Home Sweet Home

It's Sunday afternoon, 1 pm to be precise, and I am back home in Wales after a very tiring trip back.
Slept in the car all the way from Heathrow to Chepstow, so poor Sarah had to drive me back in silence, apart from my snoring, without me telling her a thing about our adventures, and I went to bed at 7.30 pm and slept till 9am this morning.
What an adventure, and what an event, and I am sorry I was not able to update the blog on a daily basis, it was too difficult to do due to both the schedule and the difficulty of getting web access.
Last time I was able to post was Thursday AM with 2 days to go, so to continue the story, here goes.
Thursday was a fairly short day, only 350 KMS with 6 stages all run at altitude on very twisty up and down hill stages which were all very scary, especially the down hill sections with large drops if you got the call wrong, we did 3 stages twice to make up the 6 and after the first runs Simon and I decided to ease off a little as did Marc and Rupert - when we checked our times we were all faster which goes to show that a little knowledge is rather dangerous, but we all drove the stages in a smoother fashion which gave us our improvement, then in to Zacetecas for the night and the infamous Mescal drinking party and dance through the streets - every one follows the band on a parade from the town to the drivers party and day prize giving which of course goes on till about midnight, and then we had to be up at 5.45 to prepare for the final day.
Friday - the final blast from Zacetecas to Nuevo Laredo,a truly bad ass town, was a run of 700KMS using the original PanAmerican Highway, and the morning was bitterly cold as we set off, you forget that at altitude the desert is freezing until the sun is well and truly up. then it gets hot, past the tropic of cancer marker, past lots of mean looking Mexican drugs control posts and on to do 6 really fast stages, where they simply close long stretches of the highway for us to drive like hooligans, imagine a 2 lane rather lumpy version of the M4 and you have the picture - some fast bends but nothing you need to brake for - we were pulling 222KMH but were easing off as we wanted to save the engine, Stig Blomqvist running just in front of us was pulling 290KMH, some were going even faster - all this on road tyres!
Last year when we ran this section the heat nearly killed us, but this year it was much cooler and we found it far easier.
Then a re-group for a controlled convoy to the finish in Nuevo laredo where they will kill you for a packet of fags - and to the finish arch, where we came in to a rapturous crowd, and were photographed dancing on the roof and bonnet of our car Bag o Nails.
We finished in 6th place overall - behind all the 600hp Studebaker's, and 1st in Historic C which is exactly what we wanted to achieve, so Simon and I are over the moon.
Immediately after the finish ramp our car was pulled aside as was Marc and Rupert's car for a tech inspection - carb off- rockers off, and a capacity check - we all proved to be legal, so after a long shower and complete re-pack of all of our clothes ( we had to leave at 6.30am to catch our flight to Mexico city) we went to the final prize giving which was the usual crazy affair - too much noise and chaos.
Marc and Rupert did really well for beginners, and I think over the next few weeks they will realise that experience on this event really does count, we were much better at coping with all the problems that faced us this year than we were last year, and even after what seemed a retirement moment when we split the sump open in the middle of nowhere Simon and I knew in our heart of hearts that we still stood a chance.
Martin and Jon had a great time, and drove the Gypsy Wind which had more problems than us, but still finished well, they enjoyed them selves and I think that they will be back next year.
What you don't know is that Marc Devis our team mate from Belgium arranged for Alexander Davidis of John Galt Films Inc from New York to come down with a crew of 5 technicians and fit our 3 mule team cars with cameras and full sound kits that were live for 9 hours a day, giving them 189 hours of live action, this is now being edited down to either 45 mins or hopefully a 2 hour 2 part documentary to be screened world wide by discovery TV in the new year, Alex and his crew were a delight to work with, and they said it was one of the most exciting events they have ever covered, so watch out for it!
Post race thoughts from home.
Mexico - the people are really wonderful, humble, happy, polite and will do anything to help you.
The food is awful, we are all still suffering from Montezuma's revenge after 12 days!
Topes or speed bumps can destroy your car - at any time
and La Carrera really is the one adventure all petrol heads should do at least once before you die.
True friendships are built in the face of adversity.
Memories of this event will live for ever.
Simon and I would like to pay tribute to the Mule Team crew of Fernando, Sean Kristin, Dave and especially our crew chief Todd Landon.
Will we go back?
may be - but not to defend our title, we can only get knocked off our perch, but possibly in a different car for a new class win, we will keep you posted.