 We
got to the start very early. Parked the car and were standing
next to it talking about the rally when....whoosh, a radiator
hose burst. The spare we had was too short, so we went into
Simpson Motors parts dept. to find they did not have the right
hose. We got two hoses, and a piece of metal pipe we scrounged
from the workshop and invented a hose. Then we found that the
new Bellville washers I had put on 2 days ago had broken and
one of the nuts had dropped off. So....we had to removed the
LH carb to put the o-ring back in place ,then change all the
remaining washers to split washers. Got all this sorted about
10 minutes before the start.
First stage was cancelled. Got as far as the second corner
in stage two and the car went dead. Pulled off the road and
with some help from Roger Skeete's navigator Dave Crawford
(thanks Dave), diagnosed a broken distributor rotor and a
faulty fan switch. NO SPARE ROTOR, so we wedged it with a
wad of paper, bypassed the fan switch and ran it direct and
finished the stage slowly. Had to do one more stage before
service, so went through that slowly also. Rotor slipped again
150 yards before the finish so....out with another wad of
paper. Finished the stage and on to service. NO ROTOR. Simpson
motors did not have the correct one; neither did any of the
other competitors. So...... I re-designed the wad of paper
and forced the rotor onto the shaft!
Stage four - half way through the stage the temp was in the
red so we pulled off, ripped out the thermostat, retarded
the timing and continued and finished the stage.
From then on the car went like a bat out of hell. Some fastest
in group times as well as one fastest overall on the wet!!!
Then we put the car on its side in the second last stage
(Colleton 2). This occurred shortly after Kendal pond. We
righted it, changed the damaged tyre and ......finished the
stage. We continued on to Mapps 2 and Vaucluse.
In the end we finished second in class and 14th overall.
 In
spite of the challenges we encountered we had a thoroughly
enjoyable rally. The car is now running close to its full
potential and the times are very encouraging. I have succeeded
yet again in suspending my navigator by the full harness belts
in an un-natural position! This makes four times now (note
to self - put "this way up" sign on car). The rally
itself was run on a very aggressive time schedule and hats
off to the marshals and organizers for pulling it off and
making it the superb event it was.
We would like to thank our sponsors Autozone, Crane and
Equipment, and Williams Trading Inc. for the support they
have given us this year and in particular for this rally.
Autozone for the preparation of the car leading up
to the rally
Crane and Equipment for the time spent getting the
suspension geometry and steering alignment spot-on
Williams Trading Inc for the excellent pit crew and
words of wisdom.
All in all a great weekend!!!
Adrian
PS Will the person who had the camera where we turned
over let me know if he caught it on film?
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BRC
Rally Barbados 2003, 