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Just got a text from B'runner. The ute has passed scrutineering for this years event. I'm heading out early tomorrow morning. Photos and updates as they happen.

well thats good news, half way there.
hope all gos well from now till the end of the race, and noughing brakes this time.

Rik.

keep us up to date please Brett. Some pics of all the new mods would be good.

All the best Stuart and the team Let's hope you can make it a double this year

Love to come and watch.. I'm going to plan now for next year

Brett.. Pictures and updates are a must I'll be watching for any videos

No video camera for me but Dave has got one. We did a bit of general servicing to the ute this arvo and the boys went for a few test drives. All seems good. Here's hoping for an incident free race.

Good luck and go hard guys.

We have had a bit of a bitch of a preparation this year after prologue. Stuart had to adjust the bound of the rear shocks 3 clicks harder, then we had to go in to town and have a steak for lunch and a few bourbons and a snooze this afternoon.

He has qualified 3rd in class after the 8k prologue. He finished 8 seconds behind Colin Hunter and 3 seconds behind Rob Chapman. Pretty bloody good when you are only dropping 1 second per kilometre to the current Australian champion.

About to have a pizza and a few more bourbons, then hit the sack in prep for an early freezing start tomorrow. Drivers briefing is at 5.30AM, first cars leave at 7.30 and Stuart/Jim race off at 8.03AM.

I'll be off to Finke as soon as they leave so there won't be any updates from me until the race is over. Fingers are crossed for a quick, breakless run tomorrow. If all goes to plan the foot will be down to chase them down on the run home.

More Monday arvo. Until then you can listen to the race call online and keep up to date by the stage links to see how things are going.

Great work guys Tell Stu to go with McRae's motto.. 'When in doubt.. flat out'

We'll keep a watch on his progress and here's the link for others interested..
http://pdf.finkedesertrace.com.au/raceresults.php

Have fun Brett and don't drink too many bourbs

Brett has just rung, and Stuart has torn the back wheel off the car. His race is over unfortunately. Brett will update when more known.

that sux Dave. put some pics up when you get to inspect the damage. I hope the guys are OK?

Oh sh*t.. must be bad to call it DNF without time to repair

What a bastard hey? It was the factory welds on the rear hub that failed. When it let go the wheel, hub and brakes went one way and the ute the other. It tore the cv joint apart while it was at it. We went out and recovered them about 65k's from the start line.

Ended up taking the rear swing arm off, pulled the brakes and what not off and then welded the hub back on. Put it all back together and drove the ute on to the truck and sat and watched the bikes go by while we all sat and had a bit of a sulk.

That's racing I suppose.

As long as Stuart is alright that the main thing. Just give him and excuse to over engineer the car again... :P

Yeah.. it ain't racing unless you're breaking something Not a good sight when you see your rear wheel over take you but lets hope for a better one next year.

You can see what happened in this pic. Plans are already made for more strength for Gundy in October.

what a bugger hay. its far better to fix to steel then bones, and quicker to.

and we all know how good Stuart is with a grinder and a welder.

Just glad that Stuart and jim are ok.

Rik.

Bloody hell! Glad stuart's ok - I bet that gave him a fright! Looks like anything that's factory needs a going over! Probabily why vehicles that are built for the dakar don't look anything like their factory counterparts...

All the best with the rebuild!

Cheers

Bennie

Haven't posted here for a while but the event pics are up on movingpictures.com.au if anyone wants to have a look. Here's some thumbnails of us.

the need for chromoly all round......


what gave way first??