A belated report on this event - apologies! This took pace two weeks ago, on the subkha between the coast road and the sea near the flying club airstrip. Two stages, run three times, with 30 minutes service after each pair of stages.
The first stage was almost 9km, but very technical with a lot of sharp turns which the Beast struggled to navigate cleanly. The surface in some parts is very slippery, as we found out during practice when we over-corrected on the final turn and did a full 360! The second stage was around 12km but included a very long fast section towards the end.
We were happy to see Ali Al Shawi spectating, while his Silverado was driven by Ali Obaid. We maintained a comfortable lead over him, which extended further when they lost a tyre on SS5.
Our only drama was the steadily increasing oil usage. The engine was still pulling as strongly as ever, and we saw speeds approaching 200kph on the 'back straight' of the second stage. But at each service, I was adding over a litre of oil, and the back of the Beast was becoming black with soot.
We finished first in T1 class, and 6th overall - the only cars to beat us were the Group 3 Subarus and Evos. Photos as usual are courtesy of Tim Ansell.
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| Raising Sand |
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| T1 driver, T1 co-driver and lady co-driver awards! |
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| The notorious Viktor Bout's IL-76 makes an interesting backdrop |
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