While 30 vehicles cleaned the 18th Special Stage of the event at Burdekin Dam this afternoon, Upton and De Vaus were comfortable quickest on the following Doongmabulla Stage 19, with Upton claiming it was his co-driver’s speed in opening and closing the seven gates on the stage that was the deciding factor.
The result of their work has strengthened their hold on fifth place outright, behind overall leaders David and Kate Officer (1970 Mitsubishi Galant), Graham Alexander/David Stewart (1975 Datsun 260Z) and Mike Batten/Steuart Snooks (1971 Datsun P510), but now nearly two minutes closer to the fourth-placed Datsun 260Z of Kenyans Jonathan Savage and Sebastian Tham.
They are delighted to be this close to the lead of the 11-day Trial given what has happened to them in recent weeks.
Alan Upton purchased the Datsun as a rolling shell just 12 weeks ago and it fired up for the first time only four days before the start of the Trial on September 8. Then they got badly bogged in sand on the first Special Stage south of Alice Springs, lost four minutes getting out and have being playing catch-up since.
By the time they finished Leg 2 in Mt.Isa, the Datsun’s standard rear suspension was bent and useless, but their service crew tracked down another similar Datsun and paid $50 for another set of trailing arms with drum instead of disc brakes. That night they strengthened the new arms with star pickets, but then on the run from Normanton to Cairns, they lost their rear brakes entirely and were lucky to finish the stage.
Alan says the rear suspension is not yet properly set up and the car is very nervous to drive and wants to swap ends as speed rises.
“I’m driving it as hard as I can under the circumstances,” he said. “Hopefully that will be fast enough!”
But they, along with the rest of the field, have now covered more than half the Trial’s 7,600km and there is every chance they will finish well – even possibly on the podium – at Broadbeach on September 20 – if their luck holds out.
Tomorrow the Trial makes its way from Longreach to Birdsville, with the first cars scheduled to arrive at the Birdsville Camping Ground from 4.30pm. On Wednesday morning (Sept 17), the field departs the Birdsville Camping Ground from 8.00am on their way to Tibooburra, where the first car is expected around 5.45pm.
The Trial then proceeds east, with overnight stops in Bourke and Goondiwindi before finishing in Victoria Square, Broadbeach Mall on Queensland’s Gold Coast from 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon, September 20.
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