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!
2 comments:
I've linked your blog to the Grumpy Goat's 'interesting websites' list.
See you at the Desert Challenge.
]}:-{>
Hi, I have been reading this blog then I am a fan and enjoy your article.
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