2017 MAXXIS KING OF WALES DAY 2: Race day 1
the first full dat of action from Europe's premier off-roading series
The Welsh have Many words to describe clouds. 'Blanket' is how we would call what we woke up to this morning as we were in it. Grim curtains of drizzle swept in from the mountains, some people who had never seen sideways rain before had a new experience and whoever didn't want to drive in dust today got their wish.
The map of the course looked like someone had dropped some spaghetti on an aerial photo of a forest. 18km kilometres looping through the forest on fast WRC style tracks wound through the trees, but the faces of quarries hewn out on the hills, rocky uphill riverbeds and man-made jumps and rock piles are what made up the course. The top crews in the Ultra4 class had 8 to do. (6 for Legends and Modified classes.)
From 4th off the line Jim Marsden soon had the lead and was pushing hard. Behind was Derek West but up to 3rd from his 10th place start was Rob Butler, driving as though he was on a qualifying lap… But with its IFS (Independent Front Suspension) his new Eurofighter was taking it all in its stride.
Not able to say the same though was last King of Wales winner Nicholas Montador. Slithering off the line last of the Ultra4 runners all he could do was push to the max all day. That didn't quite pan out though as the huge queue in the riverbed with mid-fielders slowly winching up ahead of him meant that he was parked up waiting for almost a full lap. Butler and Marsden were on him by the time they got to the Euro4x4parts quarry pit. And any hope he had left of any sort of result ended with a broken gearbox before the end of lap one.
West was keeping up with leading duo until he had a problem with the brake line that dropped him down more than a lap and through the carnage and chaos that let a steady Jelle Janssens into third, the youngest driver in the field was taking a more measured approach after his all-out attack in qualifying. behind though it was just a soggy forest full of broken cars and mud covered co-drivers walking back to the pits for spares.
Out front though it was the double class acts of Butler and Marsden, the lead swapping every now and then but it was only ever up to just a few minutes between them. Reeling off the laps relentlessly, time coming down each time around, it looked to be a thrilling finish… especially as on corrected time had them pretty much in a dead heat. First to flinch was Butler, making up time after stopping to fix a hydraulic hose he ran out of petrol out on course. It's not such a simple mistake to make is everything on the dash is covered in mud and he drives so hard that he can't really take his eyes off the road. Fortunately his friend in the UTV class pulled up let him siphon a couple of gallons out of his Polaris' tank so that he could continue. That should have gifted a big lead to Marsden… Except the exact same thing happened to him. Getting out to look at the car though he came across both cooling and chassis damage, serious enough to put him out for the day. First to pass the stricken Team Gigglepin crew to finish an amazing 2nd today was Jenssens, although at the flag he was too exhausted to even speak. And taking the third step? None other than the amazing Nusu driver Neville Ciantar. “It's crazy out there,” was all he could mutter through his mask of Welsh mud.
Sunday sees six laps for the Ultra4 class, but that will be no mean feat so nothing is set in stone yet. And the weather forecast is as bad as it was today...
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