Stage one turned out to be a disaster zone due to sunstrike, fog and a little ice just to add to the excitement for the day.
Warren and Paddy in the GP Motorsport BMW are applying for jobs with Air New Zealand after clearing a 2 metre wire fence and making a text book landing on all 4 wheels in a paddock. After clearing Imigration and Customs (the farmers paddock) they made it back to meet up with their service crew.
Karl and Fraser decided to try their skills on gravel when they took on a gravel pitt, sun strike and comms issues were a leading factor in their temporary demise. After pulling themselves off the side of the gravel pile they were back underway but their problems were yet to come. When the car started to overheat, Karl pulled over and found that the radiator had rather a lot of water leaking from it. With the service crew about an hour away they decided to limp out to get closer, luckily they came across Warren and Paddy in the process of driving back out of the paddock they landed in. The blue Honda made it through the stage but not without a few hair raising corners and severe sun strike to deal with. A call on the radio to Karl was not timely enough to warn them of the conditions.
The teams service crew had their work cut out for them, they managed to repair the Green Honda and have them back on the road, the Blue Honda had a few minor issue with the exhaust breaking away at the weld after a new exhaust had been installed prior to the event, and a minor oil problem when we overfilled at a pitt stop- Needless to say the Fire Safety rally cars really got the message out about the hazards of excessive smoking when we completly engulfed the start crew at special stage 7 in smoke as we left the start line. No one could see a thing including Stu who was trying to give me directions. The support from the service crew was overwhelming, they kept the cars running and fixed the issues really quickly. Well done team. |