Loading Bam Bam in Mainz
We’re on day 5 of the rally and things could have gone better so far. I’ve been doing some writing, but what’s interesting to read as it’s happening is less exciting to post days later. The Rallye has not been able to provide internet until today and still the press is disappointed because it’s not enough to upload photographs. I’ve sent a memory stick into town and hopefully will have a few photos to share soon. In the mean time, here’s what’s up:
We arrived in Frankfurt on Wednesday morning, a week ago today. We had an interesting time connecting with the service team arranged by the co-driver who wasn’t to arrive until later that day. Once we found them we immediately got down to business. We picked up the truck and totes at Lufthansa Air Cargo and headed to a nearby city where we loaded everything, including Bam Bam for the 8 hour drive to Breslau, actually Wroclaw, Poland. Breslau is an old name for the same town, as of 15 years ago. The crew arrived at different times; we were split up handling different aspects of business before leaving Frankfurt.
The cars line up at the start of the Prologue
Our crew consisted of Alois (a co-worker from Jay’s previous work with Spiderplow/Fokersburger) and Josh, the mechanics. Gus, the co-driver. Sabrina, Jay’s intern. Maura, our sponsor, Magpul’s representative. Four from the film crew hired by Magpul to document the adventure. And of course Jay and myself. Jay and Josh rode out with the service team, who had a stop on the way and a lot more to haul, so they didn’t arrive in Breslau until 5:30 am. They went strait to camp, while the rest of us spent the night in a nearby hotel. Since the sun was already coming up, the guys decided to just start their work. The new tires had to go on Bam Bam as it was shipped with smaller ones for clearance. There was work on the cooling system still to be done… hydraulics, and a million other odds and ends (I’m sure I’ll leave out a lot of wonderful gearhead details as I’m just the girlfriend, but look for updates later after Couch gets his eyes on this).
After only a few hours of sleep for the crew, the work continued the next day and included a parts run that me and a couple other ladies were sent off to do. Finding specialized parts in a foreign country was a challenge that began only after spending 3 hours looking for the first auto parts store. Maura was our leader these first few days, keeping everyone on task and bringing a bit of order to the chaos.
The Maiden voyage of Bam Bam
The race began on Saturday morning. The rig was outfitted with five tiny cameras, helmets were wired for audio, fluids and belts were checked and it was time to start, ready or not.
Day one went well, probably the best day so far. I’m not certain on where we placed exactly, but it was respectable and was somewhere just above average in the list of 180 or so cars and trucks. I spent the day with the most of the film crew tracking down viewing locations, but only found one and only after Bam Bam had passed. It was interesting, however to watch some of the other competitors on moguls, steep hill climbs, and a steep decent, on the dusty terrain. Another member of the film crew had gone with the press that morning and was able to get some good footage, sending reports to us by text. It was an eventful day for some. A photographer’s leg was broken by a jeep. Some of the motorcyclsts were supposedly arrested when they were caught doing 100KMH in a 30 zone. We learned a lot that day. We’ve often struggled getting our information ahead of time, as most of it is given in German with an abbreviated version in English. Among what we learned was about the format of the race, road driving vs off-road. The road driving portions of the race are timed, but the speed limit must be followed. Too slow and you loose points, too fast and you are also penalized. (more…)
