THA Rally Festival - Friday

This weekend was the THA Rally Festival (in Tobago). It would be my first time competing in my Clio Sport so I naturally I was very anxious to get this first event under my belt.

The Recce
On Friday morning, my Co-Driver Ancil Callender, and ex Co-Driver Justin Gittens (now Co-Driving for Gobin Mahadeo) decided to kill two birds (excercise and pace notes) with one stone. We ran the stage (by foot) and ended with some Ab Ripper X. Great way to start the weekend!

The Motorcade
Later that afternoon the 25 competing cars set out on a drive through the streets of Tobago. For the most part cars were moving at about 40km/h. There were two or three times when a  gap was presented we pushed our car for short bursts. On one of these ocassions I decided to "mash out"... run out 1st gear, 2nd gear, 3rd gear... All of a sudden I hear the engine revving freely... and I stopped getting gears "I doh believe this!!!...nah!!! nah!!! not the gearbox!!!... NAH!!" I exclaimed. After playing around with the shifter and magically getting the car in 3rd gear Ancil assured me that the problem was the linkage for the shifter cable. Needless to say we had to do the rest of the motorcade in 3rd gear which was a pain.

The Fix
After the motorcade, scrutineering and opening ceremony we went back to the hotel on the flatbed (thanks to "Stouty") where Ancil fixed the linkage. I did a few road test, limed and went to bed a bit concerned.

*sigh*... what will tomorrow bring...