After our usually ample breakfast we managed to dig the car out of the container one more time, we are getting quite good at this now, built our “tent” and decided to turn up to scrutineering 3 hours early, seeing as everything has taken such a long time in the previous days. The location for this was the most enormous building right next to the Ferrari World complex;-)
And then came todays first surprise….
No waiting and no queue we went straight in. We only had to fill in another form with the details for the race car but this we can now probably do in our sleep with our eyes closed. Seven people instantly started to check the car over - their enthusiasm was probably short lived as many racers were still not finished by early evening. Even with the fitment of the new Sporttraxx tracker we were done in half an hour and we looked at each other thinking what shall we do for the rest of the day?
Back the the service we went and the boys checked everything over once again, we practiced wheel changes, setting tire pressures without a gauge, we made sure that everything in the interior was as comfortable as we could get it, filled up the water bottles and fixed the place of everything in the car.
Then who should turn up, none other than Faluvegi Peter, the Hungarian official for the race, which gave us some much needed comfort as he has been the race director of the Hungarian Baja for the last 13 years.
Lunch was a hamburger and chicken wings…. then a compulsory Sporttraxx introduction by the organisers, where we found out that another step has been taken to safeguard us during the race as the system now also works in hybrid mode tracking our whereabouts according to the network availability. If there is GSM reception the system updates itself every 5 seconds and in satellite mode the system sends a signal every 2 minutes. You can track our progress live on the official Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge website through live tracking!
If we want to contact the race organisers we can do so through the system by selecting pre programmed automatic messages and we will also be able to receive text replies… this new system is very 21st century;-)
In the afternoon we set about finding the waiting area before the Superspecial stage as there is no Parc Ferme. If we were here it would have been rude not to check out what was waiting for us on Saturday. I can say that it will be spectacular and exciting for the viewers as the stage has not only been liberally watered during the past couple of days but is full of jumps. So the Abu Dhabi Challenge will certainly be an exciting start to our season. We are now really waiting for something to happen as it now really is beginning to feel like the calm before the storm!
In the evening we explored the service area and apart from some of the strange things we found some real curiosities. As Nasser was was not sure that his new car would be ready in time he decided to play it safe and have a back up car. One came from Overdrive via sea and his REAL car came by plane from South Africa… So in his pit he also has a “spare” car. ;-)
Tomorrow we have our final orientation at 11 where we will be briefed on all the practical points about the prologue which begins at 15.00!!!
We can’t wait. Please continue to support and share our news and pictures and we promise to keep the info coming!
