The dust has settled on the 2015 25th Anniversary
Abu Dhabi
Desert Challenge. And what dust there
was, blotting out the landscape on Day 5.
But already I’m getting ahead of the story, so let’s start with Day 1.
DAY 1
Everything was going so well. We breezed through PC1, no
problems, passed a few cars, and didn’t get passed by anyone. But just 600m before rejoining Deadcoach
Gatch, it all went horribly wrong. The
steering became heavy and almost immediately the engine temperature began to
climb. ‘That’, I said to myself, ‘will
be a serpentine belt failure. How
fortunate am I that I have a spare 6PK2040 in the ‘get-out-of-jail’ bag’. But it wasn’t the belt that had failed. It was the power steering pump pulley, which
was hanging on by the last of its 6 spokes, the remaining 5 having broken for
no apparent reason. And a spare pulley
isn’t something you expect to need. What
to do?
With nothing to hold the serpentine belt on, the water pump
won’t work, and neither will the alternator.
But the oil pump will, as will the fans – until the battery gives
up. So after the engine had cooled, I
made a bid for freedom with only oil cooling – and escaped onto the gatch. We short-cut the next section by heading
south on the gatch, running in 5th gear, 1500rpm, 2WD and watching
the temperature gauges all the time. By
the time we reached PC2 and service, panic had already set in, and the service
crew had disappeared! Fortunately help
was at hand, in the friendly shape of a non-team member (no names, no pack
drill), who kindly agreed to tow us to the finish on the highway. (Which of course is technically illegal, but
only if you get caught – which we didn’t.)
But to score a finish we had to drive the correct way through the speed
control and finish zone, which did rather put a strain on the temperature
gauge. But we made it, and rejoined the
road where the service truck was waiting to tow us the last few km to the
bivouac.
By now, half the service crew were back in Abu Dhabi, trying
to pick up the trailer (locked – and no key) and to find a new power steering
pump (no joy, but they’ve got one in Sharjah.)
SHARJAH??? That’s a long way from
Abu Dhabi,
especially in the rush hour, and they shut at 1930hrs. But our resourceful hero (Rick) and heroine
(Kate) managed to sweet-talk the nice people at Liberty Autos in taking parts
home with them when they shut, so early the next morning (I kid you not) they
arrived back at the bivvy with a new pump, pulley and belt. However – events had overtaken them.
Robbie, Saluki Motorsports’ fabricator, can weld
anything. Richard had a TIG welding
set. But Robbie was deep in the desert,
with the Saluki team trying (unsuccessfully) to recover their Predator. Then Streaky mentioned that Powertec had a
good welder, and Ivan was kind enough to lend him to us. Richard cut reinforcement sections for the
pulley and prepped everything, and the welder welded it back together. And it was good. So good that it lasted the rest of the
rally. This was truly bush engineering
at its finest.
We’d missed a load of waypoints and picked up 10 hours of
penalties, but at least we were ready for the start of Day 2 – even if 42nd
overall isn’t much to brag about.
DAY 2
The second day was a run west from the MZ road to Ghayathi Road, then
a couple of diversions to the west of Ghayathi
Road ending up at Arada before heading south of
the crescent to Moreeb. After half an
hour I decided that the engine would have an easier time of it if I aired down
a bit, so I lost 4 minutes doing that – which is less than I’d lose if we got
stuck. After overtaking Emil, I then
made a beginner’s mistake and got cross-axles on top of a dune – fortunately
within sight of the sweep team, so that was quickly resolved. The back end of the day featured some
technical climbs south of the crescent, and overall not a bad day. 27th on the day could have been a
lot better without the stops, but 37th overall is some improvement. Local hero Yahya Bel Hilli distinguished
himself by putting his pickup on its roof within sight of the start, and
shortly after Raptor 227 crewed by a Slovakian couple very sadly burnt to a crisp due to a
fuel leak.
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| A marshal leaps into action at passage control |
Several of the front hub nuts had come loose, and were in
fact the wrong thread – which damaged the thread on the studs. This must have happened when Mebar rebuilt
the axle. Fortunately we have spare
studs (much to Richard’s surprise!) and nuts, so it’s not a disaster.
DAY 3
I don’t have happy memories of Day 3. We started off by getting stuck on a very
innocuous dune heading from the bivouac towards Moreeb, and narrowly avoiding a
collision with the car I’d just overtaken.
Then we ended up in a huge bowl just before Moreeb where three cars were
already trying to extricate themselves.
We got out of that by taking an alternative route, which ended in a
Patrol-sized hole. Getting out of that
involved digging, sand ladders, letting the tyres down to 8 psi, and an
inordinate amount of bad language. Then
of course more time to re-inflate the tyres and load up 3 of the 4 Maxtrax - the 4th having disappeared into
the sand. By this timewe were
flat last, be fore we’d even reached the first PC. It was some time later when I realized that
4WD probably hadn’t fully engaged, which
was why we were suffering so much. At
some point I was persuaded to be the Good Samaritan by stopping for a biker, thereby
getting hopelessly stuck for a very long time, thus proving the old adage the ‘a
good turn seldom goes unpunished’. Only
after PC2 – back at the bivvy – did our day improve and the rest of the stage
went off rather well. But not well
enough to reach Page 1 of the results – 32nd on the day, 30th
overall. Which only proves that if you
keep finishing every day, your position will improve – if only due to
attrition.
Under the car, Richard finds that the bush on one of the
rear control arms has disintegrated.
Once again, I’m able to surprise him by having a spare control arm in
one of the boxes, so another disaster is averted.
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| The bivouac: Jason lifts something heavy |
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| Looking for sponsorship from Oztrail! |
DAY 4
Day 4 is almost a re-run of Day 2 – starting from the MZ Road heading
west to Ghyathi Road,
continuing west and then south to Arada before crossing the crescent road and
looping back to Hameem. We got stuck
trying to avoid a climb where another vehicle was already stuck, and Yasser
Saidan (215) was nice enough to give us a tow out. West of Ghyathi we encounter a chaotic dune
area with various cars stuck, and I spot an exit route. Just before reaching the edge of a small
dune, I spot the roof of a car beyond the crest, and revise my route to avoid
it. As I go over the crest, I find that
there is another car in front of the one I saw, which it is now too late to
avoid. My front wing and headlight take
the brunt of the impact. It turns out that Yasser was in the process of
recovering Hamad Al Thani’s Patrol, so he transfers the tow strap to my car,
gets out of the way, and leaves me to recover Hamad.
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| Impact imminent: Yasser's co-driver realises he's about to get run over.. |
At PC2 service I stop for oil (we’ve been
using a lot) and head into the dunes beyond.
Then I make the worst mistake of the day, bailing out of the dunes to
find an easier route, even if it means missing a waypoint or two. But my route leads me into even more trouble,
and soon we are totally stuck. Several
attempts with the jack and sandladders fail to improve the situation because
now we’ve lost 4WD. Finally the cavalry
arrive in the shape of Al Shanfari’s massive International MXT truck. Mark Powell has persuaded him to detour from
his mission to recover the other Predator to help us out. The sweep team arrive and escort us back to
the road, and we decide to try ‘stamp collecting’ at PC3 and the finish. PC3 give us the stamp – after a lengthy
detour to Khis quarry – but by the time we reach Finish, the team has packed up
for the day. However our tracking proves
we were there within limit time, so we ‘only’ get penalized 8hrs 30mins for
missed waypoints.
Work starts on the Beast that evening to find out why we no
longer have drive to the front axle. I suspect the transfer box, but when we
get the car up in the air, the front propshaft is rotating. It turns out one front half-shaft has broken,
but fortunately Emil has brought one with him in our sale-or-return stock. Then
we need a couple of oil seals which Technosport trade with us for a couple of
beers, and some 75/140 oil for the diff which costs us a few more beers. It’s just as well that we brought a couple of
cases of bivouac currency with us.
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| Richard flying the flag |
But all this good work is in vain, because Day 5 dawns under
a real sandstorm. With no hope of
getting helicopters airborne, the day is abandoned and we trek back to Yas on
the tarmac, to put our vehicles in parc ferme for finish scrutineering. But this is where the real drama begins. Nasser Al Attiyeh in Mini 202 has led from
start to finish, but the scrutineers pick up on the fact that his suspension
travel is outside the permitted 250mm.
Despite the fact that the extra mm confers no advantage, and is due to
damage sustained in the event, he is disqualified. His protest will be heard by the Court of
Appeal at a later date, so watch this space.
But for now he’s out, and that leaves us finally 24th overall. 48 cars were on the start list, and 34
finished.
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| Day 5 sandstorm |
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| Rick, Jason, Richard, Ian, Sheila and Kate |
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| Medals all round |
So, how do we rate our performance? Was our glass half full or half empty? Well,
after a totally unpredictable failure on Day 1 we were always going to be amongst
the also-rans. Penalties of multiple
hours start around 18th place, so even if we’d been perfect from day
2 onward, 18th would have been the best we could hope for. But at least we kept in the event,
technically completing each day, and there are 24 competitors who did worse
than us. I was disappointed, but maybe I
expect too much.
But the highlight was the spectacular performance of the
team behind us – Richard, Rick, Jason and Kate.
Having three mechanics on the job divided the workload, and most nights
they even got to sleep as well. Jason’s electrical expertise saved us from a
potential fan relay failure, which could have ended our chances. Richard’s enormous inventory of tools and
equipment kept us in the race after day 1.
Rick’s ‘give-us-a-spanner-I-can-do-that’ attitude kept everything moving. Kate flashed her credit card when it was
needed most, and made sure everyone ate and drank enough. Sheila didn’t put a foot wrong in the
navigational department, and endured my frequent profanity and general
ungentlemanly behavior without complaint.
All in all, it was a real team effort.
And next year, we’ll do it all again.
