Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Here I am!!

God, its day 6 and this is the first opportunity I have had to do the blog - excuse the spelling, no time to correct.
Qualifying went well, we were 12th overall and 1st in class, so pleased with that, Rupert and Mark Devis were a little slower but well up.
The first day was a crippler, we did over 550kms of really tough road sections high up in the mountains, betwen 6 and 8 thousand feet,with 7 special stages, and temps of 35 deg, we were just shattered at the end, and finished the day in 3rd pos in historics - Martin Mc Glone was very ill and had to stop driving, a combination of heat , exhaustion and dehydration, it was the hardest days rallying we have ever done.
Day 2 was just as hard, we came down a long straight hill at around 120mph and hit a dip , marked in the notes but not cautioned and the car launched in the air and we split the sump - luckily it was at the end of the stage so we got a quick time and limped to a village were we found a mechanic who was able to solder up the crack, it´s an ali sump so could not be welded, this took 2 hours and cost a measly 700 pesos, about 40 quid, fantastic, and only in mexico.
Our times on the stages now moved us up to 1st in the most competitive class Historic C and we have won every day so far with the exception of the first day were we were beaten by 2 germans in a quick Mustang, sadly they crashed out.
The mule team are all still running, Simon and I are 6th or 7th overall and 1 st in class and Marc and Rupert are not far behind us.
We are pissing off our arch rivals Bill Shannahan the yank with Brit Murray Smith as his Co Piloto - they were determined to beat us gringos this year but we are still far faster than they are.
Anyway,we are now about to start day 6 and we are all very tired and rather smelly, Montezuma has attacked us all with dire consequences, especially Marc and I who had the most embarassing moment in the centre of Mexico City at the start of the special stage - we were lining up to go, and we literally had to, then and there, bit like having a poo in regents park with loads of people walking around!
got to go now, off in a few minutes and I need food, have lost a couple of kilos, rupert has droped 4kgs thanks to old Monty.
We really really want this win, fingers crossed go to do the infamous mille cumbres this morning - you translate it and you will understand,
bye,
8.30

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