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Um Al-Quwain Rally January 19, 2008
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The UAE Rally championship's are run on the same principle as any other rallies with the basic idea of teams competing against each other. Each team consists of a driver and a navigator and they are given a set of written instructions (Road books) which are used to follow a pre-determined course. Each team drives the course independently, usually at three minute intervals, following the written instructions, or route instructions, exactly.
The rally is divided into stages and the course is marked with checkpoints that are controlled by the organizing crew and each team is timed. Penalties are added when the set routes are not followed. The team with the lowest time scores for all stages or legs wins.
The driver and navigator are required to have a helmet and (usually) a fire suit. The racing car must be fitted with a roll cage, fire extinguisher, competition seat belts, and other safety equipments.
It can be held during the day or night.
Here's a Quick Update of the Um al-Quwain Rally last saturday, Icon Rally Team Leaded by the boss Chris Cargill along with co-driver Stuart Baxter and David Chamber, has finish the track in 9th Place Riding Chris's Unimog prepared by Icon Autos. Here are some of the great shot during the rally courtesy of Paul Copper, where unimog is in action!!
RALLY RESULT - UAE Rally Championship 2008 - UAQ Rally 18-19 Januay
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Update: December 15, '07 Ajman Rally Result
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Ras Al Khaimah Rally 23rd & 24th November 2007
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Just over a year ago the ICON Autos Rally Raid Unimog made it’s debut at the Ras Al Khaimah Baha in the Northern Emirate of the UAE. It was a good experience for the team but it was pretty much evident that this truck would have to loose some weight to be any where near as exciting as we’d first hoped.
The old slogan of “it’s a bit like truck…but slower” just had to go!
Following our outing at the UAE Desert challenge and also a few of the local rallies the truck was parked up for the rest of the season whilst Chris focused on other more pressing jobs at Icon.
It wasn’t long though before he got itchy fingers and broke out the gas axe & angle grinders down at the shop.
Within a few short weeks the ol’ boy had almost two tonnes and the Unimog was also looking good.
Gone was the entire rear treble skinned cab and in it’s place was a superb custom designed load bed complete with storage compartments and spares bins for all of our gear.
The Ras Al Khaimah Rally as it’s now known is run over two days. Day one this year was held in the most spectacular setting imaginable. An area of desert just south of the town has been prepared for ‘Moreeb’ type hill climbs, drifting and pretty much any male testosterone bonding motor sports that you car to imagine!
The turn out was fantastic and we thought the spectators out numbered that of any Desert Challenge prologue held yet! Well done to the EMSF for securing just a venue!
From 18 starters the Mog had managed to flounder it’s way up to a respectable 15th position over some of the more nimble but not so well maintained 4x4 rally cars.
Day two was rally day. The course was held over pretty much the same route as last years so we didn’t even bother to reccie the course.
Chris, Stu Baxter and Streaky (complete with FIA compliant Elvis attire supplied by Kate) headed off to the start and waited for everyone to go before they made their bid for stardom in the UAE & Middle East’s only T4 entrant Rally Truck.
Within a few minutes of setting off we realized that this much lighter truck now had some oomph! It was really flying and Chris was beginning to have some fun for a change. At one time we actually managed a four wheels off the ground jump! The first casualty we met was a couple of local lads in their very pretty Range Rover Pick-up. “That’s one more place…common poppet” says Chris.
Then we came across another broken down car…a local 110 Defender. Things were looking up for Team Icon. After three stages we found our selves in 13th spot.
The half time service entailed nothing more technical than a squirt of WD40 onto a sticky throttle pedal. The boys at Icon had done a fantastic job to ensure the truck was problem free and running on song.
It wasn’t long before we were back out for the second half of the rally which to be honest was much more demanding than the first three stages.
After over taking a couple of casualties and drop outs we found ourselves back in the more demanding soft stuff but Chris made the decision that running on slightly harder tyre pressures was a safer compromise than losing a bead on softer ones. It turned out to be the right call and the Mog only dropped a few minutes at failed hill climbs.
The last few legs proved to be the toughest for everyone in the event. In a complete ‘first’ for the Unimog we found ourselves having a back and forth tussle with a few other cars for positions. Emille’s Jeepie buggy thingie was having intermittent electrical problems so one minute he was in front of us and the next minute he was in our rear view mirror again.
The Red Range Rover that we’d over taken earlier was back in the hunt and managed to catch us up again and finally of course there just had to be the French pair of David and Xavier in the Nissan Patrol.
David was standing at the side of the track with a rope in hand. We guessed that he either wanted to hang himself for asking assistance from the English….. or…he wanted pull back to the finish line!
We lost around 7 minutes pulling the French back to the finish line but the rally was a success for the Team and for the rally fans who came out to see us finish in 11th place overall.
At the prize giving dinner held later that evening we learnt that the 10th place car had finished just a few minutes ahead of us and was awarded 10,000Dhs in prize money. We didn’t enter the rally with a view to winning prize money…but we will at the next one! |
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41st BAJA 1000 update click here |
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Other Articles:
Um Al-Quwain Rally January 19, 2008 | Update: December 15, '07 Ajman Rally Result | Ras Al Khaimah Rally 23rd & 24th November 2007 | Unimog New Look | Evo 7 new Driver | Motorbike Racing |
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