Syd Stelvio, Pearl of India - Day 19 – Goa to Mahabaleshwar – 456km
The penultimate day of the event dawned hot and humid on the coast of Goa. Two days left of the rally, but, as it turned out, this would be the final day of competition as the 48-hour car had found that the planned regularity for the final day was unusable due to construction. This was it then, the last chance to make a dent for those chasing and the final competitive miles to consolidate a lead for those at the top of the pile.
With just six seconds in it at the sharp end it wouldn’t take much to derail the Hunt’s bid for victory. The first regularity of the day was a steep 8k climb up the slopes surrounding the Arjuna Dam, with a succession of tight bends to boot. It would be hard to preserve momentum on such a road in a Bentley, and with a brand-new set of boots on the Escort was surely licking its lips.
Martin Hunt is no slouch behind the wheel of course, but even with his skills he cannot break the laws of physics, and so when two lorries inexplicably blocked the reg and the number 2 car was stuck at a standstill for two minutes, it seemed that the game was up, Martin and Olivia were out of the hunt.
With Pulitzer winning wordplay like that, it might be time to quite whilst I’m ahead, but that was not the end of the story. The chasing Escort had in fact entered the regularity first, and clearly Jim and Simon were double keen to get on with the job and exploit their cars advantage on the slope. So keen in fact, that they missed the start of the regularity, and when they stopped at the first control and handed over their timecard, their mistake became all too apparent, and just like the Hunts, they would receive a minute of penalty.
It seemed nobody wanted to win this competition, but with the top two doing everything to commit rallying Hari-Kari the path was left open for those who could keep a cool head to swoop into the lead. Step up car number 7, the Ford V8 of Richard Clark and Jonathan Round. They were 15 seconds off the lead at the start of the day, surely the third-place car wouldn’t also suffer a mistake or the malice of the rallying Gods. Lightening doesn’t tend to strike a third time and despite the pair in the black V8 not having the cleanest reg, they kept their debt to the timekeeper at ten seconds and seized the lead.
Despite there being another regularity left, the destiny of first place now seemed settled, the big Ford just needed to keep going and not have a howler on the final 18km regularity, that skirted another dammed body of water and picked a path through beautiful subsistence farmland. Again, the seven car kept the penalties low, and consolidated a lead that now stands at 33 seconds, with no regularities remaining.
Despite their errors, the number 2 Bentley and the number 17 Escort did finish the day in second and third respectively, and for two crews that never came here to win, that is still a pretty good result.
The Hunts were not the only crew to fall victim to the road-blocking trucks, with the class win chasing Ford of the Brothers Buchan also trapped in the blockade, allowing their rivals Tommy Dreelan and George Barrack to secure the class honours, though after notching up just 5 seconds of penalty, the triumph would always have been theirs. Best on the day though, were Mike Dreelan and Bob Pybus, who collected just 4 seconds of penalty, an incredible achievement given the climbs and the fact that Mike has no third gear. Mike was buzzing at the lunch halt, and rightly so, and their performance, in addition to the Buchans bad luck, means that they will finish second in class.
Two other cars were also caught in the truck-stop-roadblock, namely Paul Darrouzet and John Gray in the Mustang and Jonathan Turner and Simon Young in the number 1 Bentley. Unlike their cohorts though, instead of racing to the top in an attempt to salvage something, they stopped mid-reg at an Ice Cream Van, and why not. When life gives you lemons and all that.
That then, is almost that, save for something disastrous happening tomorrow, like an asteroid hitting the earth or something equally unfortunate, the mortar has almost set on the results. The run to the finish will be a procession, and perhaps an opportunity to reflect on the past three weeks.
It hasn’t been a typical rally, indeed I’m still at a bit of a loss of just where this event fits in the scheme of things. It has been three weeks of many incredible experiences, from the chaotic roads (I may have mentioned the roads are nuts?), to the variety of scenery from desert plains to mountain peaks, and from sticky jungles to the urban jungle and of course, wonders of the world. Central to all of it though have been the people that live here, those people that have welcomed us everywhere we have gone, who’s faces have lit up as the cars have travelled through their bit of the world. They have shared their hospitality with us and gifted us their generosity and enthusiasm. These are a people that are constantly on the move, from entire families squeezed onto motorcycles, to overloaded Rickshaws fit to topple and of course every sort of motorised or animal powered vehicle in existence. Theirs is a seemingly endless commute, and their constant movement is perhaps a metaphor for their lives. For three fabulous weeks they have welcomed us on the roads with them, and we have shared our journeys in tandem. It is a journey I will never forget.
Syd