Kristian checks out the Eagle Talon entry of Ireland's Steven Duffy and Peter Smith on Friday at Chattanooga's Cricket Pavilion, where race teams from the world over did last minute maintenance and tuning for the next days big event.
The Mazda RX 7 of Thailand's Terdsuk Sirsook and India's Sumit Panjabi would never make it past Saturdays wet and wicked Stage One, which took the field from an initial entry size of 97 to only 79 that were able to successfully complete it.
One of the Team Subaru cars checks in to the Service area. Kristian ensures that the co-driver has a good view of the official Rally clock while our boss Ken Hurt reaches for a new time sheet that the team will carry with them until the end of the stage.
Here, Kristian check out the damage done on Stage One to one of the Team Hyundai's cars. The heavy downpour on Stage One caused the #5 car to meet with 3 trees that resulted in a good bit of damage to the vehicle in both front and rear. Even with the damage and a broken foot, England's Mark Higgins still managed a very respectable 5th place.
Poland's Jaroslaw Baran steps forward to the Service In tent to check the official Rally clock against his watch. The Polish team of Kulig and Baran went on to take second place in the rally, missing out on first place by a mere 1 second. Maybe he should have checked that clock a little bit closer?
Mountain mud nearly obscures the writing on the Air Force Reserve sponsored car driven by Tim O'Neil of the US and Canadian co-driver Martin Headland. Later stages would result in the cars becoming more mud covered, often completely obscuring their numbers and making logging in and out of controls difficult.
Kristian checks over a competitors rally sheet. This sheet is carried in the car and is presented at each control point. Rally workers annotate the time the car arrives, then returns the sheet to the co-driver, whose job it is then to calculate the time and speed required to make it to the next control point. Sheets are collected at the end of each stage, as the cars enter the Service Area.
While rest breaks were short, and the day long (6:30am - 9:30pm), there was enough time to investigate the Ocoee Whitewater Center, site of the 2000 Olympic kayaking competition. Here, Kristian steps away from the Service control tent between rounds to search for interesting rocks in the Ocoee River.
Even with a broken ankle, England's Mark Higgins manages to push his damaged Tiburon into the Regroup area. He was assisted by his co-driver, Michael Gibson, also from England. Rules dictated that they could receive no help from their pit crew, fellow competitors or the rally staff while in the Regroup area.
