Mustarde/Barker Alfa Romeo Team IRDC
We have received the following report from IRDC team member David Mustarde's service crew overnight ...
Day four and, after enjoying a prolonged run of good luck, things took a turn for the worse for car 299, the brave little Alfa Romeo of David Mustade and Rupert Barker. From the moment leaving Valence nothing seemed to go right, a broken throttle linkage adding an expensive six-minute penalty on the first stage. And then, another puncture meant more road penalties.
At one point, mid-afternoon, in the space of just seven minutes all four studded tyres were changed, three-and-a-half litres of engine oil were added, the front brakes were bled and, not for the first time, the master cylinder was overhauled. By the time the crew reached the time control in the mountain top village of St Agreve, they were so late it was a case of straight in, signature, and then, back on the road. No food, no coffee and not a lot of smiles. What else could go wrong? Well, on the final stage, running in darkness at the tail end of the field, David ditched the car and lost another six minutes during recovery.
At close of play we had plunged from the leader board and this morning, day five it looks like a position somewhere near 180th. Rallying!
3rd February, 2015