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 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.

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.

We had a rally car!