London to Cape Town Day 9: In the Sand
By John Glynn - Photos by Gerard Brown
I’ve been ploughing through a ton of work all weekend while the 2012 London to Capetown Rally was at sea. Today was their first day racing and they moved from paved European roads to sand, with the inevitable consequences of folks getting stuck and quite a few changes in the running order.
Here’s a pic of the 964 Carrera 4 making full disadvantage of its weight: a little bit of ride height is a good idea in the sand. Our boys Caldwell and Burvill are still in 10th position, roughly where they were last time we checked, but the Joost/Jacques 911 is making up some ground: now in 6th place. That is better than it sounds!
Had a good text chat with Hayden earlier, this is what he said: starts while they were coming off the boat yesterday.
HB: Off the ship in Egypt, waiting for customs and immigration to clear us all. Shades of Peking to Paris, but nice and sunny. Saw the day 6 results on the ship, made some time by cleaning on a couple, fast time on one heads up against the whole field – which I am sure you saw. Car is running fine, we had 60 minutes service time on the ferry and everything still looks good. Had to swap a broken oil pressure light switch, the Greek technician insisted that the Valeo part we had was total crap and sold us a new Bosch part for €30. Looking forward to the sections on the sand tommorrow, when digger layout should be in our favour.
JG: Sounds great. I reckon if you get past the 911, the Internet will go mental (bit of mixing it up from me…)
HB: Not sure about that, will take more cunning than I have managed so far. AC will have to punish the 912 too hard, so prudence would serve us better, but I know he would be super tickled to stay in touch. Then we just see what happens over the stretch. Sorry for the lack of pics, AC never does seem to get the wifi connected. I will try to put some photos on someone elses ‘puter and get them to you.
This morning’s update:
HB: 1st stage was very boggy. Number 45 911 and the M5 made it through without stopping (except 4WD’s). We stopped, but got a tow almost immediately and got through the rest OK. 2nd stage was cancelled, 3rd was OK. AC has inflicted a few permanent dents, rocker, door, front bumper, but on the whole, car is still fine. Scoring will re-jumble again with all the FWD cars being the biggest losers. Car ran a bit hot on the long sandy stage, so we may be making some revisions if we see 40C ambient later in the event. Plenty of time airborne today, good fun!
JG: Top stuff. Have you seen much of Francis? How is he doing? How are you guys eating – is the food OK?
HB: Francis is fine, had dinner with him one night. Food-wise, we are eating nuts, berries and chocolate on the road, washed down with water all day. Beer in the bar of course. All the evening meal food has been great: right now we are in a euroresort on the Red Sea coast with Germans, Welsh et al. We have a meal and wash here before getting on the ferry at midnight or so. Egypt on the whole has been a repressed and damaged landscape. It will take a huge pot of gold in addition to their social revolution.
JG: And what about Kenya in a few days’ time? Have you heard the Foreign Office warnings of heightened terrorist activity?
HB: Yes, but we can do nothing but continue to be careful and vigilant. I am sure there would be a change to plans by the rally office if necessary, or ordained by home office.
