The facts are in - 94 cars started the event and 88 made it back to the finish!
There's a little confusion over what constitutes a "non finisher" - basically to qualify as an official finisher and therefore get a finisher's
award you have to have a complete set of marshall's signatures in your road book. That means you have to arrive at each control point within the
stop's time slot. Therefore it is quite possible for a team to do the whole run and not be classed as a finisher because they missed one control
point due to lateness. This isn't a race or rally so the rules aren't super strict but they are in place to ensure the timings are sensible and
people stop and rest. There's no first prize or any other "prize" as such
When you're on the run you get all sorts of tales of drop outs and they tend to suffer from Chinese whisper syndrome - if there's one drop out then
you hear it from several people and it seems like there's been loads - I left the finish last night thinking there were 15 drop outs but this
morning, now the facts are known, it's a very different story. How many of those 88 have a full set of signatures I am not sure but one thing is
for certain, I have nothing but respect for everyone who does this event - it is a great test of you and your car. Andy's car is a testament to how
reliable these cars can be - how many of use would jump in our pride and joy and do 2000 miles in 48 hours with nothing more than 20 mins
preparation?
As for my car - it's some sort of mechanical derangement in the bell housing area - the engine sounds like a bag of spanners in a grinder - it came
on rapidly during the 20 mile trip to Andy's place from my house. I'm thinking clutch cover failing, flywheel bolt loose or maybe rear main bearing
failing! I'll trailer it home tonight and will report more on my Blog.
Speaking of Blogs - have a look at
http://club.triumph.org.uk/ for
all the CT bloggers and go to photos section for more RBRR photos
