Apologies to you, dear reader. I have been neglecting my blogging duties.
With the windscreen replaced, and the front wing temporarily
beaten back into shape I took part in the final round of the EMSF Desert Championship on 14th Feb.
This followed the format of the earlier rounds, with a course running
some 15km through the desert run multiple times in 2 hours. All went well until I had a rather hard
landing and after that the car was pulling to the right, and it was clear that something
had broken loose in the back. A few minutes
later the car stopped, and it became clear what had come loose – the battery
had made a bid for freedom. The
retaining bracket had disappeared, so I tie-wrapped it back into position and came
back to the pits, found the bracket and mounted the (leaking) battery into
position. Out of the pits I ran straight
into the chequered flag, so that meant I had only completed 6 laps, which
turned out to be enough to give me 3rd place overall, and 1st
in T1.
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| Thanks to Tim Ansell for these great shots of EMSF R1 |
Although I only competed in 2 rounds out of 4, two good
finishes were apparently enough to win the T1 championship!
For some time, Sh. Abdullah Al-Qassimi (international rally
driver and all-round good bloke) has been trying to get a new rally series organized
in UAE. His efforts came to fruition
with the announcement of a 3-race series to run from March to May 2014, in
conjunction with ATCUAE. The first event
was held last Saturday on a gravel track out beyond Mileiha, suitable for both
saloon cars and 4x4s.
Our Friday practice revealed that the car was still pulling
heavily to the right, and then we found one of the front right shocks was
broken! This must have happened in the
heavy landing and hadn’t been spotted at the time. With no chance to repair, we removed the
shock and ran without it. After that
evening’s ceremonial start on the corniche (with fireworks, no less!), we
headed out next day for the event, comprising two stages repeated three times. Predictably our times weren’t that great, but
we completed the event without incident and got 5th place in T1.
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| The hazards of rallying... |
So we have a few issues to resolve on the car: repair the
shock, and more important, understand why it broke. The shock mounts may need some work. The car in currently at Nanjgel, who are
looking at the problem of the car pulling to the right under braking, and also
re-fitting the windscreen – the mastic they used originally must have gone off,
because it didn’t set properly and has been dripping everywhere! Robbie also needs to sort out new brackets
for mounting the sand ladders. Then we
have to get the car through its annual test, and fit a new 36mm restrictor and
new harnesses. New helmets to meet 2010
FIA regs are on order from Demon Tweeks.
Our team for the fast-approaching 2014 Abu Dhabi DesertChallenge now comprises Richard Bailey, and Rick Carless and Kate Stedman, who
are both flying in from UK for the event.
Watch this space…
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