Syd Stelvio, Peking to Paris 25 - Day 3 – Hohhot to Ordos – 334km
334 km were on the board for day three of this year’s Peking to Paris Motor Challenge, and a quick bit of mental arithmetic from the average distance over the past three days will tell you that at the current run rate Paris is a fair bit more than 35 days away. Well, today was the last sub 400km day for a while, with the distances set to ramp up between now and the rallies first non-transit day. So, for anyone already feeling the fatigue, well, best you get an early night if you can…
If anyone had woken in a bit of a fog this morning, there was a repeat of the previous evenings test and an opportunity to clear the cobwebs, and perhaps improve on the times set on the first attempt. This was the first of three tests today, and initial bragging rights went to Gerd Bühler and Laurenz Feierabend, the German crew setting a time of 1:42 in the Porsche 911E, beating Christophe Bouchut and Alfonso de Orleans-Borbon in the Peugeot 504 by four seconds, it’s not every day one can tell their kids they’ve beaten a LeMans winner on track! In the vintage category it would be another Chevy on top, Canadian crew Christos Livadas and Chris Papaioannou circulating the dirt oval in a very respectable 1:49, enough for the fourth best time overall.
Sandpit playtime finished and dust cleared from every cavity, it was time to get comfy for a concentration run through some of the backroads and villages. In fact, the first regularity wasn’t for another 220 clicks or so, and half a day down the road, but there was plenty to keep the mind occupied on the run, especially whilst escaping the gravity of Ordos on its endless spaghetti highways.
The roads took us past miles upon miles of agricultural land, at various stages of crop production, and down long avenues lined by Betula Jacquemontii, the Himalayan Birch, tall columns of bright silver in the sunshine that was beating down hard on the farm workers, and the rally cars. The heat was becoming a factor today, the wind of the first two days had dropped and the mercury was exceeding 25 degrees by mid-morning. The agricultural traffic was spilling out of the fields onto the roads as well, with Tractors of a vintage that matched the rally cars causing the odd hold up, but nothing especially arduous.
Two time controls came and went, and after some of the potholes yesterday, there was a decent bit of tarmac to enjoy, at least until for the last ten clicks or so that were on cobbles, and included a crossing of the Yellow River on an old pontoon bridge. The Yellow River is the second longest river in China and sixth longest in the world, and the rickety old bridge had a Heath Robinson air about it, but despite being overloaded with coal trucks and other freight, its mooring chains seemed to be holding it in place. It doesn’t pay to dally though, and the 240Z Datsun of father and son Ryan and Isaiah Salter demonstrated this fact with a spectacular and noisy exit of the bridge, climbing up the potholed and broken tarmac of the far bank at pace, the Zebra striped car clearly more used to escaping Crocodiles in the Mara River of the Serengeti.
By the time the cars began to file onto the days only regularity, the temperature was over thirty, and the road ahead that had been baking in the sun was dust filled and slippery.
Dirt tracks slipped through trees and scrub, following the contours of the agricultural land that edged the tracks. It was fun, but by no means a navigator’s nightmare, although car 59, the Alfa Giulia 1300 of Elvis Fogal and Jean-Pierre Carles were so confident of their timings that they didn’t bother to stop for the reg start, just carried on through, perhaps a case of It’s ‘Now or Never’, I guess…
After another run up the highway to Ordos, there was a test to complete the day at the wonderful Ordos International Circuit. The layout is apparently in the shape of a galloping horse, perhaps Chinese Horses are a little different, either way it is a facility that has hosted FIA World Championship events since it was built in 2010, and is a proper big track, and suited to something like a 911, so Gerd and Laurenz must have been confident again. They did well, but were beaten by yesterday’s test toppers, Steve Osborne and Robert Smith in the number 65 Escort. Our resident racing driver in the number 55 Peugeot didn’t fare so well, in fact clocking up 10 minutes and 15 seconds of penalty, so I can only assume the car was left in the pits and Christophe carried navigator Alfonso around on his back?! At least that’s how it goes in my head, the reality of the situation was actually a broken throttle cable, so there may still have been some piggybacking to get the Peugeot back to the pits.
They weren’t the only one’s suffering mechanical mayhem, Tony Sutton and Andrew Lawson, who led on day 1 broke down on the exit of the pit lane after a blown fuse caused a fuel pump failure. They pushed the car back down pitlane and must have taken inspiration from the Marx Brothers for the manner of the recovery, with the car almost mating with the pit wall on several occasions as one pushed and one steered.
Their demise meant that second place overall now belongs to Brian Scowcroft and Mark Gilmour in a Fangio, sandwiched between yesterday’s leaders Jorge and Cristobel Perez Companc in first, and Tony Rowe and Mark Delling still in third. Leading the Classic Category, and the field overall is Gerd Bühler and Laurenz Feierabend in the number 67 Porsche 911.
All that remains to be said today, is a big Happy Birthday to HERO’s own Andy Pullan, waving goodbye to his 20’s and saying hello to knee pain, random noise making when getting up from a chair and ever worsening hangovers. It’s all downhill from here, pal.
Syd
