For three days we were doing arguably what we do best – being part of the sweep team. Day 2 saw us attending to the dehydrated Mr Gadasin and then (sort-of) escorting him out, and then towing out one of the GoKobra team on his quad. In between, we were entertained by Streaky getting the ‘Queen Mary’ (a.k.a. Sk Hamad’s massive F350 pick-up) repeatedly stuck trying to escape from a deep bowl.
By the start of Day 3, we'd acquired a VHF radio, a FRS handset, a set of stickers and a sweep team T-shirt - so it was official. We swept from the start near Tharwaniya as far as Moreeb, before being pulled out to sweep from the restart (Hameem) onwards. The last car out was Emil Kneisser’s, which had lost 4WD and promptly got stuck in a bowl. After his support crew had finally extricated him, he set off in an ultimately futile bid to complete the stage, before pulling out at the pipeline crossing. Having cooked his engine, I towed him out to the road.
Day 4 started off the MZ road, and the first customer was our friend Jurgen in the GoKobra 243. He’d managed to achieve an impressive 720 degree roll, ending up on his wheels, the only damage being a loose mudguard! Soon we were helping Tommy Castellazzi to refill the radiator of his diesel Landie, which had blown a top hose. To his credit, he made it across to the Ghayathi road before calling it a day. I then got stuck on a piece of innocuous looking flat sand, and whilst reversing onto the sand-ladders ripped off the back box of my exhaust. After that it was just a matter of fighting our way across the soft dunes to the road, arriving just in time to stop the fuel bowser from leaving PC2. We fueled up and headed for PC4 at Arada, and after the last car went through we started our final sweep. About 2km into it, Nigel managed to drop his Patrol into The Bowl from Hell and lose a tyre.
We couldn’t even get to the axle to jack it up, so we tried to double-winch it out. My winch overheated, then his winch popped a fuse and left his electrics dead. Bugger. After a bit of re-wiring he managed to get the engine going, so we used the sand ladders to reverse it a bit, to try and get a jack under it. But a sand ladder had ended up buried precisely where we needed to put the jacking board. Bugger. Finally dug the sand ladder out, and jacked it up. However, the car was still at a lousy angle and fell off the jack. Bugger. Put in another jack, try again – not great but this time we managed to get the spare wheel under the chassis for insurance. Dug under the tyre, reseated it on the bead, connected up the compressor – and then found that the valve had ripped off. Bugger. Find spare valve, push it in from the inside, pull it through – and the car falls off the jack again. Bugger, bugger, bugger. Jack it up again, finally get some air in it, and it pops back onto the bead. Hurrah. More sand-ladder activity and eventually he’s reversing back up the slope. After three attempts he makes it out, by which time we’d spent 4 hours there and it was dark, and control had ordered a helicopter ‘virtual sweep’ to save us having to continue.
It’s a long, long drive round the crescent from Arada to Hameem, where much-needed beer and dinner awaited us.
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, April 8, 2012
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
No news is blog news...
I can only assume that the Liwa Four are either incredibly busy, incredibly stuck, or incredibly asleep, because to date I’ve not had an update on today’s events. However this does at least give me a chance to deal with some of the Newtrix fan mail which has been piling up lately, so here goes.
Ms. K Knightley from the UK writes: "You were wonderful Phantom, a real “Spirit in the Night”. Call me. Anytime."
Whilst Scarlett J writes from New York: “If the pen is mightier than the sword P.B., come on over and teach me how to spell”
Well that’s quite enough of that, Thank you ladies. What, you thought the fan mail was for Ian?
Now obviously since my true name is a closely guarded secret, known only to a couple of hundred people, my wife Carole and cat Mia, there has been a degree of confusion in the press about my real identity. So here’s who I’m not;
I’m not a female American singer songwriter who had a hit with “Damn, I wish I was your writer” from the album” Tongues and Tall Tales” That’s Sophie B. Logger
Nor am I the ghost of Three Fingered Jimmy The ‘nuck, a Candian lumberjack who drank himself to death on the trail of a lonesome pine. He’s the phantom logger.
I’m definitely not Oliver North: I think some confusion arose in the past because he was caught trying to sell McDonnell Douglas F4s to the Nicaraguans during the late 80s. And that makes him the Phantom Flogger.
I’m also not a boxer weighing between 115 and 118 pounds (a Bantam Slogger), but should I put my mind, and lips to it, I’m sure I could be the best kisser a small settlement on the A68, 5 miles south of Jedburgh, thus making me “Phantom Blogger, the Camptown Snogger”.
You see – now you’re all desperate for news from the desert :-)
So I can tell you that despite enduring a great many difficulties, Tommy Castellazzi is still hanging in there. Go for it Tommy.
Ms. K Knightley from the UK writes: "You were wonderful Phantom, a real “Spirit in the Night”. Call me. Anytime."
Whilst Scarlett J writes from New York: “If the pen is mightier than the sword P.B., come on over and teach me how to spell”
Well that’s quite enough of that, Thank you ladies. What, you thought the fan mail was for Ian?
Now obviously since my true name is a closely guarded secret, known only to a couple of hundred people, my wife Carole and cat Mia, there has been a degree of confusion in the press about my real identity. So here’s who I’m not;
I’m not a female American singer songwriter who had a hit with “Damn, I wish I was your writer” from the album” Tongues and Tall Tales” That’s Sophie B. Logger
Nor am I the ghost of Three Fingered Jimmy The ‘nuck, a Candian lumberjack who drank himself to death on the trail of a lonesome pine. He’s the phantom logger.
I’m definitely not Oliver North: I think some confusion arose in the past because he was caught trying to sell McDonnell Douglas F4s to the Nicaraguans during the late 80s. And that makes him the Phantom Flogger.
I’m also not a boxer weighing between 115 and 118 pounds (a Bantam Slogger), but should I put my mind, and lips to it, I’m sure I could be the best kisser a small settlement on the A68, 5 miles south of Jedburgh, thus making me “Phantom Blogger, the Camptown Snogger”.
You see – now you’re all desperate for news from the desert :-)
So I can tell you that despite enduring a great many difficulties, Tommy Castellazzi is still hanging in there. Go for it Tommy.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
The engine's sooty, so we'll sweep instead.
You were probably thinking that with Ian and Sheila retired from the rally, there would be nothing for a Phantom Blogger to do but put his feet up and enjoy a dram or two of Scotland’s finest fire water. Yes, so was he. But alas, just as I was thinking of cracking open a bottle this evening, Ian rang to tell me about his day, and halfway through the conversation, I realised that the words “update” and “blog” were about to leave his lips. I desperately tried to drop the phone in a convincing manner, but the fact that you’re now reading these words means I clearly didn’t get away with it.
Today's photo, of Ian and Sheila leaving the Start ramp at the Prologue, is brought to you by Bob McCaffrey, motor sports photographer extraordinaire. 1/400 @ f 2.8 Bob. You'll be fine.
With The Liwa Four (Sheila, Ian, Rick & Ian. Pay attention) now enjoying an early summer holiday, they decided to do what any sane person(s) would do when surrounded by sand – i.e. go and play in it, in Ian’s regular road / sand going Nissan Patrol. Their initial foray was merely to PC 1 to watch the first 10 or so cars go by, but they decided that that was as boring as watching 10 cars go by in the desert, so they low ratio and high tailed it across to PC2, where they bumped in Rear Vice Admiral Sir John Mitchell Ross, DSOB @ Bar. John is Commander of the Royal Bathtime fleet, but that has nothing to do with his title of Rear Vice Admiral. You ask him.
JMR is also a legend in his own mind, and a fully signed up member of the Sweep Team - his brush work is amazing. Sheila, Ian, Rick and Ian (you’ll noticed I swapped the two Ians around there just to break things up a bit) offered to join John in his quest for scrap iron a.k.a. abandoned rally vehicles, as a sort of ‘voluntary community sweep car’. It entitles them to the same privileges (i.e. none) but at least they don’t have to damage their car’s paint work with big stickers. So off they jolly well sauntered into the desert, hurling abuse at passing seagulls and galavanting in a manner which only they considered heroic, when they were flagged down by a somewhat concerned co-driver, Dan Schemel, whose driver Boris Gadasin was suffering badly from dehydration.
After the medic who was traveling with JMR took a look at Boris it was decided that he was too ill to continue and a helicopter was called to the scene. However in the very few minutes it took to arrive, the rehydration fluids he’d been drinking and taking by intravenous drip had begun to take effect and he decided he was well enough to drive to the end of the stage. FYI Under such circumstances race crews must actually sign a waiver to say they’ve been advised not to proceed and are doing so voluntarily and at their own risk. Boris did so and though Ian and Sheila (and Ian and Rick) were tasked with keeping up with them to the finish, that’s easier said than done when you’re chasing a rally car. Eventually they gave up the chase and proceeded to the final PC, stopping to help a couple of competitors along the way, then towing one of the same competitors the 15kms back from the final PC to the bivouac after his vehicle suffered gearbox failure practically on the finish line. Which was a ‘lucky’ place to break down I guess.
Much to their surprise, at the Driver’s Briefing later that evening, all round nice chap Mr. Ronan Morgan, who is Clerk of the Course of course, announced that for their sterling efforts today (it’s Euros tomorrow and Yen on Thursday), Ian and Sheila had won the Spirit of the Rally award. The award, four days holiday in Barbados for two people, including all flights and sun tan lotion*, is given each day to those folks adjudged to have embodied the true spirit of the rally. Ian thanked the cheering crowd profusely, and said that after blowing the engine yesterday, he couldn’t have embodied much more spirit last night if he’d tried.
* Actually, it’s two petrol vouchers, but we live in hope.
And thus, folks, you now know how a 15 minute phone call is turned into an hour’s work and 700 words of drivel, simply to keep you entertained for 10 minutes. There's no need to thank me, but if you insist, used notes in small denominations are perfectly acceptable. It's Sterling today and Yen on Thursday. You can keep your Euros merci.
In other news, Tommy’s hanging in there, whilst a few people with a lot more money than Newtrix are still chasing each other around the dunes in some sort of race. Don’t give up Tommy.
Today's photo, of Ian and Sheila leaving the Start ramp at the Prologue, is brought to you by Bob McCaffrey, motor sports photographer extraordinaire. 1/400 @ f 2.8 Bob. You'll be fine.
With The Liwa Four (Sheila, Ian, Rick & Ian. Pay attention) now enjoying an early summer holiday, they decided to do what any sane person(s) would do when surrounded by sand – i.e. go and play in it, in Ian’s regular road / sand going Nissan Patrol. Their initial foray was merely to PC 1 to watch the first 10 or so cars go by, but they decided that that was as boring as watching 10 cars go by in the desert, so they low ratio and high tailed it across to PC2, where they bumped in Rear Vice Admiral Sir John Mitchell Ross, DSOB @ Bar. John is Commander of the Royal Bathtime fleet, but that has nothing to do with his title of Rear Vice Admiral. You ask him.
JMR is also a legend in his own mind, and a fully signed up member of the Sweep Team - his brush work is amazing. Sheila, Ian, Rick and Ian (you’ll noticed I swapped the two Ians around there just to break things up a bit) offered to join John in his quest for scrap iron a.k.a. abandoned rally vehicles, as a sort of ‘voluntary community sweep car’. It entitles them to the same privileges (i.e. none) but at least they don’t have to damage their car’s paint work with big stickers. So off they jolly well sauntered into the desert, hurling abuse at passing seagulls and galavanting in a manner which only they considered heroic, when they were flagged down by a somewhat concerned co-driver, Dan Schemel, whose driver Boris Gadasin was suffering badly from dehydration.
After the medic who was traveling with JMR took a look at Boris it was decided that he was too ill to continue and a helicopter was called to the scene. However in the very few minutes it took to arrive, the rehydration fluids he’d been drinking and taking by intravenous drip had begun to take effect and he decided he was well enough to drive to the end of the stage. FYI Under such circumstances race crews must actually sign a waiver to say they’ve been advised not to proceed and are doing so voluntarily and at their own risk. Boris did so and though Ian and Sheila (and Ian and Rick) were tasked with keeping up with them to the finish, that’s easier said than done when you’re chasing a rally car. Eventually they gave up the chase and proceeded to the final PC, stopping to help a couple of competitors along the way, then towing one of the same competitors the 15kms back from the final PC to the bivouac after his vehicle suffered gearbox failure practically on the finish line. Which was a ‘lucky’ place to break down I guess.
Much to their surprise, at the Driver’s Briefing later that evening, all round nice chap Mr. Ronan Morgan, who is Clerk of the Course of course, announced that for their sterling efforts today (it’s Euros tomorrow and Yen on Thursday), Ian and Sheila had won the Spirit of the Rally award. The award, four days holiday in Barbados for two people, including all flights and sun tan lotion*, is given each day to those folks adjudged to have embodied the true spirit of the rally. Ian thanked the cheering crowd profusely, and said that after blowing the engine yesterday, he couldn’t have embodied much more spirit last night if he’d tried.
* Actually, it’s two petrol vouchers, but we live in hope.
And thus, folks, you now know how a 15 minute phone call is turned into an hour’s work and 700 words of drivel, simply to keep you entertained for 10 minutes. There's no need to thank me, but if you insist, used notes in small denominations are perfectly acceptable. It's Sterling today and Yen on Thursday. You can keep your Euros merci.
In other news, Tommy’s hanging in there, whilst a few people with a lot more money than Newtrix are still chasing each other around the dunes in some sort of race. Don’t give up Tommy.
Monday, April 2, 2012
A race of attrition
You'll have to excuse my current lack of humour but just a couple of hours into the race, a very short distance before PC2, the engine blew up in Ian and Sheila's car, so their race is over. Some marshals from the PC tried to tow start the car but this resulted in an even bigger bang under the bonnet and something punching its way through the sump. Thus the engine drain was drained of oil, so there is no hope of rebuilding it and Ian and Sheila have been forced to retire from the race.
They have decided to stay down at the bivouac and help out at the race, since a) they've paid for it! b) Rick and Offshore Ian have given up their time to be there this week, c) the (real) dogs are in kennels which is all paid for, and d) as I write, the Al Thika offices are being torn down and rebuilt around me (we have ongoing construction here) so the bivouac is a lot more peaceful ;-)
So it's official. Ian and Sheila are piston broke.
Here's a photo from happier times (yesterday) taken by our old friend Craig McAteer who is visiting from the UK to support Team Saluki. Craig uses Canon cameras like me, but his memory cards all worked yesterday! Thanks Craig for this really great shot.
In other news, Mark Powell, Team Saluki, has blown a gearbox and is retired for the day but will almost certainly restart tomorrow, whilst Dave Mabbs and Xavier Caminada, Team FJ, are having some sort of engine problems in the FJ Cruiser. Their current status is unknown but "it doesn't look good".
UPDATE: Saluki's problem was not a gearbox, it was a blown engine. After 3kms!! And the engine was brand new. Dave Mabbs is definitely out. Other local competitors Mike Zeigler and Mansour Bilhilli are also out with....blown engines. Now I'm not a particularly suspicious person by nature but five local teams, all with blown engines, all within the first half of the first day. Quite a coincidence don't you think? Who knows...
As yet the floods, pestilence, locusts and earthquakes have yet to strike, but it is only Day One........
"Go Go Tommy"
They have decided to stay down at the bivouac and help out at the race, since a) they've paid for it! b) Rick and Offshore Ian have given up their time to be there this week, c) the (real) dogs are in kennels which is all paid for, and d) as I write, the Al Thika offices are being torn down and rebuilt around me (we have ongoing construction here) so the bivouac is a lot more peaceful ;-)
So it's official. Ian and Sheila are piston broke.
Here's a photo from happier times (yesterday) taken by our old friend Craig McAteer who is visiting from the UK to support Team Saluki. Craig uses Canon cameras like me, but his memory cards all worked yesterday! Thanks Craig for this really great shot.
In other news, Mark Powell, Team Saluki, has blown a gearbox and is retired for the day but will almost certainly restart tomorrow, whilst Dave Mabbs and Xavier Caminada, Team FJ, are having some sort of engine problems in the FJ Cruiser. Their current status is unknown but "it doesn't look good".
UPDATE: Saluki's problem was not a gearbox, it was a blown engine. After 3kms!! And the engine was brand new. Dave Mabbs is definitely out. Other local competitors Mike Zeigler and Mansour Bilhilli are also out with....blown engines. Now I'm not a particularly suspicious person by nature but five local teams, all with blown engines, all within the first half of the first day. Quite a coincidence don't you think? Who knows...
As yet the floods, pestilence, locusts and earthquakes have yet to strike, but it is only Day One........
"Go Go Tommy"
Sunday, April 1, 2012
The Prologue
(insert random Frankie Howerd reference here...)
Today has been overcast, and considerably cooler than most of last week. The team decamped from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for Drivers Briefing at Yas, followed by the prologue opposite Marina Mall. Only 30 cars made the start list as result of 6 being stuck on the Jordan/Israel border en route here, and other pre-start retirements. Several vehicles have been relegated to 'national class' after failing scrutineering.
The track was similar to last years, but clockwise (last year's was anticlockwise) and with a water splash near the start and lots of hairpin bends. Some I nailed quite well, but most were pretty scruffy. Not however, as scruffy as the current championship leaders, Messrs Vasilyev and Yevtyekhov, who - as is traditional with the G-Force team - rolled their pickup. As seeded drivers, they will start ahead of us notwithstanding the ignominy of their DNF in the prologue .
We were 14th fastest in 2 mins 11.7 secs, a,nd start 15th at 1043hrs tomorrow. Team Saluki are right behind us and Team FJ start 22nd.
Somewhere in Cyberspace lurks The Phantom Blogger, so this evening I hand over the cyber-baton to this shadowy figure. We, however, have work to do. As Sherlock Holmes would say, 'The game is afoot!'
Today has been overcast, and considerably cooler than most of last week. The team decamped from Dubai to Abu Dhabi for Drivers Briefing at Yas, followed by the prologue opposite Marina Mall. Only 30 cars made the start list as result of 6 being stuck on the Jordan/Israel border en route here, and other pre-start retirements. Several vehicles have been relegated to 'national class' after failing scrutineering.
The track was similar to last years, but clockwise (last year's was anticlockwise) and with a water splash near the start and lots of hairpin bends. Some I nailed quite well, but most were pretty scruffy. Not however, as scruffy as the current championship leaders, Messrs Vasilyev and Yevtyekhov, who - as is traditional with the G-Force team - rolled their pickup. As seeded drivers, they will start ahead of us notwithstanding the ignominy of their DNF in the prologue .
We were 14th fastest in 2 mins 11.7 secs, a,nd start 15th at 1043hrs tomorrow. Team Saluki are right behind us and Team FJ start 22nd.
Somewhere in Cyberspace lurks The Phantom Blogger, so this evening I hand over the cyber-baton to this shadowy figure. We, however, have work to do. As Sherlock Holmes would say, 'The game is afoot!'
A lot of balls
Lock up your daughters. For t’is I, the phantomest blogger this side of Phantom Blogsdale. Once again I have cracked the top secret and n’er to be discussed password (“newtrixpassword123”) of their dognesses account, and once again I shall be plumbing new blog depths, in a James Cameron / Mariana Trench sort of way. But obviously without the funding, the back-up, the global interest, 7 miles of garden hose or indeed, the pictures. But more on that later.
The entire NewTrix support team (that’s Rick “I’ll never leave you Carless”, Offshore Ian and I) gathered en masse this afternoon at the windswept, bland, featureless, flat, dull, boring piece of litter and re-bar strewn wasteland known as a “Special Stage”, in deepest, darkest Abu Dhabi. It’s a “Special Stage” in much the same way that some schools are “Special Schools”. For reasons known only to those of greater foresight and wisdom than I, this windswept, bland etc. etc. is now the regular home of the two minute televised spectator stage dash, designed to mix up the starting order a bit and to teach all the show offs a lesson. This year it was the turn of the second “G Force” team, car# 205, driven by Vladimir Vasilyev and co-driven by Vitaly Yevtyekhov, to make complete fools of themselves. As they passed the corner from which I was photographing, they spun the car round so hard that a large rock flew out and hit me on the back of the head (I was ducking for cover by then). Somewhat miffed by this, after regaining consciousness and borrowing 3 pints of blood, I shouted after them “You bounders, I jolly well hope you suffer from ill fortune within a very short space of time”. And 30 seconds later they rolled their car onto its side. HAH! Nobody messes with the Phantom Blogger and gets away with it. I can’t help wondering if tomorrow, that particular car will have been rebranded “Centripetal Force”
Oh you’ll notice from some of the shots that in an attempt to brighten up the windswept bland etc. etc. the organisers placed large blue and green plastic balls atop the steel marker posts. Many drivers struck these posts, causing their balls to fly off in different directions during the rally, whilst others drove ‘balls out’, meaning that they kept their car lined up between the balls, thus avoiding striking their balls on the front bumper. One driver drove over balls dropped by a previous competitor, crushing one of them and putting a nasty dent in the other. He struggled to cross the line and appeared to be in a great deal of discomfort. This is probably an opportune time to say “Thanks for all your hard work” to Dr. Sean Petherbridge and his medical / SAR team.
Unlike the Russians with the Countdown conundrum names, Ian and Sheila drove in a very considerate manner, allowing me to take a great many photographs with my Canon 7D camera and 70-200mm lens. They were all technically outstanding photos showing appropriate depth of field, perfect exposure, pin sharp details and yet eye wateringly beautiful motion blur of the wheels and scattered dust. I tell you that because not one of those pictures is here on this blog. For the first time in the 4 years I’ve been shooting with digital cameras, one of my memory cards became corrupted and I lost all the shots. Did it happen midway through the shoot so I could change cards? No it happened after I’d actually finished shooting, so I lost everything taken on that camera. Canon uses the CF format card and today I learned what those initials stand for. Completely Fubar. Fortunately, being the consummate professional (as opposed to a consummating professional) I also carry a second camera (my venerable – and reliable 40D) and the shots seen here today were captured with that. Hurrah for back up equipment.
Speaking of which, just an hour before I left the office to drive down to Abu Dhabi, TNT delivered the long lost drag link. So, unlike last year, this time when I carried some spare parts down to the team, a) they were the right parts, and b) they were genuinely happy to receive them.
Finally a quick “Bongiorno” to our mate Tommaso “No mates” Castellezi whose presence at the rally is always very welcome. Tommy earned this entirely inaccurate nick-name simply because he races his Land Rover Defender without the aid of a co-driver, thus “no mate” in the car. But the fact is that you won’t find a nicer, more pleasant and friendly competitor than Tommy (well, not now I’ve retired) and it’s great to see him back racing. “Forza Castelazzi”
Until tomorrow, ciao, arrividerci.
News just in: Ian and Sheila will start tomorrow in 14th position, which is an excellent spot. They finished the stage in 2’11”, 2 seconds ahead of Mark Powell, 6 faster than Dave Mabbs, and 7 faster than the team who have no scruples. Stick that in your baguette and smoke it.
The entire NewTrix support team (that’s Rick “I’ll never leave you Carless”, Offshore Ian and I) gathered en masse this afternoon at the windswept, bland, featureless, flat, dull, boring piece of litter and re-bar strewn wasteland known as a “Special Stage”, in deepest, darkest Abu Dhabi. It’s a “Special Stage” in much the same way that some schools are “Special Schools”. For reasons known only to those of greater foresight and wisdom than I, this windswept, bland etc. etc. is now the regular home of the two minute televised spectator stage dash, designed to mix up the starting order a bit and to teach all the show offs a lesson. This year it was the turn of the second “G Force” team, car# 205, driven by Vladimir Vasilyev and co-driven by Vitaly Yevtyekhov, to make complete fools of themselves. As they passed the corner from which I was photographing, they spun the car round so hard that a large rock flew out and hit me on the back of the head (I was ducking for cover by then). Somewhat miffed by this, after regaining consciousness and borrowing 3 pints of blood, I shouted after them “You bounders, I jolly well hope you suffer from ill fortune within a very short space of time”. And 30 seconds later they rolled their car onto its side. HAH! Nobody messes with the Phantom Blogger and gets away with it. I can’t help wondering if tomorrow, that particular car will have been rebranded “Centripetal Force”
Oh you’ll notice from some of the shots that in an attempt to brighten up the windswept bland etc. etc. the organisers placed large blue and green plastic balls atop the steel marker posts. Many drivers struck these posts, causing their balls to fly off in different directions during the rally, whilst others drove ‘balls out’, meaning that they kept their car lined up between the balls, thus avoiding striking their balls on the front bumper. One driver drove over balls dropped by a previous competitor, crushing one of them and putting a nasty dent in the other. He struggled to cross the line and appeared to be in a great deal of discomfort. This is probably an opportune time to say “Thanks for all your hard work” to Dr. Sean Petherbridge and his medical / SAR team.
Unlike the Russians with the Countdown conundrum names, Ian and Sheila drove in a very considerate manner, allowing me to take a great many photographs with my Canon 7D camera and 70-200mm lens. They were all technically outstanding photos showing appropriate depth of field, perfect exposure, pin sharp details and yet eye wateringly beautiful motion blur of the wheels and scattered dust. I tell you that because not one of those pictures is here on this blog. For the first time in the 4 years I’ve been shooting with digital cameras, one of my memory cards became corrupted and I lost all the shots. Did it happen midway through the shoot so I could change cards? No it happened after I’d actually finished shooting, so I lost everything taken on that camera. Canon uses the CF format card and today I learned what those initials stand for. Completely Fubar. Fortunately, being the consummate professional (as opposed to a consummating professional) I also carry a second camera (my venerable – and reliable 40D) and the shots seen here today were captured with that. Hurrah for back up equipment.
Speaking of which, just an hour before I left the office to drive down to Abu Dhabi, TNT delivered the long lost drag link. So, unlike last year, this time when I carried some spare parts down to the team, a) they were the right parts, and b) they were genuinely happy to receive them.
Finally a quick “Bongiorno” to our mate Tommaso “No mates” Castellezi whose presence at the rally is always very welcome. Tommy earned this entirely inaccurate nick-name simply because he races his Land Rover Defender without the aid of a co-driver, thus “no mate” in the car. But the fact is that you won’t find a nicer, more pleasant and friendly competitor than Tommy (well, not now I’ve retired) and it’s great to see him back racing. “Forza Castelazzi”
Until tomorrow, ciao, arrividerci.
News just in: Ian and Sheila will start tomorrow in 14th position, which is an excellent spot. They finished the stage in 2’11”, 2 seconds ahead of Mark Powell, 6 faster than Dave Mabbs, and 7 faster than the team who have no scruples. Stick that in your baguette and smoke it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)