Sunday, February 14, 2016

Sharjah Rally - EMC R1/2016


There were still a few bijou problemettes to resolve on the Beast’s electrics.  So I tempted Jason round for  an evening’s fettling with the promise of beer and pizza, before he got too involved in spannering for the Dubai 24hr event.  The wipers proved unwilling to park or operate intermittently, and after opening the motor up we found that there was a broken contact inside – so a new motor was the only solution.  The oil temperature sender doesn’t work, because the wire has broken off the sender right where it joins – so we need a new sender (probably only available as a set with the gauge).  The 4WD indicator is a problem.  There are three pairs of wires coming out of the transfer box, none of which seem to make or break contact when 4WD is selected.  Go figure.
So having solved the wiper issue with a new motor, we headed out to our old stomping ground at Khudairah (on the way towards Kalba) for Friday practice on stages we’d used on the Mobil 1 rally earlier.  But one lap around SS2 was rudely interrupted by the appearance of a Pajero on its roof, with Ali Al Shawi lying near it in a heap.  He’d clearly hit a bump going way too fast and without seatbelts, and binned it big-time.  The ambulance arrived pretty quickly (but ignored our directions and ended up in the wrong place), and Ali was carted off to intensive care. We understand that his injuries include a broken shoulder, broken collarbone, seven cracked ribs and a punctured lung.  So he won’t be rallying again any time soon, and we wish him the very best for a complete (if not speedy) recovery.

Ali’s injuries made the following day’s rally a rather somber affair, but we managed a creditable 1st in class and 7th overall.  The first stage was exactly the same as was used last year’s Round 4, and our best time of  7mins 19secs was over 20 seconds faster than previous best, which is encouraging.
There's a video here: https://www.facebook.com/emiratesmotorsportclub/?fref=ts . But I can't upload it as it doesn't appear on YouTube.

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