quick check before we’re off on the road stage to the start of SS6, which we make with only minutes to spare.
We’ve practiced SS6 a few times and feel confident that we know the route, and we make good time, continually dicing with Fadi in his gold coloured Range Rover. Finally we are into the last dune section, with many tricky low dunes, still on Fadi’s tail. We’re OK for time. Then – disaster! I high-centre the Patrol on the crest of a dune, a beginner’s error. Out with the sand ladders, do some digging – but two diagonal wheels are spinning. Out with the jack, I lift up the front right and now the rear left has some purchase on the MaxTrax. The two remaining MaxTrax go under the front right, back-to-back, lifting the wheel another 3” or so, and after dropping the wheel onto them they provide enough traction on that corner to get us moving. We have 12 minutes left on our 3-hour limit time to do 12km, but now we’re out of the dunes and into a stretch of awful tussocky dunes, littered with shrubs and impossible to drive fast. The car bangs and crashes around, we haven’t taken the time to secure the sand ladders and shovel, Sheila is shouting at me to slow down and I ignore her, the red mist is upon me and all I want to do is get to the finish within 3 hours. We emerge from the dunes and spot the line of red cones leading to a left turn between some bushes, which guides us into the finish. I slide through the turn, but it’s sharper than the drawing they gave us, and we’re outside the cones again as we exit, but now I can see the flags, I weave back onto the track and suddenly we’re there. But have we made it? HAVE WE MADE IT??
SS5 starts with some nasty drops, one of which I manage to miscalculate, and we land hard. There’s no obvious damage, but shortly after the flexible inner wheel arch comes loose on the font right, and starts to flap around – the tyre must have touched it in our hard landing. I decide to ignore it, then seconds later the engine dies completely. No electrics – nothing. I leap out, look under the hood, nothing obviously wrong, the battery is still in place and connected. I’m in a state of panic, what the hell can be wrong? Suddenly I realize that the only thing that can kill the car this way is one of the three emergency cut-off switches - and the wheel arch liner has flapped around and hit the one on the right wing! I rip the liner off completely, re-set the switch, and sure enough the engine fires up – hurrah! I’ve lost 5 minutes, and that’s a lot on a short stage. We reach the finish without any further dramas, and Gip arrives as we’re airing up the tyres. Maurice only has time for a quick check before we’re off on the road stage to the start of SS6, which we make with only minutes to spare.
We’ve practiced SS6 a few times and feel confident that we know the route, and we make good time, continually dicing with Fadi in his gold coloured Range Rover. Finally we are into the last dune section, with many tricky low dunes, still on Fadi’s tail. We’re OK for time. Then – disaster! I high-centre the Patrol on the crest of a dune, a beginner’s error. Out with the sand ladders, do some digging – but two diagonal wheels are spinning. Out with the jack, I lift up the front right and now the rear left has some purchase on the MaxTrax. The two remaining MaxTrax go under the front right, back-to-back, lifting the wheel another 3” or so, and after dropping the wheel onto them they provide enough traction on that corner to get us moving. We have 12 minutes left on our 3-hour limit time to do 12km, but now we’re out of the dunes and into a stretch of awful tussocky dunes, littered with shrubs and impossible to drive fast. The car bangs and crashes around, we haven’t taken the time to secure the sand ladders and shovel, Sheila is shouting at me to slow down and I ignore her, the red mist is upon me and all I want to do is get to the finish within 3 hours. We emerge from the dunes and spot the line of red cones leading to a left turn between some bushes, which guides us into the finish. I slide through the turn, but it’s sharper than the drawing they gave us, and we’re outside the cones again as we exit, but now I can see the flags, I weave back onto the track and suddenly we’re there. But have we made it? HAVE WE MADE IT??
The card is stamped, the finish time is recorded, but I can’t bear to look. Sheila tells me it says 2 hours 55 minutes – we’ve made it! I fall out of the car high on adrenaline and exhausted at the same time, people are congratulating us, everything becomes a blur. It’s over. After five days of excitement and disappointment, the highs and lows of rallying, it’s over. It's all over.
Later that evening, after the cermonial finish and the prize-giving dinner, we find that we are 14th overall.
Not bad for a first attempt by a bunch of amateurs!
30th October - UAEDC Day 4
Day 4 start is only a 5 minute drive from the bivouac. The route heads west, then south through some huge dunes with many difficult slip-faces and bowls. I’ve driven this stage several times and relish the challenge! We start overtaking people even before we hit the southerly leg, and then suddenly we’re into a scene of carnage – competitors vehicles everywhere, some stuck, some uncertain how to proceed. I plough in, down to a soft bowl, realize that I can’t go forwards, so make a U-turn to try and escape parallel to my entry. But I’ve lost all my momentum, and our escape attempt stalls. I hit reverse, planning to get some altitude to gain momentum for another attempt. But as I reverse, I feel the tyres start to grip – so I floor the throttle and the car shoots up the dune in reverse! Reaching the top, I calmly turn the car round and carry on, leaving a dozen drivers watching in open-mouthed astonishment at this audacious manoeuvre. As we exit the high dunes and reach the subkha to head east, I still can’t believe what I’ve done. We’ve passed almost half the field in the space of 15km.
From this point on it seems we can’t put a foot wrong. We cross each succeeding dune ridge with ease, and although some of the cars we’ve passed end up re-passing us, most of them come to grief later on, and we pass them a second time. The blue Bowler Wildcat comes past like I’m standing still, and disappears into the distance, so we’re not going to catch him. Then I see another Patrol stuck ahead of us, so I back off and reverse to find a way past him. BANG! Oh shit, where did that Pajero come from?? I’ve reversed into a car I had no idea was there. It looks like only the bumper is damaged, we shout apologies through the open door, but I don’t want to waste time getting into a post mortem right now so we head off. I feel guilty, but hey, this is rallying and dinging a bumper is hardly a hanging offence.
To the east of the Crescent now and we’re into some horribly soft white dunes, and the blinding sunlight reflects off them, giving no sense of perspective. It’s too easy to make a nasty mistake, but taking it carefully in 1st gear, our Coopers pull us through without a problem. Then it’s into some easier plains, with only occasional dune ridges, before we end up reprising the closing stage of day 1. And on the last dune of the day, there is the blue Bowler – they’ve had a stuck and are just putting the sand ladders away. I power past them, determined not to let them overtake us in the final 5km before the finish!
We know we’ve had a good day, we’ve passed so many cars and not had a single stuck. It‘s only later that we find out how good – 13th on the day! It is to be our best result of the week.
More rips are appearing in the front cross member, and Maurice and Cesar are kept busy fabricating more ironmongery to hold it together. It only has to hold for one more day..
From this point on it seems we can’t put a foot wrong. We cross each succeeding dune ridge with ease, and although some of the cars we’ve passed end up re-passing us, most of them come to grief later on, and we pass them a second time. The blue Bowler Wildcat comes past like I’m standing still, and disappears into the distance, so we’re not going to catch him. Then I see another Patrol stuck ahead of us, so I back off and reverse to find a way past him. BANG! Oh shit, where did that Pajero come from?? I’ve reversed into a car I had no idea was there. It looks like only the bumper is damaged, we shout apologies through the open door, but I don’t want to waste time getting into a post mortem right now so we head off. I feel guilty, but hey, this is rallying and dinging a bumper is hardly a hanging offence.
To the east of the Crescent now and we’re into some horribly soft white dunes, and the blinding sunlight reflects off them, giving no sense of perspective. It’s too easy to make a nasty mistake, but taking it carefully in 1st gear, our Coopers pull us through without a problem. Then it’s into some easier plains, with only occasional dune ridges, before we end up reprising the closing stage of day 1. And on the last dune of the day, there is the blue Bowler – they’ve had a stuck and are just putting the sand ladders away. I power past them, determined not to let them overtake us in the final 5km before the finish!
We know we’ve had a good day, we’ve passed so many cars and not had a single stuck. It‘s only later that we find out how good – 13th on the day! It is to be our best result of the week.
More rips are appearing in the front cross member, and Maurice and Cesar are kept busy fabricating more ironmongery to hold it together. It only has to hold for one more day..
29th October - UAEDC Day 3
Day 3 promises to be a re-run of Day 2, following a largely similar route westwards from the Madinat Zayed Road to the Ghyathi Road. But it proves to be nowhere near as difficult and the only problem is a significant steering vibration which gets worse at high speeds. I guess that it might be the steering damper, and at the first PC pass a message to our crew to get a replacement. Arriving at PC2 Service, we find that Gip has had to go as far as Madinat Zayed to find one, and is still on his way back, so we abandon the plan to replace it at service. Our mechanics look under the hood and find that their hard work re-inforcing the inner wing has been completely undone by the desert – the brackets they’ve installed are broken! They set to fabricating a new bracket from the remains of the old one, while I wait impatiently. Finally they are through and we head off again, having lost a few places in the delay.
The route once again follows much of day 2 and we cross the Liwa Crescent road with another Patrol, 238, hot on our heels. As we head along a gatch track towards the next waypoint, Sheila is watching for the GPS to indicate that we’re within 200m of it, at which point the program will index to the following waypoint. ‘Got it!’ she shouts, ‘now go left!’. Which I do – but we haven’t actually reached the waypoint and we’re now heading across country over some very rough terrain. Suddenly, we find our route to the next point blocked by the local rubbish tip! I swerve to the right, along a dune, but the damned tip is still ahead of me and I can’t avoid it. I stop the car on the downslope, and in front of me is a mess of construction debris, concrete, tarmac, branches, old washing machines, and wooden crates. It’s not pretty and there’s no easy escape. I lower the tyres to 8psi and try to remove some of the rubbish so I can turn the car round, but once it moves I’m firmly stuck at the base of the dune.
We’re stuffed. It’s ‘phone a friend’ time. I get the our exact location from the GPS and text it to anyone who might be in the area – and minutes later our old friend Mike Smith from the sweep team calls me. He and Nobby are coming down the Ghyathi Road and will be with us shortly, the bike-recovery pickup which they were escorting has broken its chassis and is now hors de combat! Sure enough they arrive and Nobby positions his Jeep to winch us out. Sadly we are trapped by an unyielding piece of concrete and I can only watch as Dh640-worth of 3-day-old tyre is ripped to shreds. After re-positioning a couple of times, we’re finally free of the tip and we set about replacing the wheel with our one remaining Cooper STT.
The sun is getting lower in the sky as we head out through some rough subkhas towards the Moreeb Road, which we have to cross before looping back round to enter the bivouac from the east. By the time we reach the road, the sun has almost gone, and Ron Thompson (the chief marshal) tells us this last 12km is the most difficult stage of the day, and are we sure we want to do it in the gathering gloom? I tell him that we haven’t gone through hell to give up now, and we set off across the road into the high dunes beyond. It’s a tough stage, and we need the headlights from the start. But somehow we manage to get through it without a stuck, and arrive at the finish in total darkness. We’re only 22nd, but it could have been much worse if not for Mike and Nobby.
Back at the bivouac once again our mechanics open the bonnet, to find that their latest bodge has held together! They set about improving it further with some more ironmongery. The cause of our wheel wobble is soon apparent – not as I’d thought the steering damper. We’d simply lost all the balance weights from our front left wheel – coincidentally the wheel we’d just replaced. The other damage is of a rather more personal nature. Both my heels are blistered and raw from continual brake/accelerator/clutch action, and my bum is a painful red mass of blisters. The seat is only an inch or so above the floor, which in turn is another inch above the exhaust and my arse is getting barbequed. So after a shower I head off to the medical tent, where I am shown the correct military technique for dressing heels with a gaffer-tape bandage, and given some steroid cream for my nether portions. Neil, the chief M.O., gives me some gel cooling pads which can be frozen, and they are exactly the right size to fit under my seat pad! These will provide considerable relief from the heat over the next 2 days.
After a final check on the car, and a discussion with Ian and Gip to agree who goes where for Day 4, we head for bed.
The route once again follows much of day 2 and we cross the Liwa Crescent road with another Patrol, 238, hot on our heels. As we head along a gatch track towards the next waypoint, Sheila is watching for the GPS to indicate that we’re within 200m of it, at which point the program will index to the following waypoint. ‘Got it!’ she shouts, ‘now go left!’. Which I do – but we haven’t actually reached the waypoint and we’re now heading across country over some very rough terrain. Suddenly, we find our route to the next point blocked by the local rubbish tip! I swerve to the right, along a dune, but the damned tip is still ahead of me and I can’t avoid it. I stop the car on the downslope, and in front of me is a mess of construction debris, concrete, tarmac, branches, old washing machines, and wooden crates. It’s not pretty and there’s no easy escape. I lower the tyres to 8psi and try to remove some of the rubbish so I can turn the car round, but once it moves I’m firmly stuck at the base of the dune.
We’re stuffed. It’s ‘phone a friend’ time. I get the our exact location from the GPS and text it to anyone who might be in the area – and minutes later our old friend Mike Smith from the sweep team calls me. He and Nobby are coming down the Ghyathi Road and will be with us shortly, the bike-recovery pickup which they were escorting has broken its chassis and is now hors de combat! Sure enough they arrive and Nobby positions his Jeep to winch us out. Sadly we are trapped by an unyielding piece of concrete and I can only watch as Dh640-worth of 3-day-old tyre is ripped to shreds. After re-positioning a couple of times, we’re finally free of the tip and we set about replacing the wheel with our one remaining Cooper STT.
The sun is getting lower in the sky as we head out through some rough subkhas towards the Moreeb Road, which we have to cross before looping back round to enter the bivouac from the east. By the time we reach the road, the sun has almost gone, and Ron Thompson (the chief marshal) tells us this last 12km is the most difficult stage of the day, and are we sure we want to do it in the gathering gloom? I tell him that we haven’t gone through hell to give up now, and we set off across the road into the high dunes beyond. It’s a tough stage, and we need the headlights from the start. But somehow we manage to get through it without a stuck, and arrive at the finish in total darkness. We’re only 22nd, but it could have been much worse if not for Mike and Nobby.
Back at the bivouac once again our mechanics open the bonnet, to find that their latest bodge has held together! They set about improving it further with some more ironmongery. The cause of our wheel wobble is soon apparent – not as I’d thought the steering damper. We’d simply lost all the balance weights from our front left wheel – coincidentally the wheel we’d just replaced. The other damage is of a rather more personal nature. Both my heels are blistered and raw from continual brake/accelerator/clutch action, and my bum is a painful red mass of blisters. The seat is only an inch or so above the floor, which in turn is another inch above the exhaust and my arse is getting barbequed. So after a shower I head off to the medical tent, where I am shown the correct military technique for dressing heels with a gaffer-tape bandage, and given some steroid cream for my nether portions. Neil, the chief M.O., gives me some gel cooling pads which can be frozen, and they are exactly the right size to fit under my seat pad! These will provide considerable relief from the heat over the next 2 days.
After a final check on the car, and a discussion with Ian and Gip to agree who goes where for Day 4, we head for bed.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
28th October – UAEDC Day 2
Days 2, 3 and 4 are rated as the most difficult of the event. Our start on day 2 is inauspicious – only a few km from the start I manage to drop the Patrol into a Patrol-sized hole, and can only watch as all the remaining autos pass us by. From our 15th place start, we’re now flat last, and still trying to dig the truck out of its hole. Finally, with the sand ladders in place and the tyres down to 12psi, she comes free – just as the sweep team arrive! Sadly one of my new MaxTrax has buried itself in the dune and we don’t have time to hunt for it, so I ask John Mitchell-Ross to waypoint the spot, so that we can come back another day and recover it. We carry on, but the stress of the recovery has taken its toll on Sheila and she requires a quick chunder-stop soon after. This rather sets the tone for the day, and we manage to get stuck again at a point where several cars are already stuck and a sweep team is sorting it out. Thankfully John Tan gives our recovery priority and we’re out quickly, only to get stuck a few hundred meters ahead – I’ve accidentally put the transfer box from 4-low to 2-high instead of 4-high! But now it’s stalled and although the starter turns it’s not catching. I check the fuses controlling the ECU, pulling each one out, and they look fine. But when I replace them, the car fires up – it’s a miracle! Our final stuck is on a soft side-slope above a farm fence, where I manage to stall the engine, and I have to leave the engine to cool before the starter will turn over. More time is wasted getting the sand ladders out and deflating the tyres to 8psi, but finally I manage to reverse it through a barbed-wire fence, with one tyre off the rim. Replacing the wheel and disentangling the barbed wire takes more time, and when we finally reach PC4 we’re told that the final stage has been closed 15 minutes previously. We are despondent as we head home on the tarmac, we are the 21st vehicle to arrive and the first to be time-barred, and we make the mistake of not visiting the finish to get our card stamped. This omission will cost us some 5 hours of penalties – had we done so, we’d have ‘completed’ in limit time and got only 15-minute penalties for each of the missed waypoints in the final stage. It’s a mistake to learn from.
Back at the bivouac, it’s time for more repairs to the inner wing, as well as replacement of the steering tie-rod. We end up as 27th on the day, it’s a disappointing end to a difficult day – but we’re still in the race.
Back at the bivouac, it’s time for more repairs to the inner wing, as well as replacement of the steering tie-rod. We end up as 27th on the day, it’s a disappointing end to a difficult day – but we’re still in the race.
27th October – UAEDC Day 1
5.30am and we’re up and away, headed out through the early morning traffic to the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi for the ceremonial start. Our cars have to be in position between 7.30 and 8.30am, and while we await our turn to start we suit up. We avail ourselves of the hotel facilities, drawing strange looks from the smartly attired patrons of this exclusive 5-star establishment. Finally we’re away on a short road stage to the outskirts of the city, where the special stage starts. Cesar and Maurice have picked up the heavily loaded VW from our house, and await us at the start. Ian and Gip and the trailer were down at the bivouac the previous day setting up, and they plan to meet up with the service crew at the Service Point, halfway through the day’s stage.
I check the car again, deflate the tyres to 18psi, Sheila reviews her road book and we chat to the various competitors we know – Fadi, Glen, Mabbsy, Mark, Malcolm, and Luc and Luc, a Belgian pair that have been doing the Challenge since forever. It’s a time to renew old friendships and forge new ones – you never know when you’ll need a friend in the desert. There are three vehicles behind us which should be much quicker than us – Mabbsy’s FJ, Mark’s Team Saluki Buggy and a mammoth Kamaz 4911 truck. At some point they will surely get past us, and we just want it to be as painless as possible. Having a turbo-diesel pantechnicon inches away from my exhaust, driven by three homicidal vodka-fuelled Russians, is a bowel-loosening experience which I can do without.
As we line up at the start it’s a bizarre feeling to be on the ‘other side’ from the marshals with whom we’re worked over the years. They are all friends, and they wish us good luck as the seconds tick by towards our start. 3….2….1….and we’re off, the straight-six 4.8 making a lovely sound. We settle into what has been billed as an easy first day, plenty of gatch and sand tracks with a few dune sections. We get passed by Team FJ and Team Saluki , but we in turn pass Wolfgang’s Pajero within the first few km. Arriving at PC1, the Saluki is stuck in some soft sand, clearly unable to re-start from the passage control. We can’t believe our luck! There’s no need to stop at service, the Patrol is running sweetly, and we push on through the stage. Towards the end, we pass a few more autos in the soft HP section, and feel happy with our day’s work at the finish. Back at the bivouac, I’m astonished to find that we’re 15th overall – how did that happen? The Saluki is still out in the desert with engine problems, and sadly Tim has been medevac-ed out with a back injury from a hard landing in the FJ. Neither vehicle will feature in the remaining four days of rallying.
The mechanics set to work changing the oil for fully-synthetic, and discover that the front right inner wing is cracking up, allowing the battery tray to tilt alarmingly towards the alternator. They effect the first of what will be numerous repairs to this area. We commandeer a tent, attend the drivers' briefing, have dinner, and Sheila works on the next day's roadbook. Our inflatable mattress beckons and we sleep soundly. One down, four to go...
I check the car again, deflate the tyres to 18psi, Sheila reviews her road book and we chat to the various competitors we know – Fadi, Glen, Mabbsy, Mark, Malcolm, and Luc and Luc, a Belgian pair that have been doing the Challenge since forever. It’s a time to renew old friendships and forge new ones – you never know when you’ll need a friend in the desert. There are three vehicles behind us which should be much quicker than us – Mabbsy’s FJ, Mark’s Team Saluki Buggy and a mammoth Kamaz 4911 truck. At some point they will surely get past us, and we just want it to be as painless as possible. Having a turbo-diesel pantechnicon inches away from my exhaust, driven by three homicidal vodka-fuelled Russians, is a bowel-loosening experience which I can do without.
As we line up at the start it’s a bizarre feeling to be on the ‘other side’ from the marshals with whom we’re worked over the years. They are all friends, and they wish us good luck as the seconds tick by towards our start. 3….2….1….and we’re off, the straight-six 4.8 making a lovely sound. We settle into what has been billed as an easy first day, plenty of gatch and sand tracks with a few dune sections. We get passed by Team FJ and Team Saluki , but we in turn pass Wolfgang’s Pajero within the first few km. Arriving at PC1, the Saluki is stuck in some soft sand, clearly unable to re-start from the passage control. We can’t believe our luck! There’s no need to stop at service, the Patrol is running sweetly, and we push on through the stage. Towards the end, we pass a few more autos in the soft HP section, and feel happy with our day’s work at the finish. Back at the bivouac, I’m astonished to find that we’re 15th overall – how did that happen? The Saluki is still out in the desert with engine problems, and sadly Tim has been medevac-ed out with a back injury from a hard landing in the FJ. Neither vehicle will feature in the remaining four days of rallying.
The mechanics set to work changing the oil for fully-synthetic, and discover that the front right inner wing is cracking up, allowing the battery tray to tilt alarmingly towards the alternator. They effect the first of what will be numerous repairs to this area. We commandeer a tent, attend the drivers' briefing, have dinner, and Sheila works on the next day's roadbook. Our inflatable mattress beckons and we sleep soundly. One down, four to go...
Saturday, November 1, 2008
The Big Day approaches
24th October
Friday was documentation day, when all teams collect their rally documents and equipment from rally HQ at Mina Seyahi. We decided to go down early, and were through by 10am, having signed for our rented GPS, Iritrak and Sentinel equipment, and taken our rally stickers and service road book. We met up with an old friend Alan ‘Robbo’ Roberts from Australia, taking time out from his epic England-to-Australia bike ride to take part in the Challenge. (Check out his amazing exploits at http://hardwayhome.blogspot.com) Everything had to be fitted in time for Saturday’s scrutineering, so that took up the rest of the day. Our car number was 237, seeded 37th out of 40 cars, with another 3 trucks making a total of 43 autos.
25th October
Our scrutineering appointment was at 4.30pm, when our vehicle and all the equipment is checked to ensure compliance with FIA regulations. This is always a nervous time, but finally our Patrol was declared OK to race. The one thing we’d missed was to order a push-button switch for the Sentinel system – this is a car-to-car warning system, enabling competitors to warn another vehicle that they wish to overtake, or to warn that they are stuck in a dangerous position on rally route. Fortunately I had enough tools with me to wire up the new switch temporarily so that the system could be tested.
26th October
Prologue day! But first we had to pack up the service truck and the trailer, so Ian and Gip were kept busy sorting out what needed to be on which vehicle, while I uploaded waypoints from the service book to the GPS units, and Sheila took the dogs to the kennel. We have three support vehicles – Gip’s FJ with the trailer, Ian driving Sheila’s Prado, and the VW service truck.
There had been some speculation about the venue for this spectator stage which would determine the start order for the event proper. Last year’s venue was now a building site, and other alternatives had been considered and rejected. Finally we ended up using the Jebel Ali MotoCross circuit, a tight and twisty circuit which obviously suited the motos much better than the autos. The prologue was run in reverse seeding order, meaning we would be one of the first autos to tackle it. Walking the route we knew we’d struggle with our wide turning circle, and we were right – it was a bit of a disaster! Our only consolation was that we’d made up 4 places on our seeding, and the highly-favoured Team FJ and Team Saluki had fared even worse – they’d be starting behind us!
But as we got back to the race car after watching the rest of the competitors tackle the stage, we found that the front two tyres were completely flat – they’d obviously come off the bead as we’d gone round, and now refused to seal. We had to change both of them for our spares, and I knew that I’d made a mistake relying on cross-ply block tread tyres without tubes, as Saeed had always used. We had to change tyre strategy, it was already nearly 7pm, and we had to be in Abu Dhabi by 8.30am tomorrow. And the traffic coming back from Jebel Ali was stationary – how could we possibly get new tyres and have them fitted in time?
As I inched towards Dubai through a constipated mass of vehicles, Sheila got on the phone. I needed six new Cooper STT tyres, 285x75 R16, and tomorrow was no good. The Cooper importer is Renaissance Trading, who had always been very helpful in the past. But Jimmy, the manager, said he had them in his warehouse in Sharjah which was closed, and anyway his driver was off sick, and where would we find to fit them at this time of night? Come back tomorrow. But Sheila persisted, explaining why we had to have them tonight. Finally Jimmy rang back. He had five tyres in the showroom, and his second driver was prepared to come in specially and deliver them it we’d pay him something extra. So we agreed that he’d deliver them to a tyre fitting place in Jumeirah by 8.30pm where we’d meet him, and we continued to battle our way through the glacial traffic towards Dubai. I dropped Sheila off at home before continuing to Jumeirah, and met Jimmy’s driver. It was 8.30pm, but although City Tyres closed at 9.00pm they weren’t interested in doing any more work that day. So off we headed to Satwa, where Abdullah from King of Tyres was only too happy to fit and balance them. I reached home at 10.30pm, where Sheila had pretty much finished our packing so that we could set out early for the ceremonial start at Abu Dhabi the following morning. Sleep was elusive, my nerves were shot with the last minute tyre panic and I worried about 101 things that could go wrong with the truck during the race.
Friday was documentation day, when all teams collect their rally documents and equipment from rally HQ at Mina Seyahi. We decided to go down early, and were through by 10am, having signed for our rented GPS, Iritrak and Sentinel equipment, and taken our rally stickers and service road book. We met up with an old friend Alan ‘Robbo’ Roberts from Australia, taking time out from his epic England-to-Australia bike ride to take part in the Challenge. (Check out his amazing exploits at http://hardwayhome.blogspot.com) Everything had to be fitted in time for Saturday’s scrutineering, so that took up the rest of the day. Our car number was 237, seeded 37th out of 40 cars, with another 3 trucks making a total of 43 autos.
25th October
Our scrutineering appointment was at 4.30pm, when our vehicle and all the equipment is checked to ensure compliance with FIA regulations. This is always a nervous time, but finally our Patrol was declared OK to race. The one thing we’d missed was to order a push-button switch for the Sentinel system – this is a car-to-car warning system, enabling competitors to warn another vehicle that they wish to overtake, or to warn that they are stuck in a dangerous position on rally route. Fortunately I had enough tools with me to wire up the new switch temporarily so that the system could be tested.
26th October
Prologue day! But first we had to pack up the service truck and the trailer, so Ian and Gip were kept busy sorting out what needed to be on which vehicle, while I uploaded waypoints from the service book to the GPS units, and Sheila took the dogs to the kennel. We have three support vehicles – Gip’s FJ with the trailer, Ian driving Sheila’s Prado, and the VW service truck.
There had been some speculation about the venue for this spectator stage which would determine the start order for the event proper. Last year’s venue was now a building site, and other alternatives had been considered and rejected. Finally we ended up using the Jebel Ali MotoCross circuit, a tight and twisty circuit which obviously suited the motos much better than the autos. The prologue was run in reverse seeding order, meaning we would be one of the first autos to tackle it. Walking the route we knew we’d struggle with our wide turning circle, and we were right – it was a bit of a disaster! Our only consolation was that we’d made up 4 places on our seeding, and the highly-favoured Team FJ and Team Saluki had fared even worse – they’d be starting behind us!
But as we got back to the race car after watching the rest of the competitors tackle the stage, we found that the front two tyres were completely flat – they’d obviously come off the bead as we’d gone round, and now refused to seal. We had to change both of them for our spares, and I knew that I’d made a mistake relying on cross-ply block tread tyres without tubes, as Saeed had always used. We had to change tyre strategy, it was already nearly 7pm, and we had to be in Abu Dhabi by 8.30am tomorrow. And the traffic coming back from Jebel Ali was stationary – how could we possibly get new tyres and have them fitted in time?
As I inched towards Dubai through a constipated mass of vehicles, Sheila got on the phone. I needed six new Cooper STT tyres, 285x75 R16, and tomorrow was no good. The Cooper importer is Renaissance Trading, who had always been very helpful in the past. But Jimmy, the manager, said he had them in his warehouse in Sharjah which was closed, and anyway his driver was off sick, and where would we find to fit them at this time of night? Come back tomorrow. But Sheila persisted, explaining why we had to have them tonight. Finally Jimmy rang back. He had five tyres in the showroom, and his second driver was prepared to come in specially and deliver them it we’d pay him something extra. So we agreed that he’d deliver them to a tyre fitting place in Jumeirah by 8.30pm where we’d meet him, and we continued to battle our way through the glacial traffic towards Dubai. I dropped Sheila off at home before continuing to Jumeirah, and met Jimmy’s driver. It was 8.30pm, but although City Tyres closed at 9.00pm they weren’t interested in doing any more work that day. So off we headed to Satwa, where Abdullah from King of Tyres was only too happy to fit and balance them. I reached home at 10.30pm, where Sheila had pretty much finished our packing so that we could set out early for the ceremonial start at Abu Dhabi the following morning. Sleep was elusive, my nerves were shot with the last minute tyre panic and I worried about 101 things that could go wrong with the truck during the race.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
22nd October 2008 - Meet the Team
So let me introduce to youThe act you've known for all these years....
Top left: Cesar Marquez, engineer with Al Thika Packaging, who’ll be driving the VW service truck each day and assisting Maurice to keep our wheels rolling by working all hours. Claims to be looking forward to the experience (which means he has no idea what he’s let himself in for).
Bottom left: Maurecio (Maurice) De La Vega, mechanic with Carwise garage, who has been working on the race car for the past 9 months. Well, not the whole 9 months obviously – it just seems that way. That's probably why he looks so miserable.
Top right: Charles ‘Gip’ Kemp, who is taking time off from his day job supplying equipment to the oil industry. Comes from Idaho, lives in Sri Lanka, and works for a UAE/Oman based company. Gip has promised to wear clothes ‘most of the time’ to avoid frightening the local population, and will be driving his blue FJ Cruiser. Claims to know one end of a spanner from the other, and may be forced to prove it.
Bottom right: Ian Cooper, a director of Cracknell, the world’s largest landscape architects, will be the main contact point for the team. Ian plans to enhance the bivouac with some hard landscaping in natural stone, carefully selected low-maintenance planting and possibly a small water feature. (Since this photo was taken, Ian’s hairdresser has unfortunately exhausted all local supplies of Grecian 2000.)
Monday, October 20, 2008
20th October 2008
Thursday we decided to take Cesar – our driver/mechanic – out to show him some of the strategic locations for the Desert Challenge, based on previous years’ routes. Having never visited Liwa, it’s important that he can find the bivouac and service points each day! We covered 840km in 10 hours, and logged some useful tracks on my GPS, which he will have in the service truck. Traffic delays on the way down there have made us consider spending the Sunday night in a hotel in Abu Dhabi – it’s either that or a very early start from Dubai.
The race car is back. Carwise have found the problem with the air compressor – the tube which connects to the pressure gauge in the cockpit keeps breaking, so we’ll manage without the gauge. The seat frame has been lowered, to give me a bit more headroom clearance from the rollcage, and a footrest has been fitted. The castor correction on the front axle has also been reduced. Originally there was no compensation for the lifted suspension, and keeping is straight required constant steering corrections, which was very tiring. After we fitted the castor correction bushes, it was fine on the road but it needed too much steering effort off-road. So now we’ve compromised somewhere in between. The HANS (head and neck restraint) devices have arrived, so we also need to try these for the first time.
Friday afternoon was spend shopping for various odd and sods which we need, like a strobe torch (which I know we’ll never use, but must have) and zip-ties and gaffer tape – the two most important things any rally team needs. At the end of the rally, you can always tell the pro teams from the amateurs – the amateurs have their cars held together with grey gaffer tape, whereas the works cars are held together with colour-coordinated gaffer tape. Maybe I should re-spray the car grey…
Another off-road test on Saturday morning allowed us to get stuck (again) and self-recover using our new MaxTrax – 16 minutes this time instead of 34 minutes, so that’s over 50% improvement! Maybe I should try not getting stuck at all… The steering was fine, but the seat position wasn’t, so Saturday afternoon was spent repositioning the seat – not easy, as there is so little clearance to adjust it relative to the rollcage and the bulkhead. Finally, after drilling some new holes in the seat frame, I’m happy with it. HANS is designed to prevent whiplash injuries by preventing your head from being jerked forward in the event of an accident. Great idea, but they are hugely inconvenient, expensive, and don’t seem to provide sufficient restraint to make them effective. But it’s an FIA requirement, so I might as well stop whingeing.
Team T-shirts are arriving today, I’m awaiting the quote for the stickers, and yesterday night I borrowed Gip’s FJ (with tow hitch) and drove over to Sharjah to pick up a trailer which Sanjay (another ME4x4 mate) has kindly lent us for the duration. Gip will take that down on Sunday, loaded with stuff needed at the bivouac. Dave Aldis has lent me another GPS, so Ian Cooper will have one in his car as well. Begging and borrowing is working OK – we haven’t had to resort to stealing (yet).
5 days to go. Mabbsy’s FJ still isn’t registered, and Glen seized his gearbox in his V8 Patrol first time out at the weekend. Maybe we’re not doing so badly after all…….
The race car is back. Carwise have found the problem with the air compressor – the tube which connects to the pressure gauge in the cockpit keeps breaking, so we’ll manage without the gauge. The seat frame has been lowered, to give me a bit more headroom clearance from the rollcage, and a footrest has been fitted. The castor correction on the front axle has also been reduced. Originally there was no compensation for the lifted suspension, and keeping is straight required constant steering corrections, which was very tiring. After we fitted the castor correction bushes, it was fine on the road but it needed too much steering effort off-road. So now we’ve compromised somewhere in between. The HANS (head and neck restraint) devices have arrived, so we also need to try these for the first time.
Friday afternoon was spend shopping for various odd and sods which we need, like a strobe torch (which I know we’ll never use, but must have) and zip-ties and gaffer tape – the two most important things any rally team needs. At the end of the rally, you can always tell the pro teams from the amateurs – the amateurs have their cars held together with grey gaffer tape, whereas the works cars are held together with colour-coordinated gaffer tape. Maybe I should re-spray the car grey…
Another off-road test on Saturday morning allowed us to get stuck (again) and self-recover using our new MaxTrax – 16 minutes this time instead of 34 minutes, so that’s over 50% improvement! Maybe I should try not getting stuck at all… The steering was fine, but the seat position wasn’t, so Saturday afternoon was spent repositioning the seat – not easy, as there is so little clearance to adjust it relative to the rollcage and the bulkhead. Finally, after drilling some new holes in the seat frame, I’m happy with it. HANS is designed to prevent whiplash injuries by preventing your head from being jerked forward in the event of an accident. Great idea, but they are hugely inconvenient, expensive, and don’t seem to provide sufficient restraint to make them effective. But it’s an FIA requirement, so I might as well stop whingeing.
Team T-shirts are arriving today, I’m awaiting the quote for the stickers, and yesterday night I borrowed Gip’s FJ (with tow hitch) and drove over to Sharjah to pick up a trailer which Sanjay (another ME4x4 mate) has kindly lent us for the duration. Gip will take that down on Sunday, loaded with stuff needed at the bivouac. Dave Aldis has lent me another GPS, so Ian Cooper will have one in his car as well. Begging and borrowing is working OK – we haven’t had to resort to stealing (yet).
5 days to go. Mabbsy’s FJ still isn’t registered, and Glen seized his gearbox in his V8 Patrol first time out at the weekend. Maybe we’re not doing so badly after all…….
Monday, October 13, 2008
13th October 2008
Friday I put the new Continental Wealth Management logos on the truck – a nerve-racking affair as I have only one set and one chance to get it right. Saturday we were out again in the race car, complete with our fireproof underwear and race suits, to have another crack at doing a rally stage. Dave Aldis and Natalie kindly agreed to be our ‘sweep team’ for the event and by 0830hrs we were on the stage. Once again, we needed to cover the 166km in 3 hours to meet limit time, and we very nearly made it. If I hadn’t manage to perch it on top of a dune about 15km from the finish and spent 34 minutes digging it out, we’d have been home with 17 minutes to spare – but as it was we were 17 minutes over, which would have meant a 2 hour penalty. And trust me, I’m getting too old to be doing that much digging. Oh, and when we’d finished one of the tyres was shot, and the compressor had stopped working. Deep joy.
So Sunday I went out with the idea of buying a winch, which together with a sand anchor (which Dave offered to lend me) would enable us to self-recover. But a winch is not without disadvantages. There’s at least an extra 50 kg dragging the front suspension down, plus the weight of the sand anchor, plus the worry that the current it draws can flatten the battery or worse, damage the alternator – a worry that can only be removed by fitting a 2nd battery. More weight, more cost. So I discussed the matter with Chris Cargill over at Icon and he suggested that I try his MaxTrax sand ladders. Having seen and used various types I was skeptical – most are too heavy or too difficult to use, or just plain useless in deep sand. But the video was pretty convincing, they were a whole lot cheaper and lighter than a winch, so I bought a set. If we’re lucky, they’ll do the job when we need them. If we’re really lucky, we won’t need them. Now I need to mount them such that they are quick and easy to deploy – add that to the ‘to-do’ list.
Lists are proliferating. Lists of jobs for Carwise to do (yes, it’s back in the shop again), lists of lubes and fluids (maybe someone like Total will sponsor these?), lists of parts to get from Nissan (maybe on consignment?), lists of stuff to go down to the bivouac the day of the prologue (26th), lists of stuff to go on the service truck, more stickers to get made, t-shirts to get printed, and lists of miscellaneous odds and sods we need to buy from here and there. So many lists, so little time.
The rally has finally taken over our lives. Each year, both Tim and I have been involved in the UAEDC, but for the first time we’re both competing. Increasing amounts of ‘work-time’ are being devoted to sorting out our respective rally vehicles, while the business is fighting back with equally urgent demands on our time. With only 12 days to go before the prologue, the heat is on.
So Sunday I went out with the idea of buying a winch, which together with a sand anchor (which Dave offered to lend me) would enable us to self-recover. But a winch is not without disadvantages. There’s at least an extra 50 kg dragging the front suspension down, plus the weight of the sand anchor, plus the worry that the current it draws can flatten the battery or worse, damage the alternator – a worry that can only be removed by fitting a 2nd battery. More weight, more cost. So I discussed the matter with Chris Cargill over at Icon and he suggested that I try his MaxTrax sand ladders. Having seen and used various types I was skeptical – most are too heavy or too difficult to use, or just plain useless in deep sand. But the video was pretty convincing, they were a whole lot cheaper and lighter than a winch, so I bought a set. If we’re lucky, they’ll do the job when we need them. If we’re really lucky, we won’t need them. Now I need to mount them such that they are quick and easy to deploy – add that to the ‘to-do’ list.
Lists are proliferating. Lists of jobs for Carwise to do (yes, it’s back in the shop again), lists of lubes and fluids (maybe someone like Total will sponsor these?), lists of parts to get from Nissan (maybe on consignment?), lists of stuff to go down to the bivouac the day of the prologue (26th), lists of stuff to go on the service truck, more stickers to get made, t-shirts to get printed, and lists of miscellaneous odds and sods we need to buy from here and there. So many lists, so little time.
The rally has finally taken over our lives. Each year, both Tim and I have been involved in the UAEDC, but for the first time we’re both competing. Increasing amounts of ‘work-time’ are being devoted to sorting out our respective rally vehicles, while the business is fighting back with equally urgent demands on our time. With only 12 days to go before the prologue, the heat is on.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
October 8 2008
The UAE Desert Challenge prologue starts in 18 days time, and there are still so many jobs to do and things to buy.
HANS (head and neck restraint systems) are mandatory this year, and they are a lot cheaper in USA than elsewhere. Fortunately, my business partner Tim Ansell is co-driving for Dave Mabbs (Team FJ) and they are bringing in a load of gear from the States and have kindly offered to include our HANS in their consignment – currently winging its way across the Atlantic.
The fire extinguishers are being tested and re-certified. New logos for Continental Wealth Management are ready to be applied. I’ve modified a 2-gallon water cooler to provide a drinking water supply to us while we’re racing, and the lid is big enough that we can dump a bag of ice in there each day. The weather is cooling down, but it’s still in the mid-30s so we’ll be drinking plenty! Sheila is busy sewing on new Velcro strips to anchor the seat squabs, bless her. And we’ve bought two new awnings - one for the service crew to use at each day’s service point, and another to stay at the bivouac.
At least we are further ahead than some of our fellow competitors. Dave Mabbs’ recently acquired FJ is still not ready – so many things have had to be changed to meet FIA regulations (rather than the SCORE regs under which it previously raced in USA) and also to suit the conditions of the Desert Challenge. And Glen’s new V8-powered Patrol is still not ready
Apparently the major works teams will not be participating in this year’s Challenge, but nevertheless 40+ cars and 80+ bikes have registered to compete. There’s plenty of local interest including Fadi Melky, Team FJ, Team Saluki, and Glen Reid, so all the old rivalries are set be re-ignited!
HANS (head and neck restraint systems) are mandatory this year, and they are a lot cheaper in USA than elsewhere. Fortunately, my business partner Tim Ansell is co-driving for Dave Mabbs (Team FJ) and they are bringing in a load of gear from the States and have kindly offered to include our HANS in their consignment – currently winging its way across the Atlantic.
The fire extinguishers are being tested and re-certified. New logos for Continental Wealth Management are ready to be applied. I’ve modified a 2-gallon water cooler to provide a drinking water supply to us while we’re racing, and the lid is big enough that we can dump a bag of ice in there each day. The weather is cooling down, but it’s still in the mid-30s so we’ll be drinking plenty! Sheila is busy sewing on new Velcro strips to anchor the seat squabs, bless her. And we’ve bought two new awnings - one for the service crew to use at each day’s service point, and another to stay at the bivouac.
At least we are further ahead than some of our fellow competitors. Dave Mabbs’ recently acquired FJ is still not ready – so many things have had to be changed to meet FIA regulations (rather than the SCORE regs under which it previously raced in USA) and also to suit the conditions of the Desert Challenge. And Glen’s new V8-powered Patrol is still not ready
Apparently the major works teams will not be participating in this year’s Challenge, but nevertheless 40+ cars and 80+ bikes have registered to compete. There’s plenty of local interest including Fadi Melky, Team FJ, Team Saluki, and Glen Reid, so all the old rivalries are set be re-ignited!
September 2008
Now the team for the Desert Challenge is starting to come together. One of my engineers at Al Thika, Cesar Marquez, has agreed to join our support crew as the truck driver, Carwise’s mechanic Maurice is with us, and I’ve hijacked the company’s VW Transporter for the duration. Gip Kemp, an American friend of ours and long-time off-roading buddy, is going to help set up our camp and provide an additional ‘safety net’ while we’re racing. Finally, neighbour and long-time friend Ian Cooper has agreed to help alongside Gip. We have a team!
The rollcage mods are finished and we were itching to have another practice in the race car, so we decided to run a stage of last year’s Challenge under something close to race conditions. We’d have had 3 hours to complete the 160km stage, but most important was for Sheila to practice using the Terratrip (high-tech odometer) and the road book. She’d be using the ERTF GPS for the rally, but you can’t get hold of one of those in advance, so we’d use our trusty Garmin 278. And with Gip bringing up the rear in his FJ Cruiser, what could possibly go wrong?
Well, plenty, actually. Large parts of the route were virgin sand – completely unlike what we could expect in the event proper, when the leading vehicles would for sure give us a hand by leaving some tracks – hopefully in the right direction. And yes, we made a few navigational errors, which I compounded by getting stuck once in soft sand and having a completely unnecessary puncture. All in all we had a thorough workout, digging ourselves out and then jacking up the car to change a wheel – good practice for the event. Had we avoided these stoppages, we’d have been pretty much on target for a finish within the 3 hour limit time. And that’s important – go over limit time by a minute and you get a 2-hour penalty, which will put a big dent in your chances. Overall we felt pretty pleased with the result.
One of the things I decided during the trip would be useful was a digital compass. the rally road-book provides compass headings on each tulip diagram, and often it's a whole lot easier just to follow that heading. With help from a friend in USA I was able to source one, and have fitted that on a bracket. The two spare tyres are secured with heavy duty ratchet straps which are cumbersome to handle. Now the straps are permanently secured at one end, making them much easier to deal with. The mandatory high level brake light had disintegrated, so that has also been replaced by a more robust unit.
Things are gradually being ticked off the 'to-do' list.
August 2008
New fuel lines are fitted, along with various other minor improvements, and I have the Patrol back this weekend for a shake-down. The roll cage modifications are all agreed, we just have to find the right material (38mm OD seamless carbon-steel tube). I’ve decided to install a 5 gallon air tank in the back to give me a reserve of compressed air, I have the pressure switch and installation parts – just need to buy the tank. This weekend we’re planning to take it out for a blat to see how the cooling stands up.
And we’ve finally settled on a team name – we are NewTrix Racing. I’ve been known as ‘Ian the Dog’ since forever – so now I’m an Old Dog, and these are definitely New Tricks.
Who let the dogs out?
July 2008
By the time our Patrol was back on the road, summer had well and truly arrived. But I needed to test it properly, and that meant heading down to Liwa with friends from ME4x4, our local off-road club. Mike, Ruba, Alan and I headed south for a weekend’s shakedown in the deep desert. It was a tough weekend in 45°c temperatures, and the engine was running slightly hot – but it ran sweet as a nut. I was able to test different tyre pressures on our block-tread Dunlops and was agreeably surprised to find how well they performed at low pressure. I found I could out-climb Mike’s powerhouse V8 Land Cruiser!
A few days after my return, I planned to take the car over to Ivan’s garage for a preliminary unofficial scrutineering check. I knew the roll cage no longer met the 2008 standards, and I needed his advice on how it could be modified. However, long before I got that far, an overwhelming smell of petrol pervaded the cockpit and I had to stop and investigate. The rear end was literally awash with petrol! One of the reinforced fuel lines had split, and fuel was pouring out under 30psi pressure from the fuel pump. Miraculously, it had survived Liwa without a problem, but failed after sitting in my driveway for a week.
After Carwise had replaced all the fuel lines and fitted two heavy duty fans on the radiator, I took it over to Ivan. He didn’t know the answer about the roll cage but promised to confer with the FIA and let me know. He also pointed out a couple of other minor issues which needed attention, but nothing major.
The next weekend we erected our new shed, destined to be the repository for all rally-related stuff – axles, wheels and tyres currently cluttering up the garage. Previously owned by Mark Powell, we sweated extensively to install it on a concrete base. With the floor painted, it just needs some electrics and a gateway in the front wall to give access to the garage.
A few days after my return, I planned to take the car over to Ivan’s garage for a preliminary unofficial scrutineering check. I knew the roll cage no longer met the 2008 standards, and I needed his advice on how it could be modified. However, long before I got that far, an overwhelming smell of petrol pervaded the cockpit and I had to stop and investigate. The rear end was literally awash with petrol! One of the reinforced fuel lines had split, and fuel was pouring out under 30psi pressure from the fuel pump. Miraculously, it had survived Liwa without a problem, but failed after sitting in my driveway for a week.
After Carwise had replaced all the fuel lines and fitted two heavy duty fans on the radiator, I took it over to Ivan. He didn’t know the answer about the roll cage but promised to confer with the FIA and let me know. He also pointed out a couple of other minor issues which needed attention, but nothing major.
The next weekend we erected our new shed, destined to be the repository for all rally-related stuff – axles, wheels and tyres currently cluttering up the garage. Previously owned by Mark Powell, we sweated extensively to install it on a concrete base. With the floor painted, it just needs some electrics and a gateway in the front wall to give access to the garage.
June 2008
We were joined in Dubai by my step-daughter Luisa and her husband Darren Kirby, on holiday from their home in Spain where they were in the throes of establishing a wealth management brokerage. They both had a great time sightseeing and we took them out in the desert for a day to give them an idea about what we do. When they saw the race car languishing in the garage, Darren asked how much it would cost to sponsor us. After discussing with his partners, we ended up with a new sponsor for the driver’s side of the car – Continental Wealth Management! Their contribution would help plug the gap in our finances caused by the engine blow-out.
March 2008
Our first race had been run on fairly firm ground, a result of the winter rains. Two months later, the 1000 Dunes would be tougher. It’s the longest rally of the local series, with 10 stages spread over two days, plus the prologue, and the sand was very soft.
The prologue went OK, we were in 11th place just behind Fadi Melky in his Range Rover. Soon after the start, I noticed that the engine temperature had risen alarmingly and I backed off the throttle to cool the engine. We were struggling in the soft sand. At the end of SS2 I reduced the tyre pressures, but it was not enough, we were still running hot. Halfway through SS4 the engine note changed, and I thought we’d holed the exhaust. Shortly after, the engine packed up completely and as I got out I could see the tell-tale trail of oil on the sand behind us. Our race was well and truly over, and eventually our impromptu ‘service crew’ turned up and towed the vehicle out to the road, to await recovery back to Dubai.
The failure was about as bad as it could be. A piston had made a bid for freedom through the cylinder wall, and the crank was bent by 20°. The block could be repaired, but the crank would need replacing and the cost of a new short engine was going to be prohibitive. So in the end we bought a used engine from a fellow rally driver, Glen Reid, who was in the process of building a new rally car. The engine had been looked after and was in good condition, but nevertheless Carwise rebuilt it completely with new bearings, rings and valves. There’s no point in taking short-cuts when you’re doing a heart-transplant.
The needle on the spend-o-meter was rising inexorably...
The prologue went OK, we were in 11th place just behind Fadi Melky in his Range Rover. Soon after the start, I noticed that the engine temperature had risen alarmingly and I backed off the throttle to cool the engine. We were struggling in the soft sand. At the end of SS2 I reduced the tyre pressures, but it was not enough, we were still running hot. Halfway through SS4 the engine note changed, and I thought we’d holed the exhaust. Shortly after, the engine packed up completely and as I got out I could see the tell-tale trail of oil on the sand behind us. Our race was well and truly over, and eventually our impromptu ‘service crew’ turned up and towed the vehicle out to the road, to await recovery back to Dubai.
The failure was about as bad as it could be. A piston had made a bid for freedom through the cylinder wall, and the crank was bent by 20°. The block could be repaired, but the crank would need replacing and the cost of a new short engine was going to be prohibitive. So in the end we bought a used engine from a fellow rally driver, Glen Reid, who was in the process of building a new rally car. The engine had been looked after and was in good condition, but nevertheless Carwise rebuilt it completely with new bearings, rings and valves. There’s no point in taking short-cuts when you’re doing a heart-transplant.
The needle on the spend-o-meter was rising inexorably...
February 2008
Buying a race car is the easy bit. Once you’ve got it, the reality of having a high-maintenance mistress bites hard – in the wallet. Stuff wears out a whole lot faster when you’re pushing it to the limit, and there are always improvements to be made. Just the mandatory clothing and helmets will set you back around Dh20k. So unless you have very deep pockets, you need to find sponsors to help foot the bill. After our first race we had some live race photos, as well as a couple of trophies to show for it, and I hastily put together a prospectus and sent it off to all our suppliers – more in hope than expectation.
I’m one of the partners in Al Thika Packaging. Our business is the distribution and servicing of packaging equipment and associated equipment. To my great surprise, two of our suppliers came up trumps. Robopac from Italy supply the stretch-wrap machines we sell for pallet wrapping, and they were quick to make a contribution. Soon after, Meijer Special Equipment from the Netherlands came to the party. They make forklift attachments, including their unique RollerForks for handling unpalletised loads, and agreed to sponsor one side of the car. We thought that would give us enough cash to pay for the rest of the season and the entry costs for the UAE Desert Challenge. Little did we know how optimistic this was to prove!
I’m one of the partners in Al Thika Packaging. Our business is the distribution and servicing of packaging equipment and associated equipment. To my great surprise, two of our suppliers came up trumps. Robopac from Italy supply the stretch-wrap machines we sell for pallet wrapping, and they were quick to make a contribution. Soon after, Meijer Special Equipment from the Netherlands came to the party. They make forklift attachments, including their unique RollerForks for handling unpalletised loads, and agreed to sponsor one side of the car. We thought that would give us enough cash to pay for the rest of the season and the entry costs for the UAE Desert Challenge. Little did we know how optimistic this was to prove!
Monday, September 29, 2008
January 2008 - first rally
Carwise sorted out the immediate problems – the cut-down exhaust was replaced with a single silencer box to add some much-needed back pressure, the injectors were cleaned and the clutch cylinder resealed. We bought helmets, boots, socks, gloves, fireproof underwear, we borrowed race suits, we paid for our National Class rally licences, and we were ready for our first event!
The Umm Al Quwain Rally was the first in the annual 3-race series organized by Emirates Motor Sport Federation. There were 2 stages, each run 3 times, plus the prologue. This suited us, as Sheila only had to make pace notes for two different routes – and we had to agree how each hazard was to be described. It was a steep learning curve for both of us.
The Umm Al Quwain Rally was the first in the annual 3-race series organized by Emirates Motor Sport Federation. There were 2 stages, each run 3 times, plus the prologue. This suited us, as Sheila only had to make pace notes for two different routes – and we had to agree how each hazard was to be described. It was a steep learning curve for both of us.
The prologue was on Friday afternoon and consisted of a short spectator stage just off the Corniche in Umm Al Quwain - lots of tight turns and a dramatic jump in front of the grandstand. We ended up 12th fastest out of 15, so at least we weren't last.
SS3 had a tight left-hander soon after the start, which became heavily rutted. I took it too fast, and a tyre caught in the rut and came off the rim. We quickly deployed the jack and replaced the wheel with a spare, and carried on. At the service halt we reflated the spare and continued through the next two stages. During the second service stop we noticed that one wheel nut had come off, and quickly borrowed a replacement from a friend and checked that all were tight.
Now only the last two stages remained, and we felt confident of a good finish. On the final stage we were lying 10th, in line for a Dh 5000 prize, when disaster struck - the front left wheel came off! All the wheel nuts had stripped their threads and disappeared into the sand. I dug down to get the jack into position, hoisted the car up, refitted the wheel, stole some wheel nuts from the remaining three wheels and we continued at low speed, determined to get to the finish. Then the same wheel fell off again, and in a much more difficult terrain, and despite our frantic efforts to jack it up and we knew we were out of time.
The only consolation was that we won the National Class, a kind of ‘best-of-the-rest’ prize for non-finishers. Nice, but the cash would have been nicer. So, amid the gathering evening gloom we headed off to Umm Al Quwain town to buy some wheel nuts to get us home. Before the next race, I vowed to fit longer wheel studs to accommodate our thick alloy wheels – the original studs were designed for thinner steel wheels. You live and learn.
SS3 had a tight left-hander soon after the start, which became heavily rutted. I took it too fast, and a tyre caught in the rut and came off the rim. We quickly deployed the jack and replaced the wheel with a spare, and carried on. At the service halt we reflated the spare and continued through the next two stages. During the second service stop we noticed that one wheel nut had come off, and quickly borrowed a replacement from a friend and checked that all were tight.
Now only the last two stages remained, and we felt confident of a good finish. On the final stage we were lying 10th, in line for a Dh 5000 prize, when disaster struck - the front left wheel came off! All the wheel nuts had stripped their threads and disappeared into the sand. I dug down to get the jack into position, hoisted the car up, refitted the wheel, stole some wheel nuts from the remaining three wheels and we continued at low speed, determined to get to the finish. Then the same wheel fell off again, and in a much more difficult terrain, and despite our frantic efforts to jack it up and we knew we were out of time.
The only consolation was that we won the National Class, a kind of ‘best-of-the-rest’ prize for non-finishers. Nice, but the cash would have been nicer. So, amid the gathering evening gloom we headed off to Umm Al Quwain town to buy some wheel nuts to get us home. Before the next race, I vowed to fit longer wheel studs to accommodate our thick alloy wheels – the original studs were designed for thinner steel wheels. You live and learn.
In the beginning......
Where does the story begin?
I suppose you could say it began at the 2007 UAE Desert Challenge, when I casually asked Saeed Al Hameli if he’d consider renting out his Nissan Patrol to be for next year’s Challenge. He was at the time hiring it out to Andrea Mayer, a German professional rally driver whom we had met years before.
Maybe the seeds were sown when I first met Mark Powell of Team Saluki, during my first outing with our local off-road club ME4x4 in 2000. Or maybe it was 1991, when we first moved to Dubai and caught the off-roading bug with Club HAGAR (an acronym for 'Has Anybody Got A Rope').
Or was it in the ‘50s, when I can clearly remember as a young boy, seeing a Land Rover and thinking ‘when I grow up, I want to drive one of those!’ But even then, I realised that models come and go, and resigned myself to the expectation that by that time, vehicles like the Land Rover would be long since obsolete. (As with so many things, I was completely wrong about that.)
Sheila and I had been involved with UAEDC since 2001. We deciding that knowing what the rally was all about would be useful, if we were to help support Team Saluki in the following year’s event, so we volunteered as marshals. We ended up running Time Control for the starts each day, and by the end of the week we understood the lie of the land and the process of the rally. In the following years, we alternated between providing rally support to Team Saluki and various marshalling duties, culminating in being part of the elite Sweep Team for 2006 and 2007.
The Sweep Team is responsible for picking up competitors left out in the desert due to vehicular malfunction, accident or exhaustion. They trail the rally route and frequently assist competitors to recover their vehicles, although this is not strictly within their remit. By day 2 of 2007 UAEDC, we’d already assisted one particular Pajero driver several times. His recently acquired steed was under-performing, and he was not a happy camper. He eventually came to rest, stuck at the foot of a steep dune section, unable to make the ascent. After several more tries, he decided that his rally was over and prepared to abandon the Pajero – which would almost certainly mean he was out of the rally, since he was unlikely to get it recovered in time for the next day’s start. So I asked him if I could give it a try – after all, there was nothing to lose, and he readily agreed. I tried, but the clutch was clearly shot. I let the tyres down to 7psi, and after a struggle, managed to climb the dune. So I ended up driving the Pajero 70km out of the desert, while Sheila chauffeured the ex-driver in my Nissan Patrol. I don’t know what hurt him most – the fact that I could drive his gutless wonder and he couldn’t, or the fact that he was being driven out by a mere woman in a 16-year-old Patrol. Anyway, he got it back to the bivouac that night and at the end of the rally was a classified finisher.
After that experience, I was more than ever convinced that we could compete. We’d been driving Desert Challenge routes for years, both on club trips and on Sweep Team. All we needed was a vehicle that was well equipped and affordable, and Saeed’s 4.8 Patrol fitted the bill – and he wanted to sell it.
After the rally dust had settled, I took the Patrol for a 3-day test through the Liwa - the UAE's corner of the Empty Quarter, where the UAEDC is run. It wasn’t perfect – the power was down – but it had fantastic suspension and would go anywhere. We haggled, and eventually I bought it, complete with various spares, including wheels and axles.
I suppose you could say it began at the 2007 UAE Desert Challenge, when I casually asked Saeed Al Hameli if he’d consider renting out his Nissan Patrol to be for next year’s Challenge. He was at the time hiring it out to Andrea Mayer, a German professional rally driver whom we had met years before.
Maybe the seeds were sown when I first met Mark Powell of Team Saluki, during my first outing with our local off-road club ME4x4 in 2000. Or maybe it was 1991, when we first moved to Dubai and caught the off-roading bug with Club HAGAR (an acronym for 'Has Anybody Got A Rope').
Or was it in the ‘50s, when I can clearly remember as a young boy, seeing a Land Rover and thinking ‘when I grow up, I want to drive one of those!’ But even then, I realised that models come and go, and resigned myself to the expectation that by that time, vehicles like the Land Rover would be long since obsolete. (As with so many things, I was completely wrong about that.)
Sheila and I had been involved with UAEDC since 2001. We deciding that knowing what the rally was all about would be useful, if we were to help support Team Saluki in the following year’s event, so we volunteered as marshals. We ended up running Time Control for the starts each day, and by the end of the week we understood the lie of the land and the process of the rally. In the following years, we alternated between providing rally support to Team Saluki and various marshalling duties, culminating in being part of the elite Sweep Team for 2006 and 2007.
The Sweep Team is responsible for picking up competitors left out in the desert due to vehicular malfunction, accident or exhaustion. They trail the rally route and frequently assist competitors to recover their vehicles, although this is not strictly within their remit. By day 2 of 2007 UAEDC, we’d already assisted one particular Pajero driver several times. His recently acquired steed was under-performing, and he was not a happy camper. He eventually came to rest, stuck at the foot of a steep dune section, unable to make the ascent. After several more tries, he decided that his rally was over and prepared to abandon the Pajero – which would almost certainly mean he was out of the rally, since he was unlikely to get it recovered in time for the next day’s start. So I asked him if I could give it a try – after all, there was nothing to lose, and he readily agreed. I tried, but the clutch was clearly shot. I let the tyres down to 7psi, and after a struggle, managed to climb the dune. So I ended up driving the Pajero 70km out of the desert, while Sheila chauffeured the ex-driver in my Nissan Patrol. I don’t know what hurt him most – the fact that I could drive his gutless wonder and he couldn’t, or the fact that he was being driven out by a mere woman in a 16-year-old Patrol. Anyway, he got it back to the bivouac that night and at the end of the rally was a classified finisher.
After that experience, I was more than ever convinced that we could compete. We’d been driving Desert Challenge routes for years, both on club trips and on Sweep Team. All we needed was a vehicle that was well equipped and affordable, and Saeed’s 4.8 Patrol fitted the bill – and he wanted to sell it.
After the rally dust had settled, I took the Patrol for a 3-day test through the Liwa - the UAE's corner of the Empty Quarter, where the UAEDC is run. It wasn’t perfect – the power was down – but it had fantastic suspension and would go anywhere. We haggled, and eventually I bought it, complete with various spares, including wheels and axles.
We had a rally car!
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