Author: Leslie Roy

Congrats

by Leslie Roy

Congratulations to Chuck and Pam Lyford for winning the best time in the rally.
It was Pam’s idea for a nice drive through Agentina. But the competitive juices hit and from early on they were the leaders.

Well done

Pam said she knew he was into it when he packed his checker flag shirt.

Team Bardhl got the price for the fast team total

Lyfords
Roy and Elliott
Danny and Michael day

So not all bad for a bunch of Yanks from the NorthWest

I close this blog with a picture of the cars at rest

They deserve their quiet journey home.

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Competition

by Leslie Roy

While the competive juices flow in a race like this in the end we all helped each other get to the finish line.

But up until the end all is fair game.

A rock was put in our car on the last day to slow us down.
Not sure which red car did this

All stopped along the road on the last day to help a fellow Yakima car get to the finish line.

In the end all good friends.

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Some last bits

by Leslie Roy

As we start our journey home some last thoughts.

As Rand indicated our orignal goal was just to finish. Tough to compete with the big Bentleys and as the English call them the American Hot rods.

In the end old 12 did A great job and did compete. She loved the gravel and rough roads which in the end gave us the edge.
A big thanks to Tony and Bill for the help on the car.

There are lots of things to say about a race like this. Many are hard to describe and suffice it to say hou had to be there..

I come back to a quote from the P to P race.
“The emotions – there are so many highs and lows in a day even hour to hour”
It truely represents this race.

In the end it was a great trip with a great friend.

While Rand considers driving the easy part i consider it just as challenging as the right seat and some ways worse.

Hundreds of miles of gravel driving. – let alone the speed sections.
He really did well on those race sections – made the difference in our number 9 finish. We matched the best and beat many of them.

So with that i say thanks for following us and the many words of encouragement from so many.
I will leave you with this picture of the challenges of driving

Rand’s blister. Disregard the beer bottle the blister was from the driving

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His own class

by Leslie Roy

Hugo in his best

Fishing waders ????

One of his many hats

Binos for the elusive glimpse of the andes condor

The balance speaks for itself

Hugo was on the P to P. In 2010 he always had the most interesting hats

Tonight there is a price for the best hat.

My bets are on Hugo

Second pic is a few days earlier

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Reflection

by Leslie Roy

The trip is done!
I won’t be able to remember all I want to say but it was a difficult and also exciting final day. We started at the local race track for a 3 lap time trial. The sky was black and snow was falling. It was a slow and slippery event but we muddled through and then it was on to 200 miles of washboard gravel. There was another time section there and we were one of seven cars that made the stretch of road in the time allowed. It snowed for much of the drive and as I write this big snowflakes are falling.
We left home with the goal of arriving here in our car. About a week ago we started comparing times and positions with some of the other teams and a wee bit of competitive juices got going and so after three weeks we have finished ninth. A top ten finish is very satisfying to us in this crowd.
So the car has been delivered to the dock for shipping, we have washed off the days dirt and we await the big awards party.
Getting here has been quite a journey. We need to thank Tony Niesz for his help putting the original version of the car together, and Bill Ross for all his help making the improvements that allowed us to complete this trip. We could not have done it without you.
Lastly:
Being a driver is easy. You push pedals and turn the wheel. Les has spent his days the last three weeks looking at a route book, monitoring the Monit and all the gauges, telling me where to turn and when. Then at the end of the day he is crawling under the car tightening bolts, fixing wiring, and generally taking care of the small things that could be a problem is left unattended. He has worked his butt off and I am grateful for his determination and cool head throughout the rally. He is a good friend and companion; there is no one I would rather have made this trip with.