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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