Stage 7 – Iron Bridge Spectator Stage 2Our third pass over this fast piece of road. We had one very scary moment where the car bottomed on the uphill at the end of the long straight on Landon Rd, which caused the car to skip sideways a little. Normally not a huge deal, except when it happens at 180km/h, then it’s a very huge deal!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je_NXdCXqkoStage 8 – Egan CreekThe long Egan Creek stage would sadly be the demise of our rally. Our plan all along was to take things relatively easy in the rough stuff (without slowing to a crawl the whole time anyway) and I think we did that successfully. One of the water splashes in Birch Lake Rd caused the motor to ingest a little water and it stumbled a little, but overall things were good. We reached the very fast section at the end of the stage and thought we were in the clear, when a “Stay R/Cr” bit us horrlbly (7:58 in part 2). Buried in that crest, right on the line it seems, was a very nasty rock that we hit square on with the right front at roughly 160km/h. Apparently a bunch of competitors hit it during recce and did damage to wheels and tires, though we missed it and indeed never saw it, and didn’t change the note. Hitting that rock amazingly didn’t flat the tire, but it blew and bent the hotbits strut. The steering wheel was immediately about 10 degrees left to keep straight, but because the road was smooth it didn’t seem too horrible. At the finish of the stage I got out and checked and noticed there was about 1” less ride height on that side, because the shock shaft no doubt was jammed due to the bent strut body. We limped on to the next stage, pondering our options.
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EF0guR52rIPart 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gHBrCPfOWPEStage 9 – Lower Old HastingsHaving driven the transit down to Lower Hastings, the car didn’t feel too horrible, so I wasn’t entirely sure how bad the damage was. I talked to Martin and told him we had done some damage, but didn’t expect he’d catch us. I was wrong on that one. Sorry Martin for holding you up for a while! You can hear every little bump banging, and the buzz noise is the right-front tire bouncing and causing everything in the car to rattle. It really did feel horrible to drive, and I didn’t dare jump it on any of the huge jumps in that stage. All the banging also rearranged all the lights, making them all but useless. When Martin caught us, I could see better by his lights than by ours!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=febEZGfRoBMStage 10 – Middle Old HastingsHaving limped the last stage, I knew we could limp this one, and then we’d only have the Golton rallycross stage until service. Martin caught us in under 5 minutes which says something about how slow I was going, but the banging over the previous stage and this one had managed to totally rearrange our lights again and I was worried about bending something structural.
(Link coming, Youtube is being dumb tonight for some reason)
End of the storyFor the transit up the highway the car continued to pound over every little bump and dip in the highway, and having an Evo sitting on my bumper the whole time didn’t help (if you wanna go faster, just pass me!). John and I spent the drive discussing options. I knew we could limp through Golton no problem, but back at service our only spare suspension option is old stock stuff that almost certainly wouldn’t survive a second, rougher pass through Egan Creek and could quite possibly have been dangerous, causing a severe off if something failed. We possibly could have borrowed someone’s spare suspension, but I’m on such a tight budget I would have a hard time affording to replace someone’s gear if I broke it. The reality of the situation is that we’d be driving in an extremely slow, conservative manner if we were to continue and likely not enjoying ourselves. Given we’re out there to have fun, and the fun had stopped with a bang, there wasn’t much point in pressing on. We stopped at the optional refuel and spoke to our crew, who concurred, and at that point I grudgingly walked our card inside to the organizing crew and withdrew us from the rest of the rally.
Anyway, we had a great time while it lasted, wish it’d lasted longer, but we’ll be back to challenge again. Anyone want to sponsor me with some suspension?