In which Sid signs on at Yas Marina circuit and marvels at the desert racers.
Signing on takes all afternoon. Sid and Ian meet up with the drivers of the other vehicles that will make up Sweep 2 team, because you never go into the desert along. That’s Paul t’Yorkshireman (shorter wheelbase Raptor SVT, with winch and big high lift jack) and Matt (with Emirates Motor Sport Organisation’s ‘toast rack’, a tired Nissan Patrol with flat bed racked to carry expired bikes). We have a Sweep Teams briefing, there are four teams in total.
We wire in our ERTF tracking and Sentinel devices, the IriTraks, the Sweep Two team radios and the other radios which link us to Control (which prove to be a rather mysterious leaving a surprising amount of comms to take place via WhatsApp, thanks to the UAE’s excellent mobile phone coverage).
We have a specific briefing on how to handle the hybrid Audi at the car, so as not to be electrocuted while trying to rescue it or the crew. There is a vanishingly small chance of this, but international motorsport is very aware that electricity and massive accidents don’t always mix well. The car has a 650bhp internal combustion engine powering a battery for two electric motors, which means that its electric credentials might be debatable, but this is the first time anyone has succeeded in bringing an electric vehicle to a rally-raid, so full credit to Audi.
The kit we are given is sensibly black and nice enough on the skin that they will be useful at home after the event too. They seem to be quite smell resistant, which is good as the temperatures are getting over 30 degrees (and worse in Paul’s car when the AC is knocked out).
Sid wanders out into the service park. As ever the service trucks are a joy to investigate, and there are some extremely well-equipped teams here. All this equipment will be travelling down the road tomorrow to the bivvy service park in the south of Abu Dhabi. These are not the desert racing trucks of which more later.
As you can see this is obviously a Mini, blue with a white roof just like our Teal. Actually it is a rear wheel drive John Cooper works buggy, so has the body looking a bit BMW Mini, sort of. See the bivouac post for night servicing pictures.
Two Raptors. The blue one is Ian’s standard SVT, we have two on Sweep 2. Number 209 is a desert raid edition, running regulation 16″ wheels with huge travel from twin wishbone suspension.
Finally a note on the 2030 Project racing trucks. These sit an engineer, navigator and driver three abreast. The goal is to be able to run a rally raid on electricity or hydrogen by 2030. For now these two Czech trucks have 900 litre tanks and make smoke like a destroyer.
So there we are. The main rally is staying in hotels around the Yas Marina Circuit tonight ready for an early start into the desert tomorrow. Doris and the Control team have already driven south to set up the Control Room in the “Business Suite” of the Qasr Al Sarab hotel… about which more later.