Premature End to Peugeot Prize Drive

Posted: June 9, 2000 7:08 PM

Stage 1 saw a tremendous start, rewarded in the time sheets with 22nd overall. A slight off near the end of the stage had them selecting reverse to extricate themselves from the trees, although no damage, losing some 15-20 seconds. Mark commented then "All the theory in the world cannot prepare you for this - it's awesome!"

A very hot pair appeared from Stage 2. With outside temperatures nearing 35 C, it is likely that the inside temperature is in the 50's. Gordon asked for his photocopied set of notes as the sweat running down his hands was smudging the original pencil copy. Mark stated that the stage had been "OK, a very tight stage." This moved them up to 18th overall.

Then disaster on the following 20km stage called Thiva. A broken wishbone triggered the series of problems. Whilst struggling to the end of the stage, they noticed a fire at the back which got bigger and bigger until they had to stop to put it out. Their own extinguisher wasn't enough, so they stopped the following car, to borrow theirs.

After the fire was out, later found to be caused by a petrol leak, they tried again to reach the finish, but the clutch gave out after all the strain of the suspension damage, and the team retired 4km from the end of the stage. Heat and petrol fumes affected the crew badly for a time after they stopped.

Mark and Gordon have given their all in the preparations for this event, with Mark starting to take French lessons as soon as he won the Championship to prepare to communicate with the engineers. Indeed, he spotted a problem with the car on the shakedown which had he not noticed and been able to convince the engineers to check over, would have resulted in an engine failure during the event. The pair have acquitted themselves well, but are understandably distraught at the moment.