The first 25 km’s took us over an hour. We got stuck three times along with most of the rest of the midfield. We choose worse and worse tracks trying to skirt around each other and for a few seconds we may have been in 10th place but sometimes it felt like the whole field had gone by.
After one particular escape from the sand we were left with only 3 sand ladders or to be precise with 7 as one of the sand ladders managed to split in to 4 pieces. This was not a good sign for the rest of the stage especially as Zoli had to climb one of the largest dunes on foot with the remaining sand ladders.
It was a real struggle but finally we got going but concentration wasn’t necessarily as it should have been and the boys jumped over one sand dune with such force that the car landed heavily on its nose. This manoeuvre at least confirmed that the development during the winter had not been in vain as the car did not flip and even the damage would have been light had it not been for the unfortunate fact that the grille was pushed into the radiator by the sand. The carbon pierced the radiator and it was decided to abandon the struggle for the rest of the day. In just a few hours a volunteer rescue team turned up and after a little help with the repair escorted the X6 back to the start where our ever present mechanics Andras and Frici were already waiting.
During this return trip our little band of merry men met up with Al-Atthiya and Vasilyev who were already on their way back having successfully completed the special and we arrived to the checkpoint to everyones astonishment at the same time as the leaders. In the confusion the timing marshals congratulated us on our win… if only!!!!
The boys have been working on the car since lunchtime and is we have a little more time than we envisaged we decided to change the clutch too as it has taken a real beating in the last couple of days.
Todays stage has really narrowed down the field. Unfortunately we got word of a number of accidents so maybe we can say that our decision although not taken lightly was probably the right one under the circumstances.
Tomorrow we start the day with a fresh car and a fresh crew but with a 9 hour penalty and with a starting time of 7:49 we will once again try to conquer the Liwa desert. We have a special of 254 km’s much of which is todays route backwards.
Keep supporting us as every good work pushes us forwards to complete the race in the best position we possibly can!
