Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge

Day 1

Sunday’s prologue ended with us in 18th place (not 14th as we’d thought) which put us one place behind the only T4 truck – an Italian team in the Iveco. Dad and Jane came with us to the ceremonial start, where Dave Pryce assumed chauffeur duty for the day. Getting to the stage start on time almost defeated us – a truck had jackknifed on the Musaffah Road and we were minutes away from missing our time control slot. However, we need not have worried as the start was delayed.

The first section consisted of graded tracks leading to the Deadcoach Gatch, a 25km long dusty track with little possibility of overtaking. As it turned out, the Iveco was way too fast for us to catch on the flat, but as soon as we left the track for some dunes, we passed it easily. As the stage continued, we passed another seven vehicles, making us (briefly) 10th overall! Then, just before PC2, disaster struck. After a slightly heavy landing, we lost 4WD and had to face the prospect of either calling in for service at PC2 or trying to complete the stage in 2WD. Knowing that it was likely to be a long job to fix, we opted to continue – and paid the price, getting horribly stuck in some soft dunes some 70km from the finish. Fortunately, the sweep team came to the rescue, not once but twice, and we arrived at the finish 11 minutes inside our 6-hour limit time to find that the finish team had disappeared! I made a quick call to rally control to inform them that we should be credited with a finish, and after the long final road stage was able to confirm our position with Jum Ali Khan and Ronan Morgan, giving us 19th place overall – one place lower than our start.

The service crew worked tirelessly to solve the problem, replacing a broken right hub and a left half-shaft, which we fortunately had in the service truck.

Day 2 is traditionally the hardest of the lot, and this was no exception. The route started on the Madinat Zayed Road, and headed west to the Ghyathi Road. We were only 5km into the stage we came over a crest, and smacked into Manfrinato’s Patrol, at the bottom of a narrow valley between two dunes. Seconds later, Mike ‘Ziggy’ Ziegler came over the same dune and car 214 became the meat in a three-car sandwich! There was no way to disentangle the vehicles without outside assistance, and once again the Sweep Team came to the rescue. Nigel McReynolds did a sterling job with his winch, and eventually all three cars were on their way, having lost a full hour. The drama continued as we managed to get stuck 20km further on, to be rescued by Ziggy, whom we’d just overtaken. After that, we were going well, but the initial hour’s stoppage meant that we were time-barred at PC2. Despondent, we aired up the tyres for the trip back to the bivouac, and decided to call in at PC4 (on the Crescent Road) and get our card stamped in the hope that it might reduce our penalties. For once, luck was on our side, because the section from PC4 to the finish was still open! So we quickly aired down again, put on our helmets and proceeded to complete the stage, which gave us a 14th place for day 2, and 12th overall.

However, the front axle was making some very unhappy noises when in 4WD, and wed spent quite some time running in 2WD to try and avoid further damage. Again the mechanics, Tony and Ray, worked to try and identify the problem, but couldn’t find a definite cause. They also removed the A/C condenser to help the cooling of the radiator, since we clearly had insufficient cooling power to handle both.

Day 3 started close to Day 2 start and followed a similar route. As soon as we started, we found that the noise from the front axle was getting worse. We had no choice but to use 4WD, so we decided to carry on and hope for the best. A tyre off the rim stopped us for about 15 minutes while we changed the wheel, but other than that we were going well. After PC 1 we headed west of the Ghyathi, and reached the mid point of the section when the 4WD noise became much worse. We’d just changed to 2WD when disaster struck once again – something let go inside the engine and we were dead. A quick look underneath told us that something had beaten its way through the sump, and all the oil was gone. Clearly our race was over.

So we called rally control on the Iritrack and they immediately sent us a helicopter to take us out of the desert. Since we had almost no mobile signal there, it was difficult to co-ordinate a recovery plan and getting us back to our service team at PC2 was the sensible thing to do. From there, Sheila took the pickup with the mechanics back to the bivouac, and myself, Rick, Tim and Abi drove back up the road to the underpass where we’d crossed the Ghyathi. We had two cars, both Patrols, to recover the race car. We entered the desert at 1315hrs and took only 45 minutes to reach the car, which Rick drove while I towed. Fortuanetly the section from there on was largely rolling dunes without many steep dunes, and by choosing our route carefully we were able to make good speed. A couple of difficult climbs halted us briefly, and we were forced to deploy our winch to pull the race car up. Finally, at 1815hrs, we exited the desert near PC2 and started back towards Moreeb.

But the drama was not yet over. As Tim trailed us back, driving Abi’s Patrol, the front left wheel fell off and skittered away into the night, while Tim fought to control the vehicle. We realized something was wrong and pulled over a kilometer or so later. Then the Iveco service truck came upon the stricken vehicle, and their mechanics helped to jack the car up and fit the spare wheel. After leaving our race car at the Liwa Guest House, we arrived back for a late dinner at the bivouac. Although we’d retired, we still gained 18th place on the day!

So our race is over. Informed opinion is that our oil pump may have broken up, so there is some hope that the engine itself may be intact. It had not gone over-temperature, nor had we revved it over the limit of 5800rpm. Only a full strip-down will tell the full story. The front axle clearly has a problem, probably in the diff. And there is a large amount of body damage to repair – including 2 new rear doors.

So what of our other friends who are competing? Ramesh and Ian, in another V8 engined Patrol, suffered a disastrous fire on day 2 which completely burnt out the car. Team FJ rolled their car on Day 3, but continued and are currently running 7th. Team Saluki took the start on day 2 and immediately returned to the bivouac, unable to find parts to repair their clutch master cylinder. This gave them a huge penalty, but Glen drove a blinding third stage to finsh 3rd on the day. He then topped this by finishing 2nd on day 4, so they are still in the race. Fadi Melki, driving solo in his Range Rover, came in 8th today and continues to do well. But Chicherit and Thorner in the BMW X3 are unstoppable, having won every stage, and Bilhili in his T2 Patrol lies in 2nd place overall. With one day remaining, it’s a game of attrition, and everything is still to play for.