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BRC Rally Barbados 2004,
Island Wide,
May 29 & 30, 2004
 
Index
Intro Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
 
Team Report: (Dri) Roger Mayers (Nav) Max Ferri
(M9 Trivial Pursuit™/McEnearney Quality Ford Focus WRC)
 

What a disappointment……

Who could have guessed that bad luck could strike again so early!!!!

Well not much one can really do about it, but while it did last, it was awesome! I had been setting myself up for this rally for the whole month preceding and was really ready to take on the challenge - everything on the car (with the exception of the engine of course) was changed to make sure no problems, or gremlins as better understood by all rally folks, would come to pay a visit.

From left: Max, Roger & BarryWe arrived at Simpson Motors very early and I had just kept my focus of attention on relaxing and getting ready for what could possibly be my 2nd very hard challenge at winning this humongous event. As I was discussing the idea in my head however, the problem of the rain clouds towards SS1 wasn't extremely reassuring - however no probs, slapped on the wets and headed out to the stages.

SS1 wasn't as good as we both expected it to be - it was too wet and nasty and frankly Max definitely didn't enjoy it other than it of course being the very 1st stage of a very long rally, and unfortunately not our stage win. But, hehehe, the fun was about to start!

 

As we headed onto SS2, we chatted a bit in the car got more relaxed after the 1st stage and I think we were ready to take on the challenge, albeit the stage being one of my favorites if you can recall my Apr 4th 04 Report. And so said so done, sailed through the stage and picked up the fastest time! And so forth through most stages of the whole day with the exclusion of one SS9 where Skeetie had us by 0.2 of a sec or so.

Must say, the best fun we had on the rally was definitely the 1st run through Canefield in the afternoon SS12, we came flying through the stage and onto the very long straight by Vaulcluse Raceway, were two small cresses where waiting for us as we were approaching the 90 left at the bottom of the straight. I remember asking Max which cress was our braking point, the 1st or the 2nd, and he quickly replied, the 2nd. As we kept the foot nailed in the tank above the 1st cress, when we reached the 2nd cress, the "10-ton anchor" as Max calls it when through the window and the Focus came from FLAT OUT to FLAT STOP in a matter of seconds - it all happened so quickly that Max barely had any time to look down on the notes to realized that we had already changed direction and were heading towards the lower hairpin of the stage.

Well, it was soon after that, at the end of the very last stage for the evening, as Max was handing out our Time Card to receive the finish time for that stage that the low oil pressure sign came on, and this very rough noise overcame the engine. We left the TC and slowly cruised to our pre-determined Service Area where I shut down the car to try to make a quick diagnose of the problem but nothing apparent could be found. We no longer had any time to ponder on that as we had to get back to Simpson Motors to check-in for the end of Day 1. We nursed the car back and eventually trailed it back home for a full check over. Both Max and I retired to our beds, exhausted but mostly disappointed not knowing if we would be joining back the next morning or not.

Over the night our boys worked endlessly pulling off the Sump and Front Axles to diagnose the problems. In the end, a small piece of metal no bigger than a small piece of dust had SOMEHOW managed to get into the Oil Pump, bypassing the Oil Pump Filter, and seize up the oil pump - hence no Oil = no Engine……

Well the level of disappointment we all felt, both the team and our competitors from what we understand, was enormous. However, once we received OFFICIAL results on Sunday the overall results stated a 40 secs lead on Skeetie and 1.20 mins lead on Bourne at the end of Day 1.
If you must go out - make sure you do it in STYLE!

Well here we are again, hoping to next year - they say things happen in 3s, so I'm hoping next year will be the Mayers/Maximus year.

Still though, I want to really thank everyone involved in the rally - the organization, planning and running of the event was phenomenal this year; everyone spent exhausting times trying to pull everything together and I'm sure everyone involved was pleased. I want to thank all the marshals for their effortless work, the organizers and all Rally Control staff on their sleepless nights. I also want to thank Rally Timing for a flawless rally and wish them the best of luck going forward. Also cannot ever forget my sponsors, McEnearney Quality Motors Inc, M&M Racing and our latest addition for RB2004 Trivial Pursuit ®. Lastly I want to congratulate my brother on his efforts and his success, and my father for being as helpful as always.

Here's to RB2005 boys…..

Roger Mayers

 
 
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