TeamSaluki UEA Desert Challenge 2010

[TeamSaluki]

Team Saluki DC2010 (D-Day -2) We're ready to rock and hopefully not to roll.

Yes folks, it’s that time of the year again when Team Saluki take on the Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge in a 2000 Km / 1242 Miles, five day off-road event held in the Empty Quarter of the United Arab Emirates.

As always, prior to racing, scrutineering as per FIA regulations has to take place to ensure that the cars comply with the latest racing standards to ensure safety. This involves a small collection of people who crawl all over the vehicles checking in minute detail items such as fire extinguishing systems and fuel tanks are current and valid. It’s always a nail-biting time for entrants and their support crews, if something is wrong it can mean teams making last minute changes to their vehicles late into the night to comply with the regulations in order to race.

Scurrineering in previous years has been torturous with long delays in outdoor spaces subject to the beating sun. This year it was a completely different affair. Held in the pit area of the Yas Marina F1 circuit, it was air-conditioned luxury. Perhaps the organisers are taking pity on us given that the temperature outside today was a balmy 39 °C / 102 °F.



You’ll be glad to read that the Castrol EDGE buggy got a clean bill of health yet again, allowing the support crew to have an early night. Well when I say an early night – as I write this (21:30) we’re still in the workshop getting things ready for the logistical part of the race – up and down the road several times over the next couple of days between Dubai and Abu Dhabi – a journey time of 90 minutes each way.



Team Salukis’ motley crew this year consist of a lean but mean crew. Although some are less lean and others are more mean but the less said the better.

Mark - Driver
Paul – Co-driver
James - Team Manager
Barry - New boy on the block (think of Barry as a student with dreadlocks because that’s exactly what he is).
Rick - Mechanic
Girish - Mechanic
Gerard - Mechanic
Laurie – Website and video.
Craig - Photography and writing. (so you can blame me if you don’t like it.)
This year we’re trying new tyres on the Castrol EDGE buggy, they’ve been provided by NITTO and they’re called Dune Grabbers and they’re built for the desert terrain. From our point of view they’ve certainly got the correct name as where we’re taking them there is nothing apart from dunes, we look forward to exploring their capabilities.

Once the race gets going in anger – you’ll be able to follow the progress of Team Saluki on the live tracking link here : Tracking We are car 209 and it won't become active until Stage 1 starts (Sunday) – remember depending upon where you live the clocks may go forward one hour this weekend so Sunday morning may be an hour later where you are.

We are looking to provide updates to our Youtube page during the event, if there's new material we'll provide notification that it's been uploaded.

Tomorrow it’s and early start (do we ever get a late start?) and we’re looking to be wagons rolling back to Abu Dhabi for the Prologue which starts at 11:00am which will then determine the start positions for the race which will actually start the day after.


Wish us luck

Regards

TeamSaluki

[TeamSaluki]

Well the 'late' start this morning at 6:45 obviously wasn't late enough for one member of Team Saluki. Everyone was there at the Saluki Motorsport workshop in time for our departure except for Laurie. We do what a good team would do in these circumstances, we left him behind. Ten calls made to his phone and none answered - perhaps he's not talking to us. We've got a race to compete in and we're not letting lazy people distract us from our aim so we head down to Abu Dhabi to collect the car.

At the F1 circuit, the Castrol EDGE buggy went off it's separate way to the official start of day one. This was going to be a 286Km 'easy' run first day for the competitors whilst the rest of the support teams headed down towards a choice of positions depending on what you were doing.

Service crew (Rick, Girish, Gerald and James) all headed for the Service Area whilst Barry and Craig headed for viewing point one, followed by viewing point two. About an hour after we got to our positions, Laurie finally joins us blaming that he couldn't sleep being the reason that he's late. That's definitely the best excuse I've heard for sleeping in.

With the buggy starting the competition in 23rd place, the guys were looking to hunt down the competitors and starting working their way up the field, and that's just exactly what they did. Their first victims, sorry I mean fellow competitors, were passed within two minutes of leaving the start lines. Stuck in the dunes, they were in the middle of extracting themselves when the buggy blew passed hunting down the truck that had left the start line 1 minute before the buggy had. Another minute and the truck was history as the buggy overtook it on a charge.

By the time the buggy had reached the first underpass (viewing point one) it had made up nine places and came through there in 14th place. The guys were on a storm.



At the second underpass they were still going strong and had passed another couple of vehicles. However on the way into the second underpass they had avoided a stricken vehicle driven by Benediktas Vanagas / Saulius Jurgelenas. What they didn't notice was that Team Saluki members Barry and Laurie were helping to extract and load co-driver Saulius into the Search and Rescue helicopter after a nasty drop from a dune had jarred his spine. Once loaded on to the helicopter, they then towed Benediktas from his stuck location. All at Team Saluki wish Saulius a safe and speedy recovery.



Meeting up with the buggy at the finish line we discussed how today had gone. A new gearbox had been sourced from a reputable antipodean supplier, however it seems that they may have made a minor error on the way the cogs are assembled - changing from 4th to 5th appears normal, but changing from 5th to 6th causes the engine to rev, almost as if you'd put it back into 4th by mistake. We believe they've got gears 5 and 6 the wrong way round. Mark is having to change gears using an alternative method. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 5 and of course the reverse for changing down. A minor inconvenience but easy enough to work around.

Provisional result are in, we're currently in 4th place overall - a cracking start to the challenge. Just six minutes behind 3rd place.


We've established base camp Team Saluki down at Moreeb Dune at Liwa and as always the team will go our separate ways tomorrow morning to provide coverage over the 386Km stage. I don't think I'll travel with Barry though - he took great pride in singing all the words, and I mean ALL the words to Disney's Jungle Book - 'I wanna be like you'. He even had some actions that went with the words - Heaven forbid.

You can always follow our progress on the Desert Challenge tracking system here :
Tracking

Regards

Team Saluki

[m.lowe]

Excellent report and pictures, I love the saluki buggy shape

[TeamSaluki]

Good news today. Laurie actually managed get up on time today and unbelievably we set off 10 minutes ahead of planned schedule. Personally I believe the enticement of a cappuccino at the nearest and only petrol station clinched the deal.

The support team had worked long into the evening until the clock had reached single digits to get the Castrol EDGE buggy declared 100% fit and ready to take on the next, or should that read, that days stage.

Just so you've got an idea of who's who within the motley crew that make up Team Saluki the following rogues gallery should put your mind at rest. Those of a nervous disposition may wish to look away now.



It's okay to look again - the scary men have gone.

The temperature has dropped today - by 1ºC. It's now only 41ºC /105.7ºF but the wind is still with us - any sunburn we gained at the dust bowl of a prologue has been well and truly sandblasted now from our skins.
Oh yes, that's right you want to know how we're doing with the race.


So the day had Team Saluki starting in 4th place, when they came through PC1, they were already in second place. The guys seemed to be coping well with the upside down antipodean gearbox and were cracking on regardless. Passing PC2 and the service point, they're still the second car to come through. At the end of the stage, they've provisionally been given 3rd place for the stage which puts them into 2nd place for the event with a lead of approximately eight minutes over their nearest competitor. A cracking achievement given the heat and conditions they were going through today. To say they were flying is an underestimation. We tried to catch them from one PC point to the next viewing point on what is almost a straight road for us and dunes and tracks for the buggy. We arrived, heard the buggy coming through the distinctive rasp the engine has, we got out of the car and made a dash down the underpass to grab some shots. We got some nice ones of the car vanishing into the distance. We weren't quick enough.

We decided to get to the finish as quick as we could and meet up with the service crew who were waiting for the cars arrivals long as we could do a minor detour to get another cappuccino prior to turning off to head back to camp. It does seem that Lauries ordering of a chicken burger as a sit down meal constitutes a time efficient manner of getting to the finish line. He was soon corrected and the meal was made to go. Thankfully we made it in time to see them cross the line.




As I write, the cars back in Camp Saluki and is getting checked over by the mechanics. We've downloaded the in-car footage we've shot in HD and provided that to the TV crews who were asking specifically for it. Todays footage was internal car shots so the two scary men in the photo below may be appearing on a screen near you shortly.



We have uploaded a quick teaser video of the prologue which Laurie has put together whilst he's not sleeping, you'll find it on our youtubesite..
At time of writing it's still processing so it's hot off the press.

As always - you can follow our progress on the tracking site. tracking We are car 209.

Regards
Team Saluki

[TeamSaluki]

Team Saluki DC2010 (Start +2) Under Pressure

What's that, no, I must be feeling ill. Yes, there is definitely a chill in the air this morning and thankfully it's not due to any air-conditioning. It was short lived though, two hours later and it's back to normal, 41ºC /105.7ºF. With all this talk of climate change - I wish some of it would happen here.

The Castrol EDGE buggy came into camp last night and Rick and the guys set about giving it the once over. It seems Mark and Paul had made some body modifications along the route yesterday and chose, as their tool of choice, the hardest dune that was out there. They managed to snap the headlight bracket and remove a piece of body work, yet again some more Powell / Richards patented aerodynamic modifications. The pieces that were considered non-essential by the drivers were recovered and re-attached, returning the car to it's former glory.

Nothing major to report from a servicing point of view, normal checks, clean, fluid checks - in fact the sort of items that don't make it into these daily updates as they're taken for granted. The same goes for the Team Saluki members - each of them just get on with the task they're responsible for like a well oiled machine. You'll understand that there's a lot of work and effort going in to keep a car on the road day after day. The majority of it goes un-reported but is crucial to getting and keeping the team and vehicle moving. Just sorting out the logistics for the next day e.g. who's going where and when can take a good 20 /30 minutes to sort out.


All the comments emailed to us have been printed out and stuck on the car for all to see (obviously we take them off before the car goes racing - to leave them on would just be stupid). They really do help, thankfully - the sloppy love messages from the Team members partners seems to have dried up. There's nothing worse that seeing a fully grown man getting weepy at the thought of a message from his wife - so no more messages like that please Snugglebuns.
Wifes / Partners take note :We're here to race, not to pander to any crisis you're having. You will get your man back when the race is over. Until then, the dripping tap can wait.



Anyway, I digress, onto todays stage. Having sorted out a helicopter for myself this afternoon, to get some nice overhead pictures, I'm kind of detached from the team awaiting it's arrival at the camp so it's been interesting to follow the car on the tracking system - I would say it's definitely more frustrating than watching it in real life. Watching it for the past hour or so and the update doesn't happen. The car is currently showing 0 Km/h when they should be moving. Even more annoying is the car that they previously overtook to get into second place is chasing them down - every minute they're standing still is another minute lost.

Then THE call comes. You know, the one that rings and you know it's bad news before you even answer it. Not bad news like President Truman calling Mayor Awaya of Hiroshima just before they dropped the bomb on him but the end result of the call certainly felt the same - the world had fell apart.

The steering pump pulley has sheared and the car is almost impossible to drive in the dunes without it - of course with this broken, the belt that normally runs the pump also drives a couple of other items such as the alternator, no belt = no electricity = no go. They guys manage to get back to the service point where they can access the road and drive it back to the camp to hopefully be repaired. Given the remoteness of the Empty Quarter it's strange to discover a couple of places which could potentially be engaged to make a new replacement for the pulley. I'd have to think hard where to find such a place in my home town, but here in the middle of the desert we can rustle up a few candidates. However the urgency of the Challenge has yet to hit the Liwa region, we're going to have to wait until 4pm for them to open up before we start asking questions. Rick and Barry have been sent to check them out.




At the time of writing, no provisional results have been posted unfortunately so annoyingly we're unable to confirm where we are in the standings. We'd like to know as much as you do


We aim to be back in the race tomorrow so keep following us using the tracking system, the same one which caused me to panic a little this morning, as always you'll find it Tracking and you'll also find the live results here


Regards

Team Saluki

[TeamSaluki]

Team Saluki DC2010 (Start +3) Roll over lay down.

To continue from where we stopped yesterday evening - we had set off in search of finding or fabricating a replacement for the 'performance' steering pump pulley that had sheared. We eventually managed to source a pulley from fellow competitor Team FJ, however it needed to be modified slightly to fit on our pump. The local fabrication shop of course had to remove the existing one from the shaft so set about taking the old pulley off with a local 'hacksaw'. To you and me a hacksaw is a hand operated tool that goes forward and back and is used for cutting metal. To the local, a hacksaw is a power operated tool that goes round very fast and grinds metal. That's right, he took a grinder to removing the small remains of the pulley. Of course, normal health and safety practices applied, he was squinting his eyes and wearing the obligatory safety sandals whilst grinding.

Regardless of how he did it, the end result was a fully functioning steering pump which was duly fitted with a new belt to the Castrol EDGE buggy. The car was ready again in when the clock had reached single digits, this time 3am. Sterling work by Rick, Gerald and Girish. To catch up on their sleep today we've decided to let James drive them to the service area. This will allow the guys to catch up on some missing sleep.

Some of the other members of the crew decided to stay up well past this hour, socialising with neighbouring team members. Even with the start of the days racing being delayed by one hour as a mark of respect on the death of Sheikh Ahmed enabling us to get a little bit of extra snooze time, can you guess which member of Team Saluki was last up ? A Team Saluki cap to the one who replies to this email first with the correct name.

And now for something more serious, the race. Since even the provisional results weren't posted until way after we sent you the update, the starting position for the buggy was in 15th place for the day, 7th overall. We had to take 10hours and 30 minutes of time penalties due to us missing waypoints yesterday but at least we're still in the running.

The start was excellent, setting off at one minute intervals, approximately two minutes after starting the buggy had caught it's first victim at the top of the first dune and had driven past the competitor as if they were out for Sunday ride in the country. This continued through the field with the buggy catching and passing the field.



By the end of PC1, the buggy was only 1:50 down on the leader, by PC2 this had dropped to 23 minutes, and by PC3 they had only dropped to 28 minutes. Continuing at this pace and they would be in second place for the day.



However, you knew there was going to be a however creeping in here didn't you. Sorry to say it was James that got THE call today, yes one of those calls. Much, much, much worse than yesterdays. On a scale from good to pretty bad, this was terrible. 180Km's into the stage at a speed of about 40Km/h it felt like the the antipodean gearbox had decided to right itself by turning the car on it's head to make the gearbox correct. The guys dropped off a dune which had a sharp drop. However due to the speed they were doing, it caused them to nose dive (remember last years video ?, No ? well it's here). The nose dropped into the dune, Newtonian physics then took over. The back end, now travelling faster than the front, continued in an upward motion. 40Km/h it seems is fast enough to generate enough force to push the back end of the buggy the complete length of the buggy into the air.

At this point Mr Gravity took over and decided that it wanted a piece of the action. He decided to pull the back end of the buggy over the front. At this point Mark and Paul have lovely view of the sand of the empty quarter through the windscreen which is now horizontal about 3 feet above the sand and moving forward.

Mr Gravity, not content with just inverting the car decided that due to the convex layout of the roof, that it would continue to pull down on the car with the lowest point of gravity being the pivot point. Mark is obviously heavier than Paul because the car ended up lying on the drivers side at 90 Degrees to the ground. The guys were in the car, strapped in to their chairs looking at the desert horizontally. Not good.

Paul immediately pressed the emergency button on the ERTF responder beacon, the response was instant although a bit like a badly set out call centre voice menu. A voice announced "Hello, do you require a helicopter ?" Paul responded with "No." The person on the other end announced "OK, a helicopter will with you in two minutes." Once out of the car, they surveyed the damage. Given the response from the ERTF system, they perhaps should have asked for a replacement car. This one had taken a beating. Doors were missing, body panels smashed, tyres missing from their rims and hydraulics leaking. Having said that I've seen worst cars with annual safety certificates.

They were however alive which at the end of the day is all that really matters.

The search and rescue helicopter turned up (thanks guys and gals) and as a precaution Mark and Paul were taken to the nearest hospital for a check up. A couple of X-rays later and some Paracetamol to numb some pain, they get the all clear.



James, Laurie, Rick ventured into the dunes to extract the buggy. Fixing what they can to get it running again to get it out of the desert. They successfully retrieved it and it's now on the back of the trailer waiting to be returned to Dubai tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately for Team Saluki, like so many of the competitors that have fell before us, there's no other way to say it. That's us out of the challenge. It's will be a very sober mood in the camp this evening.

As always, as the event finishes on us I'll get Mark to send out one more update pulling together his take on the rally. In our first note to you we promised you a total of seven updates. Since this is only number six and there's nothing more to update you on tomorrow, we don't want to short change you. Give us a couple of days to gather our thoughts, senses and let our bodies recover.

Many thanks for your continued support.

This is Team Saluki, reporting for our entry in the Desert Challenge of 2010. Goodnight.

Regards
Team Saluki