GT2010: Day Three - Toyota Land Cruiser, 3.0 liter, 1978

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Satisfied with a successful finish and more satisfied than yesterday, we wearily leave our Lemonade Cruiser, wandering in the dark to our tents. Today we managed to collect more points, and although the breakdown again took us about five hours of time, there is a feeling that tomorrow we will be able to give our all and do more. What really bothers me is the fact that after two days of merciless tarantella and tight driving, licking stones on streams, I still don’t find time to check the condition of the suspension. Everything that I managed today - the oil is normal, the cooler is normal, the radiator is not covered with clay much, the temperature is normal, the alternator belt is clean and does not whistle, the batteries are fixed ... everything, there was not enough time for more.

I noticed that upon returning from the stage for about half an hour or an hour I can’t talk to those who were not there. It just doesn't work. It is as if we are not synchronized in time, we have different criteria for “good-bad”, “many-little”. And I, jokingly, say that “now I have returned a little from the war, I am a little shell-shocked and not badly wounded, wait a bit, I will recover soon.”

A few sips of beer, calmly replaying the events of the past day of the competition in my head, an attempt to analyze at the level of visual images, searching for moments that pleased or upset, and at the same time, complete indifference to what is happening now nearby.
The first sign that you have returned is a desire to change into something else, more comfortable. The second - I want to wash myself, and then eat, drink, talk ...

Tomorrow starts at 9, so you can sleep. How much we miss a good friendly company and a normal camp where you can just relax and be with friends.

Lesha-Anya's crew appears. They don't look the best. They are also silent. They also try not to interfere with others. They also had a difficult day.

Despite 3 extra hours, I didn't feel like getting up at all. Feelings of self-pity, if crawling under your covers, will make it much more difficult for you to get up. And if you add to this the accumulated injuries, clogged muscles, malnutrition, then go out of the race just to spit. Therefore, without letting myself come to my senses, I try to pick up the pace. Wash yourself with ice mineral water - class! That's just bad luck - the hands refuse to squeeze the cork round, too small. From the futility of efforts, even laugh, even cry. The bottle is closed, and already I really want to wash my face and wet my throat. The idea comes by itself - holding the cork with my teeth, I get the necessary access to water. Feel better…

Now let's borrow a gas burner and some water from the neighbors. Fine! The gas burns, the water heats up, you can look around. And what a beauty! For two days we got up in the moonlight, for two days we fell asleep in the same light. And with the sun, everything is completely different, friendlier and kinder. A small team gathers at the sound of boiling water, a pack of coffee, the chime of empty mugs, not a loud morning conversation. Damn it, I love it all! Although half an hour ago he was the most negative person on earth.

It's time to start. I have a portion of a “hot mug” in my stomach, a navigation complex in my backpack, next to me, the navigator Masha, with her whole appearance, makes me understand that we will not relax today. And I don't mind.

The navigation complex turned out to be against. Transformer 24-12 does not work, there is no power to Hammerhead, in addition, he stubbornly does not see GPS, in Garmin charging for two hours, in general, a good start. We make a decision to go to the camp to pick up the Machine Note immediately after the start. Paired with a PDA, it can last for six hours.

But first, refueling with the help of colleagues (I will never take 40-liter canisters with me again - I took a dip in the solarium the day before, but did not refuel). And now a jet of solarium splashes in a half-empty tank, a clock is ticking in my head: “That's it! Brothers, that's enough, thank you, we flew!

We rush along the road to the camp, losing precious minutes. For everything about everything today 6 hours.
And we back and forth, having lost 40-45 minutes and we are on the track.

Masha somehow miraculously clings to the laptop and nothing else. If earlier she stuck to Hammerhead, who was holding on to the dashboard on the ramstand, now nothing is holding her back. It flies around the cabin, but target designations do not become less likely: straight ahead, 800 meters, left turn, ... Straight rally, not a trophy.

We rush to those points that were supposed to be taken on the first day. Well, maximum in the second, but not in the third. 7 km to the first point, I go as fast as I can. In a sharp turn, a 70 piloted by Tikhokhod takes off towards the meeting. Sanya, traditionally for him, brings down all the money, and miraculously without putting his cruiser on two wheels, he goes into his lane, we are warming up.

Winding, we climb higher and higher into the mountains, a light fog hides in the forest shade, streams flow all around. The constant feeling that spring is around and snow is melting on the peaks.
Arrived. Getting to the point is shattered, today you don’t need to look for it. Masha runs up the hill, I level Joe in the direction of how much clay rise. "There is a point, let's go!"

The ascent is given in one breath, but then we decide to carefully secure ourselves with a quinoa: climb up and down so as not to jump off to the side. There is. Took 118, photo,

descent down. Do not forget to turn off the quinoa - we still need it!

Going down, I noticed that on the descent, even at the first low speed, the car accelerates. I didn't realize how cool he is.

The second point is nearby. Uphill again with a side slope and turn, rut, pine, Lemonade Joe's jump to the point, stopped. Point 119 is ours.

Farther. We meet Pajero, onboard 112, colleagues in the class. Mitsu stubbornly climbs the track, and the track wins. The pilot, biting the bit, rolls back, another attempt, almost immediately buried himself. And then he has rubber ... Simex or Silver. But! I start looking for a bypass trajectory, because I still have to go. But it turns out that our point is at the fork to the left, and Pajere to the right. And then Pajero, having accelerated a little longer, throwing black clay and wheezing with black smoke, overcomes his rise.
Lemonade did not blunder either - the first attempt was in the left track and we were on top. Point 120. Photo.

I begin to look out for an alternative high-rise race, where Pajero went, but it turns out we don’t need to go there. The men were too clever, they went to the point TP2. Adrenalin.
Backward descent, U-turn, high-speed descent along the bobsleigh track, and Masha on the fly with her laptop: “To the right!”
We go to the right, the entry to the point is visible without navigation: first a small stream, then sharply upwards, you can’t see further upwards, hiding in the forest. We go to the attack, Joe overcomes the first climb without much tension, and I see that crew 112 has flown up to enter the point. Will they wait? We are going uphill, the track, the forest has receded, there is a cliff on the right, and our path lies in a clay bath, a right turn and with a side roll to the right is the steepest climb today. The sun is shining and water is flowing. This is good, it means there are stones below, if only there is enough clearance.

Ruthlessly spurring Lemonade Joe, I go on the assault on the first lowered one. Pit, track, turn, roll to the right, I compensate with the steering wheel to the left, still to the left, otherwise it blows to the right, we lose speed, and the speed is like that of a chainsaw in afterburner, everything has become. L.J. rested against something, most likely a gearbox in a rut, and ... There is no time for lying, roll back, gas to the floor, go-go-go! We crawl very slowly to the top to the point. Yes.121.

We start the descent, we pass the place where we almost sat down - in the center you can see a clear mark in the clay, which was squeezed out by our gearbox. But this is a surprise: Pajero brings down the meeting. The guys didn't wait. Although the navigator had to run forward. It's good that I see a warm-up patch, but what if it wasn't there? We go down, accelerating on the first low. We resort to handbrake braking: I command - Masha pulls. There is enough momentum to slow down the speed and level the car. If they had braked with the only left wheel, they would have performed in the “Downhill” without skis.

Further, I'm sorry, I do not remember the details. We drive, we drive in without stopping in the footsteps, they took 122. 123 were taken.

Further, further! A stone trial, a ride up a hill, a narrowing, I’m already preparing my hands for a fight, when Masha pulls me back: “Yes, that’s the point!” And I was going to climb 50 meters higher.

Point 124. Got it, reverse exit without turning around, time, time! Again descent with the handbrake and forward.
Point 125 is similar to our regions - a forest belt along a power line, a point on a pole, a U-turn in the undergrowth ... and only the pungent smell of a Christmas tree. Let's go further!

A bush of dots was taken, the transition to another. And, well, time is running out. I'm going for a long time. About 8 km on a relatively flat but narrow path. I brake only with the engine, I save the rest of the brakes. Big river, ford, beautiful!

I do not remember further, but they took point 130.

126 were taken.

Further into the stream. Boulders, rapids, the sound of water and the roar of a diesel engine. It is not easy to go, the main thing is not to make a mistake and not to run aground.

The speed is low, but the point is near. Stop! Dot behind. Really on those rapids that we drove around along the bank of the stream? Masha lands with a laptop, I turn on the Garmin, for the first time today there is a pause in traffic. I look - I will not turn back, I can try to jump out to the shore, but there are very large boulders, you can sit down for a long time between them.

I see Masha in confusion, too, probably for the first time: “There is no point!”. And there is no time for additional searches either. We go forward along the stream, take a bearing point, then decide. It was worth driving 50 meters, moving away from the point, we find a check-in to another adjoining stream. A point on a well-placed stone. You can enter, but you can exit... A couple of minutes to discuss tactics, I go in, take 128, photo.

Back we decide to try to turn around. Masha - my eyes are on the back of my head, she commands as if we've been riding together all year. It is especially pleasant to hear: "Another 10 centimeters is possible." This is the class when the navigator understands the price of 10 centimeters. Yes, the brakes do not hold on the boulders at all - I rest against the bumper, touch the front, the handbrake is no longer an assistant either, it slides. But we turned around anyway. We leave happy. Time is less than two hours, we decide to take another one.

Skidding mayhem, then logging mayhem - no road, solid stumps and uneven piles of sawn pines.

We're following someone's footprints, but it looks like he was wrong. The road ends behind a lumberjack lawlessness, then you can only snake between boulders and bushes to a stream. Looks like you should have followed it. All we see is a descent into the stream with a step. It is 50 meters away, but you can spend a lot of time on their passage. Back.

Back track, descent along the skidding lawlessness among numerous streams. “Will we turn right here?” I ask Masha, who for some reason is silent. "To the point 1 km." The machine's laptop was dead an hour ago, Hammerhead too, the Garmin still had about an hour of charging, not all the cards were on the PDA. And before the finish line about an hour and about 10 difficult kilometers. We make a decision not to risk all the trophy, for being late for the final finish, write off all the results. And today we took 11 points in 5 hours. Our trophy is over, we still need to carefully and on time get to the finish line.

The shaking is replaced by a relatively flat area, I press the gas, and the road turns treacherously sharply, I let off the gas, but I forgot that I left the low gear, there is not enough engine braking, we are going too fast, I brake ... someone forcefully pulls the forty nose to the left in bushes, wow! It's gone... You have to be careful.
Here is the place for morning starts. Rejuvenation flies by quickly. On pieces of smooth asphalt free from people and cars, I spur Lemonade Joe, and on the third downshift he willingly rushes forward like a go-kart, and when the gas is released, he hums with a muffler, like a real rally car.

Here is the finish line. Handing over the carnet, congratulations from the judges of the finish line, someone asks something, I try to carefully roll into the closed park.

Everything. Three wonderful days of the Gorgan Trophy flew by. Now only fatigue and what adrenaline turns into when it burns out in the body. I don't know how to describe it, but the best word is satisfaction. And more peace of mind. And you also understand that you will again and again return in your thoughts to the events of these days, again and again experiencing successes and mistakes. And you will be incredibly pulled to overcome the insurmountable.