[Mad Kiwi]

thanks you everyonewe had an up and down week
during practice we spun a bearing losing oil pressure, we thought our rally was done, the local Misubishi dealer "Phil Long" came to our rescue letting us use their workshop, plus the workers helped pull the motor out,the crank was damaged beyond use, so we were done, or were we??, the Factory Mitsubishi team Engine man came to our help and pointed to the used Eclipse crank sitting on the bench, it will fitwe installed new crank bearings, used rod ones as we couldn,t get new ones, and fired it upwe had oil pressure, but for how long??, loaded onto the trailer, unloaded at the start line with no testing on the hill or the engine , with the words "ignore the guages" ringing in my ears, we were off up the hill
less than 1 mile up the oil pressure dropped and temps rose!
I drove it even harder, shifting at 5000rpm , hammering the car as we had no power, what a rush when I realised we had made it to the topno oil pressure!
Big thanks to Frank, on loan from RMR, the Factory Mitsubishi team, Nick Korpal from www.7-24airx.co for all the help, Phil Long Mitsubishi, Chad From Subesports whom set the car up, grooved a great set of tyres, John my Co driver and to all the fans and workers, thanks thanks , thanks
Leon Styles
#374
ps doing this event has been a dream fo me for most of my life, its even in my will for my ashes to be spread up the hill so it was very emotional for my to finish

 

[MattLovell]

Congrats to everyone involved in this accomplishment. You finished, with a respectable time to boot! I imagine that if you had some time testing both the engine and hill, you could have at least taken 4th, if not a top 3 finish

great job guys, Running Pikes Peak is one of my life goals as well (along with Paris-Dakar). I hope to at lest be there next year to cheer one the ones running.

 

[Mad Mike]

First - Congrats on finishing!

Second - Leon. Dude. Any one of us who has known more than one New Zealander (personally, I lost count years ago) knows that every last one of you who have come stateside is crazy ... that's why we love ya'all so much! And even though I've been told there is at least one true Kiwi over here who is in a consistently sour mood (although I never met him, I think I got close during my days with the Saleen Autosport Race Team), the lot of you would be hard pressed to get together one mad-on. Hells bells, when was the last time anyone saw a Kiwi who wasn't grinning? ;-) So about this "Mad Kiwi" moniker ... it's eitehr redundant or inaccurate ... you really ought to do something about that! :7

Finally - Your mention of ignoring gauges reminded me of the dash that greeted six-time PPIHC Production Class Champ John Crawford when he climbed aboard the intercooled Daytona Shelby Z loaned us in 1987. Since Doug Shepherd and his lighter-but-not-intercooled Shadow Turbo was quicker during practice and qaulifying it was decided that the car, driveline, tires - whatever - was all expendable. Given that, I dutifully taped over every gauge on the dash and gave JC orders to just concentrate on the road. I guess it worked, Crawford won the class that year by .99 seconds!

Anyway, congrats again to you and the team for persevering and making it to the top!

Halley ...
Owner/Driver of that 2WD ProRally #86
RealAutoSport, LLC
http://www.realautosport.com