Friday, January 16.
Stage 12 – double digits. It was hard to believe I had come this far. I was still here. After so many had crashed out or not finished for whatever reason, I was still in it. We were. Dennis and I were a great team.
I thought today would be an easy day like yesterday. (“Easy” is a relative term of course.) Nope.
Rocks all day. Sharp ones. I got one flat. My third of the Rally. Many of the other South Racing guys got 20 flats in the Rally.
There were three dune sections apart from one another. Each was a giant, imposing, scary mountain. Like 30 story building size. No kidding. Maybe higher.
The first one we failed right at the top and had to turn around. We were overheating. Oh my gosh. Very hot engine. While we waited there on a plateau, putting water in, Dennis bummed more water off a local spectator, as I observed other cars failing. 90% had to turn around. Where were they going now. Around to the left. We got the car cooled down and went that way. When you are in the dunes, you have to make fast decisions. Your foot cannot come off the gas or you will get stuck. I have to say, I felt like I was a pro dune driver that day.
The second dune was bigger than the first. The sand was very soft. Lots of vehicles were stuck. A car was on its roof. A truck on its side. We came over a crest to find a giant uphill off-camber (leaning to one side) climb to get out. Vehicles were stuck at the bottom. I floored it. We had to abort close to the top. As I turned down, I realized we were in a giant bowl. Maybe 200 yards wide and 8 stories deep. If we get stuck in the bottom of this we are doomed. I did not want to go to the bottom. Engine screaming. What to do?
I tried to go around the circle to buy time, look around, and make a decision. It was like I was circling a giant toilet bowl. Around I went. Half a rotation, building speed and trying to figure out what to do with it. If I turned more uphill, I’d lose a lot of momentum and traction. I sped the lowest part of the rim and tried to figure out what was on the other side if I tried to crest it.
Braaaaaaaaaaaaa! Around I went – faster. I did 1 1/2 full circles, turned downhill some to get a straight line up the other side. Dennis was cursing in his helmet. Up, up, up – crest! I made it out! Dennis starts shouting how that was awesome and great job. I hope I have that on GoPro! No time to celebrate averting disaster on Stage 12 – I had to assess where I was now, and how to get back to the race course.
After some fast sections, the third giant dune section came. We blasted up but had to go off course to avert a race truck. Giant black lava boulders appeared among the light brown sand. More and more of them. We made it to the top, but the course had gone left a long time ago. We could see it down there. We moved slowly over big black lava balls from watermelon size to three-foot diameter. We made it back to the course! A race truck passed on course as we were coming into it and took a picture of us. I am sure he could not believe what he was seeing. I wish I had that picture! Oh man, this stage was all drama! It was wild!
11 hours in the car. A semi-final test. Passed. We knew the last Stage tomorrow was short – only 140 km.
We were now 17th overall in our class. We had a 1 pm start time tomorrow, so I could sleep in.
After all that, first I had to breathe.
Great strategy to get out of the bowl and not get stuck.