Saturday 9 July 2016

Day 27 Fri 8 Jul 2016 Rzeszow (Poland) to Kosice (Slovakia) 320kms

The start at Rzeszow, and car 59, Bjorn Schagel &Trond Brathen's 1960 Morgan plus 4
Today had four tarmac stages that I had expected to be rough and bumpy.  I was wrong for three of the four.  
The first and second, which were in Poland, were smooth hot mix.  Not really suited for our tyres but good for cars with power and brakes.  The stage consisted of short straights with slow corners.  Both uphill and downhill it was very taxing on brakes.  The Garnsworthy Mustang  and the Jackson Mercedes both had bad brake fade.  
I had been prepared to see a bit of time lost but it didn’t happen.  Haven’t seen any results yet, but info from controlees was we were generally second fastest to Joost Van Cauwenberge ‘s Mercedes, which is now firing on all eight and on tarmac tyres.

The second section was much the same as the first and we saw the Escort car 73 on its side in the stage.  When they tried to start it after pushing it back on the wheels, I believe it caught fire.

My office each day
The third section wasn’t as smooth as the first two, so we took it a bit easier but should still do OK.

On the fourth section we started after the Garnsworthy Mustang, but didn’t see him at the end.  We thought he must have passed cars, but at the finish of the day we are being told he may be off in the section somewhere. 
We certainly haven’t seen him.










The day started and ended with crowds waving and welcoming.  It’s surprising the interest that this event is generating here.



The afternoon sections were in Slovakia and the finish of the day in Kosice was amazing.
The town centre has a long strip of outdoor restaurants and bars on a wide cobblestone boulevard, and I think everyone stopped for a drink.  Team GT in action (that’s us and the Belgians, whose favourite drink is a gin and tonic).
left: Car 103's Renee (Declercq) wraps Mark up in one of the blankets that come with the tables.  It apparently gets cold here sometimes.

(later): Today's top-10 standings:

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