HAIL BAJA UPDATE
Last week I picked up the 2009 international rally licences from ATC for Sheila, Lee and myself, as well as the carnets-de-passage for Sheila’s Prado and the race car. These are now required for the border crossing to Saudi Arabia, unlike previous years when a simple police permit sufficed. The visa authorisations for Lee and myself also came through, and finally today Sheila’s came through as well. So these are going into the Saudi Consulate tomorrow for stamping.
On the car front, the inbuilt QuickAir 3 compressor started making a horrible noise when we were inflating the tyres at the end of the UAEDC. I pulled it out and stripped it down, to find that the main motor shaft, about 13mm diameter, had sheared off next to the bearing! So rather than try to repair it, I have decided to install a dive cylinder and regulator. This gives us compressed air at 200bar, and will provide more than enough air than we can expect to need even for the Challenge. (Of course, having made that decision, I was then unexpectedly able to find a replacement motor for the QuickAir – typical!) So our local dive shop, Scuba Dubai, have done a great job testing the tank and installing the fittings we need.
Lee and I have done a shake-down in the car over part of the 2008 DC route, and he’s got to grips with the Terratrip and the road book. Rally gear to fit him is being begged and borrowed from various sources. Our shiny new Ifor Williams car-trailer is in the port, and Gareth will hopefully arrive with it on Monday. I need to fit a new stereo into the Prado as I fear we may run out of conversation before the 3600km trip is over, and Saudi radio is unlikely to provide any relief from the tedium!
HAPPENS-TO-THE-BEST-OF-US DEPARTMENT
Nice quote from Giniel de Villers, the South African winner of the 2009 Dakar in a VW Toureg:
"20km from the end of the stage, I crossed a sand dune and I really had bad luck waiting for me on the other side. We were in the wrong place and ditched right into a hole. I lost 20 minutes trying to get out. The front of the car is a bit bruised but the car is so sturdy... it’s incredible. I hurt my back more than I hurt the car. There was nothing I could do to avoid it. It was just bad luck. Of course, I am a bit disappointed because we have lost even more time. We just have a lot of bad luck. This is really not our Dakar!"
So next time it happens to you, console yourself with the thought that even the professionals get it wrong sometimes!
“This really is not our Dakar!” You reckon? Perhaps, reading that again from his top step of the Dakar podium, he might reflect that he was being unduly hard on himself that day!
RAK RALLY
Finally, the last event in the 2008 UAE Cross-Country Championship was held this weekend in Ras Al Khaimah. We were seeded 8th out of 12 competitors, only nine of whom showed up for the spectator prologue stage on Friday. One of them managed spectacularly to break the front drive shaft of his V8 Patrol by landing it nose first after a jump, whereas we managed a fairly tidy attempt at the twisty circuit and ended up 5th.
That left eight of us to contest three stages over some 100km on Saturday. Recent rainfall meant that the sand was firm, and we were happy to get 6th place behind the more powerful T1 vehicles – our main concern being not to break anything before Hail!
Raed Baker won the event in his tasty Mitsubishi L200 pickup, all space-frame and carbon-fibre, followed by Bin Humaidan in his V8 Toyota-engined GQ Patrol, with Glen Reid 3rd in his V8 GM-powered GU Patrol.
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.
