Yekaterinburg to Ufa

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!

Correction – June 12^th: Three time trials were cancelled, not three days of time trials.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Upon arrival in Yekaterinburg, the teams were billeted at the Hyatt Hotel. From all reports, accommodations and food were the best, so far, since they left China. However, team #55 did not fully enjoy what the Hyatt had to offer.

According to Brett, Little Red drives, but to John it still was not “just right.” After the repair (13 hours of labor) at Novosibirsk, John and a few other team members noticed that Little Red’s back side was a bit too high, so upon arrival in Ufa, into a local garage she went. They were in the garage from 7:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. and missed dinner. Two other teams also visited the garage: Car #98 - 1965 Mustang and Car #75 – 1960 Rover.

It frustrated John not to be able to communicate well with the Russian mechanics, it was stressing him out. The man speaks four languages and Russian is not one of them!  Luckily he found the shop owner, who spoke German, so they were able to communicate. As they enter Europe, should they have to take Little Red into a garage (and one does not wish it), John should be able to articulate any problems and needed repairs.

When adjustments were not completed by 11:30 p.m., the mechanics suggested that John and Brett return to the hotel for some sleep. With reluctance, at least on John's part, they finally left the garage. Later, I chatted with Brett (via Facebook), who informed me that John had gone upstairs to bed, but has set his alarm for 1:30 a.m. to check on the car. Surely enough, John was back down just after 1:30 a.m. and wanted to go and see the car. Pacing around, Brett sent him to call the garage. Little Red was not ready, but the mechanics assured him that work will continue throughout the night in order for her to be ready in the morning. Ringing off, John asked one of the other teams if they were going to the garage. The response was that all the drivers and navigators work on their cars too much and too hard, they forget that they need service just as the cars do; they service the cars too much and ignore themselves. He went back to bed, setting the alarm for 3 hours and 15 minutes later.

With little sleep, team #55 returned to the garage a few hours later. When asked how much the work on the car cost, the mechanic replied, “$3.00 dollars”. Incredulous, John asked why it cost so little; after all, they had the car all night. The mechanic, in his best English, explained that working with old cars is a hobby, and that he looked forward to having old cars in his garage. For the pleasure of working on Little Red, it cost $1.00 for suspension, $1.00 for the alignment, and $1.00 for washing the car. John asked if they had a Tip Box for the employees, but there was none and the mechanic absolutely refused to accept more payment. Cars #98 and #75 were also charged only $3.00 each. We cannot thank the mechanics enough for their assistance.

The day, from Yekaterinburg to Ufa, stretched on, longer than the itinerary indicated. The day was not without incident, though. For the second time, John was stopped by a police officer. His offence? Overtaking a truck whilst going downhill! In hand gestures and limited English, John discovered that one can only overtake when driving uphill on this stretch of road.

Once again, the Peking to Paris papers had to be produced. The officer then took a coin from his pocket and demanded, “Money! Money!” as he tapped the coin on Little Red. John and Brett had heard stories about officers demanding money and knew that they were going to have to part with some of their rubles. They took out some cash, but the officer responded with, “Nyet! Nyet!” as he continued to tap the coin on the car. They then realized that all that the officer wanted was an American coin as a souvenir, and since neither John nor Brett had any, they were waved off. Incidentally, the warning about not overtaking downhill was in the navigator’s notes so John held Brett responsible for the stop.

No time trials today and no passage or main time controls missed, so #55 remains in 4th place overall, 10 minutes behind # 87, the Citroen DS23, and 20 minutes ahead of #51, "Max the Datsun"

The first two shots were taken at the border where Asia meets Europe, in Russia.

John

Brett

The road towards Ufa.

Where is Little Red?

Lunch break!

Day 18 Rally Reports: http://www2.endurorally.com/pp2013/reports.html

More P2P photos - this time from Russian photographer Alex Polezahev:http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashapo/sets/72157634116848318/