The first night stage was staggeringly different to the day stages, I thought
it would be easier to drive at night, but I found it more difficult, I am
not quite sure why, because we had plenty of lights showing us the way.
I had the car mostly between 2nd and 3rd gear, and found difficulty
driving faster than I thought I would be able to drive. This stage
was extremely long (~13 miles) and seemed to go on forever. We saw our usual
array of abandoned cars along the route, some looking more seriously
bent than others. After about 4 miles into the stage the car that left
one minute behind me, caught me up. I knew there was no way that I would be
able to stay in front of him, so at the first opportunity I pulled to the
side of the road to let him pass. After the first few miles I started feeling
more comfortable, and started driving somewhat faster, trying to set up
for corners better, getting the tail to hang out so that I could increase
my exit speeds out of the turns. But then came a very sharp left hander, which
was not shown on the route instructions, I came into the corner just slightly
too fast, I felt the back coming out, so I stomped on the gas pedal,
which brought the car under control again. The car was still going sideways,
when we hit the embankment at the exit to the turn. I heard a crunch, followed
by my co-driver giving me the okay to carry on. I took the next couple of
miles slightly easier, wondering if I had damaged the suspension, or the brakes
or possibly picked up a flat. Everything seemed okay with the car, and we
finished the end of the stage with no more incidents. At the end of the stage
I looked at the rear part of the car, but could not see any damage, maybe
I had hit the embankment with the wheels and just bounced off.
Stage 6 most much more interesting, but also much slower, the roads were
slicker, visibility was atrocious with fog coming down, and the roads
got narrower and tighter. By this time, many cars had already dropped out,
and we opted to take our time and survive the event so that at least
we would go up a seed place. Not long into the stage the car that
started 1 minute behind caught me, so I pulled over and let him pass.
A few minutes later another car was FAST approaching me and again I let
him pass. Less than 2 miles down the road, the car that had just
passed me, was buried in a tree on the left side of the road. We were
waved on by workers/specators, saying they had the situation under
control. Another mile down the road we saw another wreck in the woods again
we were flagged on. Then we came upon a third wreck, we stopped for advice
from the workers on the scene who asked us to get to the end of the
stage and report this accident. We had lost so much time in the stopages
that we finished the stage at a sedate pace. It was now that I began to notice
that the car's electrics were playing up, the lights would dim slightly and
the car started miss-firing. Bt switiching off most of the auxiliary
lights, the miss-fire dissappeared, so I assumed that the alternator
was giving problems.
On our way to the service area, we must have come across at least 7 or
9 ambulances, going the other way. When we reached the service area, we were
told by the organizers that all the cars wound be held at the service area
until further notice. At the point we learnt the grim news that there
had been 1 or 2 fatalities on the previous stage.
At the service break, I checked the elctrics, but could find nothing looose
or broken, although my battery was completely flat. I suspected that the
regulator was acting up, and as a result we decided not to continue with
the rally, as we did not relish being stuck in the woods at night
with no electrics.
Stage 7 was restaretd at about 1:30 in the moring, but by that time
we had already left. Next morning we found out that all the remaining stages
had been cancelled due to the conditions. The banquet was very sombre,
with the reporting of one fatality and one serious injury. I packed up
early, headed home and reflectd on the weekend.
I would like to thank Bob Barrell, Jerry & Debbie Sweet and Rob Hill
for making the event possible. I had mixed feeling about the whole event.
Would I do it again ? I am not sure. Although I learnt a few things about
driving on dirt, I think I need more divisional experience before
takling another natioanl event.
Gerry
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