Well i hoped it would come in 3's and that would be it, but i guess i put the mockers on it by saying it out loud.
The total international rally took place in Ermelo this last weekend, the event starting on thursday night with 2 super special stages. Dust played a major role in proceedings, and the 2nd stage was cancelled.
We went into day 2 3rd in class, we were immediately on the back foot when we realised we had a leaking front shock, seems like it broken on a bridge on the super special on which i was told we did some major low flying. With no time to change the shock we had to take on the first 2 stages of friday with the faulty part , we took it easy and surprisingly were right on the pace in any case. At the next service the shock was changed in 11 min, giving us 9 min to sip a cold drink!
the next set of 2 stages were a bit rougher , we slowly but surely got faster, catching the leaders in class . The third round of 2 stages were a repeat of the first 2 of the day, Allen gave it some welly on these stages and we took the lead in class A6 by 15 sec with one stage left in the day.
Stage 9 was a nightmare for most of us, with the setting sun and zero breeze the dust was ridiculous, you couldnt see more than a meter in front of the car, we over shot twice, the 2nd time the car struggled to start again! Salie du toit running on his old class N4 seeding had an advantage of having faster cars ahead of him was at less of a disadvantage and took 29sec out of us in the stage, leaving us 14 sec behind at the end of day 1.
it all came to an end 3.5km into the first stage of day 3, we hit a yump, and landed on an exposed rock, it snapped the rear shock off completely, Allen did well to keep the car from going over as the car flicked from one side to another! luckily no more harm was done, however our rally was over, very disappointing after such a promising day 2.
We will not be making the trip to PE for the next event, Allen has elected to do some extra work on the car, and we will be back for the Osram rally in Aliwal North, more from the national car then.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Fun and games for Team ELB Catering supplies
The 3rd round of the Total Northern Regions championships The Imperial Toyota PMC Rally took place the 9th of June in the Bapsfontein area.
The ELB Catering Supplies Toyota made it to the finish once again, but not without fun and games with the normal dry winter conditions in Gauteng, no one could have predicted the muddy quagmires that were experienced by the 65 entrants.
Our rally started off at a leisurely place through stage 1, with a taste of the mud and water holes to look forward to, we wrong slotted once and also slid as most of the field did in one of the hairpin bends only a few hundred meters from the finish. We then started regretting the lack of rain tyres in the service van.
Stage 2 got a bit worse, mud water, and very slippery grass, a particular grass patch where we felt like we were standing still for a good few hundred meters.
Stage 3 was the icing on the cake, with a particular water hole that claimed probably half of the field for a good few minutes before they could get out. We were warned by spectators, however even a slow deliberate course caused us to get stuck, luckily Ernie stayed calmed and slowly reversed and by a miracle we managed to get to the other side of the lake.
Stage 4 was the best conditions of the rally, drier and faster than the other stages.
Stage 5 was the sting in the tail for many particularly the organizers, as the stage was a repeat of stage 1 with a change in direction close to the end to add some distance and a variation, the result being a number of competitors taking the wrong route and thus short cutting. This caused massive headaches for the scorers and COC to sort out. Our stage was quite eventful almost rolling, in Ernie’s words if he had lost a few Kg’s we would have gone over. The conditions were slightly better than the first time around, and I’m proud to say we stayed on the right road, no shortcuts for us.
An eventual 18th overall and 6th in class was not the best result ever, but without wet weather tyres it was just fine, continuing our perfect record of finishes since the beginning of last year.
The next event in the Total Northern Regions championships is the Carletonville Rally on the 7th of July.
The ELB Catering Supplies Toyota made it to the finish once again, but not without fun and games with the normal dry winter conditions in Gauteng, no one could have predicted the muddy quagmires that were experienced by the 65 entrants.
Our rally started off at a leisurely place through stage 1, with a taste of the mud and water holes to look forward to, we wrong slotted once and also slid as most of the field did in one of the hairpin bends only a few hundred meters from the finish. We then started regretting the lack of rain tyres in the service van.
Stage 2 got a bit worse, mud water, and very slippery grass, a particular grass patch where we felt like we were standing still for a good few hundred meters.
Stage 3 was the icing on the cake, with a particular water hole that claimed probably half of the field for a good few minutes before they could get out. We were warned by spectators, however even a slow deliberate course caused us to get stuck, luckily Ernie stayed calmed and slowly reversed and by a miracle we managed to get to the other side of the lake.
Stage 4 was the best conditions of the rally, drier and faster than the other stages.
Stage 5 was the sting in the tail for many particularly the organizers, as the stage was a repeat of stage 1 with a change in direction close to the end to add some distance and a variation, the result being a number of competitors taking the wrong route and thus short cutting. This caused massive headaches for the scorers and COC to sort out. Our stage was quite eventful almost rolling, in Ernie’s words if he had lost a few Kg’s we would have gone over. The conditions were slightly better than the first time around, and I’m proud to say we stayed on the right road, no shortcuts for us.
An eventual 18th overall and 6th in class was not the best result ever, but without wet weather tyres it was just fine, continuing our perfect record of finishes since the beginning of last year.
The next event in the Total Northern Regions championships is the Carletonville Rally on the 7th of July.
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