I feel very much like saying that Laurance and I as Team Canada were a top competitive entry even though the results didn’t show it. There were several reasons for that, all of which at this point are not worth getting into. We broke; we only did two days out of 14 and we never got onto the radar screen. It’s leaving me feeling empty and sad—so much effort and nothing to show for it. I think I am even a little mad at the cards we were dealt. The only way I think I can put this behind me is by forgetting the whole ordeal. Doing that is maybe where the sad part comes in; I feel I am letting down all the great people that gave me the opportunity to do this.

On a positive note, I was very happy about how Laurance and I were able to work together. Our experiences from last year helped and we managed to have some great laughs.

The one day that will always be remembered will be the day we drove 1000 km in sixth gear. May be it was fifth gear. All I know is that we were both very worried about making it and the stress alone created nervous laughter.  How are we going to make it? There is no way we’re going to make it; let’s call for help.  We scared ourselves by stopping for a coffee and having difficulties getting the car going again.  We got ourselves worried a few times while passing big trucks and we laughed when we got around trucks on the right. We made a wrong turn and ended up in a dirt road village and then the car wouldn’t get up the hill to get out of the village again. All these situations created anxiety, nervousness, worry, panic and when a few minutes later things looked better we both laughed about it.  Fueling a car while it’s running and in gear. They’re all stories, great stories! Even the fact that last year we had peanut dust all over the back of the car and this year it was my bottle of cold medicine that got pulverized.

I remember the relief when we drove onto the parking lot of the Park Inn Hotel in Ekaterinburg. We made it. How we really did it I’ll never know. All I know is that it created good stories and a great friendship. 
   
This year was a short Transsyberia Rally, three days only, but we also had the pre-rally days from Monday night till Friday morning and we had the time while waiting for word on whether they could or couldn’t fix the Cayenne. We had time in the forest, hours of it, while waiting for the service vehicle to pull us to the finish line. Yes, this year was about making the best of a pretty disappointing time. We succeeded, I think.  We have enough positive, funny stories so we can forget the bad and carry on to the next adventure with a smile, whatever that next adventure may be.

Day 12 was a great day. We were seventh on the road and moved back up into the top ten. We didn’t report in as we had no cell coverage and we couldn’t get any satellite connection. Sorry.

As for Day 13, well no good deed…

We’re sorry we didn’t get back to you earlier, but we didn’t get to the end of the stage until after 1:00 a.m. this morning.

Things started out great and we were making good time. It was pretty obvious, however, that unless someone dropped out, we were not going to be able to move up in the final standings. That being said, we kept going as hard as we could, just in case.

At about the 110km point we came upon Armin Schwarz and Andi Schulz, who had an alternator failure. And while we were pretty much out of it, Armin has a chance to win the whole thing. So we lashed Armin and Andi’s Team Germany #1 to our trusty Cayenne and proceeded to tow them through the stage.

After a while we realized we too were starting to have an alternator problem. We pulled Armin for as long as we could. But finally, after almost two TransSyberia Rallies, nearly 10,000 incredibly tough kilometers, two Leipzig training sessions and about 25 laps of Daytona International Speedway (including running flat out on the banking with 917s, 962s and the RS Spyder!) at Rennsport Reunion III, our transmission gave out. Towing Armin was just too much for the old girl. At that point, Armin and Andi took an hour and repaired their alternator, then continued on their way.

 The support truck came along and towed us in to the end of the stage. After assessing the damage—the trans, the alternator and the lingering effects of the suspension and CV joint damage we suffered the other day, the technicians basically said it was too much to repair, so Team USA is out of the 2008 TransSyberia Rally. While Armin lost an hour, we were done.

We will get towed to the finish and then attend tomorrow’s awards banquet.

It’s funny. Colin and I feel kind of deflated, yet kind of invigorated—while the rally wound up being disappointing in the end, we really felt like we grew. We learned a lot—about this kind of rally and we learned a lot about ourselves. We also learned a lot about our Cayenne S. It’s going to sound like a commercial, but our Cayenne took a heck of a beating. Two beatings, actually—2007 and 2008.

When we got to Moscow, someone said it is hard to understand just how long this trip, this adventure really is, both in time and distance. Well, it was 7,000 kilometers of some of the most beautiful landscape in the world. And Moscow seems like lifetime ago. What a great experience.

Colin and I both want to thank Porsche for this opportunity. And I hope we will be lucky enough to come back and give the TransSyberia another try, using all we have learned.

I will give you a lowdown on the awards ceremony tomorrow. Until then, thanks for coming  along.

We haven’t had direct communication from Team USA for two days, but we can report that by the end of the day yesterday (July 23) at Bayanhongor, Mongolia, they had climbed back into tenth position overall.  During today’s stage from Bayanhongor to Mongol Els, Ryan and Colin were able to maintain their position.  Tomorrow, the rally ends at Ulaanbataar.  We hope to have updates from Colin and Ryan as soon as they are able to send them to us.

Hi everybody.

We messed up. Pure and simple, we messed up today…

Today started off great—our navigation was right on. In fact, we wound up helping several other teams navigate the course. The stage was very, very fast and we were really tearing it up (perhaps a bad choice of words).
We were running fourth on the stage, nose-to-tail, behind Armin (Schwartz,) Team Portugal and Lars Kern. We decided to take a route that took us around a small mountain, shortcutting the route and hopefully giving us an advantage over the top three in front of us. While in retrospect it turned out to be the right move from a strategic point of view and it did work for the teams who followed us, we, unfortunately found the one big hazard there was to find—a six foot deep dried up trench.

We didn’t see it until we were right on top of it and it was just too late to do anything but hope for a perfect “Dukes of Hazard – style” jump and landing. But that’s TV and this is the TransSyberia Rally. We wound landing nose-in, with our tail hung up on the opposite bank. Ouch. We were really stuck.

The Russians, Team Inteko, came by and pulled our Cayenne S TransSyberia out with their standard Cayenne S. Once we got them back on the road, we took a few minutes to survey the damage—we had a broken lower A-arm and a blasted CV joint.

We managed to get the parts brought back to us and we are repairing our Cayenne. We will be back in the rally tomorrow, but the damage has been done in more ways than one. After all the time penalties, about ten hours worth, we are now back where we started (or is that re-started) after our 30 minute penalty for taking a rear start, in 12th place.

It is really a shame. As I said, we were running fourth and had we not had our accident, we would have been close, if not into, the top five. And while we are disappointed, we are definitely not dispirited!

Our Cayenne S TransSyberia is still running great and when the repairs are done, we are going to get right back at it.  Tomorrow is another day and it’s time for us to get back to work.

Talk to you tomorrow!

Hello all! Colin here today… I decided to give Ryan a breather, so I’m your guy today!
All I can say about today is WOW!  When we first took a look at today’s special stage, we figured it was going to be a very quick stage on mostly well defined main roads. We learned something about what goes into being a main road in Mongolia!
The stage was once again a rough one, but definitely faster than yesterday. We went through tight valleys and sandy river washes; there were big ditches and a lot of big river crossings.
We initially took a wrong turn (my fault) in the first few kilometers but we made up a ton of ground later on. There were some really fast sections during the mid-section of the stage. During that time we were able to stay with and then pass the second place Spanish team. Everything ran perfectly after our little detour.
It rained really hard and the water crossings got pretty treacherous. Towards the end of the stage the route got extremely fast, muddy and slippery. The real decision came when we had to decide where to run—the better surface was always slightly off the main track. We were sliding all over, it really was fun!
When all was said and done, we wound up third for the day and in seventh overall. Had we not taken our penalty, we would be all the way up in fifth place. As it is, we are five minutes out of sixth place; ten minutes out of fifth place and 50 minutes out of fourth!
So Ryan and I feel like our strategy is still in place and working. As we saw yesterday when the overall leader dropped out, anything can happen on the TransSyberia Rally.
So we are off to sleep (if we can—we’re pretty excited!) and we will check in again tomorrow!

Day 8 was an off day for Team USA and the rest of the TransSyberia competitors. The boys did not file a story yesterday: “All we did was relax and go over the car and the route instructions again!  Who would be interested in that?” Us!
What a difference a day makes in the TransSyberia! This was our first Mongolian stage and it couldn’t be more different than what we experienced in Russia. First of all, there are no roads in Mongolia and the roads that do exist are just dirt tracks. The special stages, if this first one is any indication, are going to be more and more rugged—and  and that should play right into our hands!
Today’s special stage went very well for us. At first we had a few navigation issues, but between Colin and me, we talked and worked our way through it together. We are definitely a great team. I guess that comes from being really good friends… At one point we couldn’t find the checkpoint and the route instructions weren’t much help. So after talking it out, we simply drove up a nearby mountain and found it from there.
The rest of the route was really challenging—it had ravines, boulders, water crossings and marshy areas. It seemed like every turn had another challenge waiting for us. And the rocks were so big! And really sharp too!
We found this out first hand when we had two punctures. One was my fault—I got too close to a rock and cut the sidewall. The second, well, this area is just really tough on tires with a lot of flinty, sharp stones. I have to say that overall the BF Goodrich tires have been nothing short of spectacular. I have heard stories from Dad about all the trouble they had last year with another brand of tire, and the BFGs have been virtually bulletproof. But even they can’t save you when you drive the sidewall into a rock!
The stage was also dangerous. The rally leader, Team Middle East, which had been leading in the overall standings for days, hit a huge pot hole. The driver, Said Rashid Al Hajri, hurt his back. They took him to the nearest hospital for observation. His co-driver, Tim Trenker wasn’t hurt.  Things like this incident and the accident Team Italia had the other day make it clear that the TransSyberia Rally is serious business. Colin and I wish Said and Tim good luck and we hope they are alright.
At the end of the day, we had really made some serious progress. After our (bogus) penalty, we were 13th in the standings—we finished the day in 8th place!
So after another great meal and a quick once-over for our Cayenne S TransSyberia, we called it quits for the day. I can tell you, we can’t wait to get back at it tomorrow!

Although we haven’t yet heard from them today, Team USA has climbed into eighth position overall on the extremely demanding 282-kilometer leg 9 special stage from Olgy to Mankhan in spite of the penalties imposed yesterday that bumped them down to 12th.  Although coping with two punctures, Ryan Millen and Colin Godby scored their best result yet, coming in fifth in the stage.  According to Porsche, Ryan said about leg 9, “Today’s special stage went very well for us. At one point we couldn’t find the checkpoint straight away so we simply drove up a nearby mountain and found it from there. The route was challenging and extremely rocky. But we got through. We had two punctures but otherwise no problems.”

Well, today was a really crummy day. We lost four places in the standings, going from ninth to 13th. And the lousiest part of it is we didn’t even have a special stage! Colin and I are pretty darn hot about it too!

How did that happen? Well, the organizers seem to be making the rules up as they go. They changed two rules today, both of which potentially really hurt us. The first decision was a killer. Not only for us, but for Team Germany 1 and Team Germany 3.   You’ll remember that we took a late start on a couple of special stages. This practice is not prohibited and is fully within the rules. In fact, it was allowed throughout the rally last year and up until a few minutes ago! But all of a sudden, the organizers interpreted taking a late start as unsporting behavior and penalized us and the two German teams 30 minutes.

Now in a fit of semantics, they said it wasn’t a penalty, as we hadn’t done anything wrong or illegal. They just added 30 minutes to our time! And the rules say “no protests” and there is no official appeal process. I can tell you we are not the only one ticked off about this—the two German teams have gone wild as well.
The change has put us a total of two hours and 47 minutes behind. It is going to be really tough from here on out. After clawing our way up from 17th after the first day, to ninth, Colin and I were feeling really good about our chances once we got to Mongolia. Now, we really feel gutted. But you know what? It has also made us more determined.

The second change could affect our request to return time to us for the first day. The route book specifically states that every stage has a maximum time, sort of like the max number of strokes on a hole in golf. Well now, there are no max times! Everything will be scored in actual time. And, once again, the decision is retroactive! So if we don’t get that first day time back, all this stuff together represents a possible total swing of one hour! It’s stupid.

Given that, it is a good thing Kees Nierop and Laurance Yap in the Team Canada entry called it quits when they did. Their plan was that if they could have gotten a transmission from Moscow to replace the one that got wrecked in their Cayenne S TransSyberia, they would have taken the maximum times until they caught up with the pack. With this ruling, they would have gone through all the trouble of air freighting a trans to Novosibirsk, getting it installed overnight, getting back in the rally after three days, and instead of having a shot at a decent placing, they would have been whacked (broadsided, would be more accurate) after the fact, with a huge time penalty, which would have made it senseless for them to continue.
In response to all this, Colin and I have decided to keep our heads down and our mouths shut and to really go for it now.  It was supposed to be a low-keyed day at the border. It turned out to be something quite different!  We are going to try and take tomorrow’s day off to cool down and get ready for what now will be a real battle. But Colin and I are ready, and we both love a challenge!

 We’ll let you know how we feel tomorrow.

Hello everybody!  It’s day seven and with the cancellation of today’s special stage, there is really not much to report, rally-wise.
As you read yesterday, the organizer canceled today’s special stage. The guys on Team Italia hit a big “yump” (a rally term!) and landed the wrong way. One of them got hurt suffering what the medics thought could be a broken back. Not taking a chance, they took him to the hospital in Novosibirsk. Because of the distances involved, the medics couldn’t be back in time for the special stage, so they canceled it. Colin and I were pretty disappointed, but there’s nothing for it and it does make sense. Our hearts go out to the guys on Team Italia. Good guys.
So today we had an 890 kilometer transit stage. To give me a break, Colin did a bunch of the driving today. He didn’t do too bad a job for a “navigator!” (Co-drivers hate to be called that!)
One of the benefits of riding right seat is that you get to see a little more of what there is to see. And one thing that is clear—we’re getting farther and farther away from Moscow. Not only in terms of miles, but in terms of life here in general. The houses are getting more and more sparse; there are fewer people and those that we do see, look poorer. We are well and truly out in the wilds now.
Our first night in our tents went great. We had a huge campfire and the food was surprisingly good! What can be bad about barbecue, right? We followed a great meal with a good night’s sleep. So I think we are getting ourselves pretty well prepared for what Mongolia will throw at us. As I said, we wanted to cross into Mongolia in the top ten and we are in ninth place, so we’re right on target.
We are still hopeful that we’ll be able to get at least 20 minutes back from day one’s special stage, and that would be a big help.
Tomorrow we go across the border and then Colin and I are going to get our Cayenne S TransSyberia up on jackstands and give her a good going over. There are a couple of areas we want to check—the CV joint with the torn boot; see why the steering is cocked to the right, and stuff like that… But overall, we could not be happier right now. Our energy level is high, thanks to a couple of good nights of sleep and our spirits couldn’t be any higher either. And, while we know anything can happen—hey, this is, after all, racing—we are “cautiously optimistic” about our chances.
We’ll fill you in tomorrow on out trip across the border. I understand from Dad that it is definitely “a trip.”
Ciao!
(In honor of Team Italia!)

It was another great day today. I know you are probably getting tired of hearing that, but it was!

Our strategy of working hard at conserving our Cayenne S TransSyberia seems to really be paying off. We’ve been watching a lot of the other guys really punishing their equipment and Colin and I are convinced that they are going to be in big trouble once we get to Mongolia, you wait and see.

Once again today, we took another rear start as it was really dusty again and the rain they had predicted was a no-show. Except this time, we weren’t alone—a bunch of the other guys picked up on our strategy and thought it was a pretty good idea. It’s getting crowed at the back!

We ran at a pretty brisk, but not crazy pace today, finishing seventh on the special stage. We were about nine minutes off of Armin Schwarz's stage-winning pace. And while we may have been able to go a little faster, I really don't think we could have gone much quicker without doing some damage. (Remember the strategy, Ryan!)

We had some navigation system issues here and there, and the dust was pretty thick.  By the end we had passed three cars and the Team Italia Cayenne went out due to an injury, so I think that we jumped three spots, all the way up to ninth place overall. And again, the guys who ran quicker than us did so by beating on their cars. We’re not going to do that.

And, just to give us a little dose of reality, we ran up on something that kind of looked like a dump truck!  (There are a lot of strange vehicles on the road here!) It was a quick reminder that here in Eastern Russia and all the way through the rest of the rally in Mongolia, the roads aren’t completely closed. We’re going to have to deal with civilians and all sorts of vehicles, carts and animals from here to Ulaanbaatar

As our goal was to be back in the top ten by the time we crossed into Mongolia, I’d say we’re right on target. We're still negotiating with the organizers to get some of the time back that they docked us on the first day when everyone got bottled up behind a bunch of vehicles stuck in the mud during that first special stage. If we can get those 30 minutes back, we’ll really be in the thick of it. (That would put us all the way up into seventh place overall!)

As I mentioned before, one of the more unfortunate things that happened today is that one of the guys from Team Italia got hurt. There was a big “jump” that ended in a deep sort of ditch and if you took it too fast or landed the wrong way, you could really mess up either yourself or the car. Unfortunately, the guy from Team Italia messed himself up, breaking his back. Since the medics had to take him to the hospital (and who knows how far away that is!) and they will not be able to get back in time tomorrow for the start of the next leg of the rally, the organizers have decided to cancel the next special stage. That means from here on to Mongolia we have no more special stages, only long transits. Once again, this will help us conserve our car, and the Team USA Cayenne is going super right now.

Tonight will be our last night in a real, live hotel until we get to Ulaanbaatar. We start camping out tomorrow. And from what I hear from my dad, it is quite an experience. Sand storms, thunderstorms, the whole deal. Colin and I go camping a lot, so this will be fun—as long as there are no sandstorms, thunderstorms. You get the picture. Maybe here is another instance where being a little younger will give us a performance advantage—no stiff backs in the morning!

We had a fantastic day today!  We drove the 500 kilometers to the start of the special stage, which was about 50 kilometers long itself. The start was delayed for a half an hour because it was really dry and dusty—so dusty that we couldn’t even see the track made by the cars that went through before us! 
There was a lot of waist-high grass, which wasn’t there when they first laid out the rally a bunch of months back. Since it was going to be almost impossible to see, they gave us a bunch of waypoints. It didn’t help the early starters because some of them got pretty lost.
Colin and I discussed it and decided that instead of taking our 12th place start, we opted for a rear start, which we were allowed to do.  Judging by the dust, it was the right move, I think.
I think we rolled off second to last and the track was pretty well burned-in by that time. Because of that, we were able to carry a massive amount of speed throughout the stage.
With all the dust, just about everybody was having overheating problems. So Colin and I decided that since our strategy is to conserve the car until we get to Mongolia, we ran fast, but we could have gone faster. We played it conservatively, engine-wise. And for a little insurance, we opened up all the windows and cranked up the heat. It must have helped because we were the only team that had no problem with engine temp.
Some of the other teams didn’t do so well; one of the Russian teams lost an engine and is out and the British team went out in a heartbreaking way—their car burned to the ground, probably from the heat setting off all the grass that had accumulated under the car. Really sad. We had been kinda cooperating with them and with Kees Nierop and Laurance Yap in the Team Canada entry, and now they are both out.
But we are really pretty happy with the day. As we looked around the bivouac at the end, ours was the only car that didn’t need to be worked on! And while we have a CV joint that has a damaged boot, the mechanics think it’s okay. 
So it’s off to bed. Tomorrow will be a long day with a 700 kilometer leg and a 70 kilometer special stage. The weather tomorrow won’t be great; they are expecting rain, so all that dust will turn to mud. We think we are really well placed. We finished the day in 12th and we have only done about 15% of the off-road stuff. We are getting better with every stage. There is a lot of the TransSyberia Rally left to go! 

Tomorrow, on to Novosibirsk!

Ryan and Colin here… Unfortunately, Kees Nierop and Laurance Yap have retired theTeam Canada Cayenne from this year’s TransSyberia Rally with a mechanical failure.So in order to keep all those fans who have been following Kees’ reports up to date, Colin and I will be giving you our view of what’s going on here in Russia, Siberia and Mongolia with Team USA!
They have canceled Special Stage 4. That means that this leg has turned into a 483 km transit stage. We found out that the reason they have canceled is because the medics could not get to the stage; there was a big downpour and it is really muddy. Colin said it looked like peanut butter—I asked him if it was smooth or chunky. I'm kind of thankful because looking at the beginning section of the stage, I don't think we could have made it through without getting the winches out. It's kind of frustrating to get all the way here to find out the stage is canceled, but no big deal.
Colin and I are having a little trouble with the route book—it isn’t real helpful and seems to be missing certain bits of important information. This will be unique to the Russian part of the rally as once we get to Mongolia we will be depending almost exclusively on our Garmin sat navigation system.
As for our car, we've already gone through a set of brake pads, but I'm happy that I don't have anything else to report except for the power steering pump problem we had the other day. Otherwise, our Cayenne S TransSyberia has been great! We did hit something pretty hard the other day and the steering wheel is a little off to the right, but the Cayenne still handles great and tracks straight. Several other teams (and several other brands of cars) are having overheating problems due to the heat and mud and sand plugging up their radiators and because they are being really rough with their equipment. We have decided to conserve our Cayenne as best we can and wait for Mongolia.

In a way, the canceled stage was good news as we can go back to the hotel and get some extra rest and go through the car thoroughly. We'll be well-rested and back on the road soon.

The decision has been made. It’s all over for team Canada. The timing is now outside of the window that would have allowed the car to be fixed before having to cross into Mongolia. Sometimes you just have to accept what is. As much as I wanted to cross the finish line, I do agree with the call to call it a day. It is another extreme high-low situation that seems to come with any sport. There will be another day and another race.

Right now we are looking into flights home ASAP.  Amazing how the focus can shift that quickly. “Let’s get the car fixed and go to Mongolia!”  Then, a couple of hours later, “What is the quickest way out of here home?”  

Let me gather my thoughts and write a final-thoughts update on this rally when I get home.

We had to check out of our hotel and go to another. If we stay yet another night we have to move rooms again—fun or what?

This morning we went to the briefing and heard that the helicopter with the press people and some organizers had to make an emergency landing yesterday. Nobody was hurt. They then drove last night and apparently they had an incident on the road (some sort of accident) for which they had to go to the police station. So this morning there is only a small group of the organizers here.

The plan for Laurance and me at this moment is still not clear.  What is clear is that I should have all my gear out of the car. So I spent an hour or so this morning getting my camera out and other supplies we had put in so nicely back in Moscow. It was sad to see all the cars leave this morning and we had to stay behind—again. Our Cayenne will be loaded on a truck and for now will travel with the rally, just in case they decide or find parts to fix it. We should know today what the possibilities are. I already experienced the ride in a truck, no need to repeat that. I’ll fly, thank you very much.

Laurance and I are tired and frustrated, dragging our luggage which now includes all our supplies again. Actually, Laurance is sleeping like a baby as we speak. We are waiting for our faith phone call that will tell us parts or no parts…..fix or no fix.

There is a travel agency right in the same building as the hotel. I went and checked it out.  The lady there speaks very little English and a little German.  Ha, you never know, between my German and her English Laurance and I may just be the first Canadians setting up residency in Syberia. It’s like the cream of mushroom soup I ordered for lunch: yep, carrots and tomatoes in clear broth. Laurance and I are actually in pretty good spirits; it’s all part of the adventure.  We won’t forget Transsyberia 2008 very soon. Oh, now I have two that I don’t think I will ever forget. I told you, this rally is one HECK of a deal. 

Well, we made it. How I don’t really know. Last night we made the decision to try and get the car to Ekaterinburg because there is a Porsche dealer here. The Porsche mechanics had the transmission locked in fifth gear and away we went at 6 a.m. this morning. Their instructions: don’t stop, don’t burn the clutches. Start early; be ahead of the service guys so when it goes kaboom then they’ll pick you up. Thanks.

This was not what Laurance had hoped to hear. He was a little “worried.” We managed to get out of the parking lot. Clutches are slipping, speed is next to nil and we have 1000 km to go.  Aargh.

Luckily we only had to run a few red lights and even luckier was the fact that there was very little traffic. Once we got going on the highway and the torque converter locked in it was okay. (I only needed to pass on the right a few times to keep my speed up.)  At 9 a.m. we got to a truck stop and I needed a coffee. Wrong thing to do.  When we wanted to leave, I don’t think there were any clutches left and the converter wouldn’t lock.  Here we are, going down the hill at 10 km/h onto a narrow bridge and BAM, it banged once and locked and we had drive. Only now we’re in sixth gear and have all of 1300 rpm going up hill—panic attack!  I decided to go to “low gear 4x4 reduction.” You can do this while rolling below 25 km/h and bang, it worked and away we went.

From then on the order was: we only stop (1) because it broke, (2) nothing (NOTHING) else.  A hundred kilometers later, construction……one way……not our way……stop…..be a trucker and back into low reduction…..it worked. Now we know if we keep the gear on and don’t shut the engine off, we’ll have some drive. We used that at the pumps. We fueled the car while in drive with the engine running.  After all we had a 1000 km trip to do and needed to fuel up at least once. It too worked.

So, long story short, we made it.  Barely, but we’re here.  Now we have to find out if they can fix it in the next couple of days and then we race to Mongolia to catch up to the others. Our only chance would be to cross the border with the others. If we can’t make it, then we’re out and on our way home.  I want to cross the line in Mongolia so bad, I’ll do almost anything to get the Cayenne in shape to drive. We need to cross the finish line!

Tomorrow I hope to be able to report to you what is next. We’re out of the race, that’s for sure. But we can still be part of the Mongolian adventure if we can get the car working.

It’s NOT over till it’s over. 

Hell day! Actually not too bad, just a lot of work. Let me explain.  Today we checked out of the hotel in Moscow, went to get the cars and drove to Red Square. Did all the photo shots, all the smiling and, of course, all the good byes. So the rally started and immediately we got into traffic. Five miles an hour, okay may be 15 or 20 but it was very slow. We did this for at least 80 km of the 120 km we needed to go to get to our first stage. Looooong.

So then the first stage. They told us it was difficult and there would be a lot of water and mud. They weren’t kidding! The stage was only 48 km; however, about half way into it most people got lost and stuck. Now we have Cayennes running wild in the wild. Several people had almost head-ons as Cayennes were turning around on the logging roads and heading back, thereby heading into the next lost Cayenne. Then there were the mud and water holes. Laurance and I did very well, we never got stuck! We had a blast. But the problem we faced was all the other people getting stuck. They changed the rules and started the stage as we arrived at the stage. Since we stopped for fuel, etc., we were not the first ones at the scene. So we had a lot of cars ahead of us doing the stage. Sure enough we ended up waiting and waiting as they pulled other cars out that got stuck. When we crossed the finish line, the fellows said that we were number 16 or so to actually make it. All the others were still 15 to 20 km behind.

Remember what Laurance said last year after our rough landing? Lots of expletives. Well, he said it again. That was quite a difficult stage and we made it through. We did damage the front of the Cayenne a little; both inner fenders are hanging down and the lower panel below the radiator is also damaged. Then we had a rope go around the front axle and it tore the right front brake line of the brake caliper. So, to add to the excitement, we actually did the second half of the stage without brakes. I tried to pinch the line but that didn’t work. So, no brakes for 20+ kilometers while racing and then 58 km on the highway without brakes. Fun? You bet. Just use the emergency brake. The Porsche mechanics should be fixing it tonight (I hope). Tomorrow we have a 500 km transit and then a 58 km stage and a 75 km to the hotel. It will be a long day again.