After the frustration of last month’s rally I did some research in the US looking for a better rear suspension lateral arm, once again Subaru was the option. The arm was a little short so I cut and welded the arm to the Suzuki length. Returning to Costa Rica I spent my spare time modifying the rear suspension and fixing some other issues. June’s rally was the NACAM rally which was a round of the South American rally championship, an up and coming series. For this rally several FIA (The world motorsport organization) personnel were present. The start ceremony was held at the new nation stadium on a very wet Friday night. Even with the wet weather the fans spirits were not dampened. After the paparazzi took full advantage of the 20 rally cars we headed to bed with an early start the next morning. On the road at 5am we arrived in good time at the service area. Erick’s team with our spares had not arrived so we waited until they arrived. For this rally we decided to take it easy and go for a finish no matter what the result. The stages were a repeat of last month’s car breaker stages so after a weekend of checking the route we thought we were ready. Mother Nature had other ideas! Since checking the route the week previous to the rally it rained large cats and dogs. Once on the first stage we realized the route was much different to the week before with planet sized rocks littering the route. Seeing the car destroying rocks I took the first stage with some caution as we needed to finish toady and make the final stages tomorrow. Stage 1 went very well with a 4th in class time. Stage 2 was the killer as it was super rough. We started off with the same pace until about 4 KM into the stage there was a tricky section of corners which my trusty co-pilot got somewhat confused. While she found her way I backed off the speed which it seemed was a blessing as about 1KM later I was braking hard for a tight downhill right corner when I lost all control of the steering. I said calmly “ we’re lost the suspension” “noooooooooooo” was the reply. Sure enough after drifting off the road and checking the damage the driver’s side wheel was hanging in the breeze. The ball joint had broke in half allowing the wheel to part company with the suspension. As this was the second stage and I had all the parts to fix the problem we just needed to get back to the service area to be eligible for “super rally” which means if you can restart the same day you can still get a percentage of the points. I set to work to prepare the car for extraction to service. We waited for the tow trucked to arrive. After over an hour stage 3,4 were completed(repeat of 1,2 stages) so we thought in the long service break we would be towed to service. The time rolled on with no help. We were in a low reception area for the phones so after some walking we could call a few folks . Eventually a pick up truck arrived with some familiar faces, I had popped the broken ball joint back into the hub with the hope it would hold at towing speeds. The guys started to tow us but the wheel came loose again. So I racket wrapped the suspension together but now the stage was going to be live again which meant no time to tow out the car. Because we had been towed a few meters now we had to be pushed off the road in a safe place. Once again we waited for the afternoon’s stages to end for a chance to be towed out. 7 hours later the rally was done and we were still there on the stage. We tried to push the car back on the road with a chance someone might help us but the car was stuck. The local police just happened to drive by so we beckoned them over push!! Just then a whole convoy of trucks showed up. With the help of the police and spectators we got towed off the stage. Erick’s mechanic’s had been waiting for us on the highway, after getting the parts I needed they left and I fixed the car with the help of some local village folks. 2 hours later we were on our way home. Once home I slept a straight 12 hours and spent most of Sunday recovering. We had a bad experience on this rally but will be back in August for the first tarmac rally of the season.
