Racing Wheels!
The Vintage Adventurer crew departed Nizhny Novgorod drove 40k to the N-Ring race track. The crews had to do two laps then on the third lap, drive out to time keeper. On the final lap three corners from the finish and on a right hander, Ruby’s back wheel rim and tyre took off leaving the centre hub on the wheel whilst Ruby did a bow tie and nearly tipped onto her side!
Rod explains: “A quick recovery of the tyre with rim and spokes attached was 50 metres away near the steel barrier on the edge of the gravel grabber. Austen already had the jack out but we had to dig a hole to get it to fit under the rear axle…time wass ticking away and we had only minutes before we were penalised.
“After using the tyre as a wedge, we got another lift with the jack making it high enough to get a spare wheel on, which was a real struggle. We were in the gravel only a couple of metres off the race line and every few minutes, cars were screeching around. We had to be ready to leap out of the way.
“Anyway we bolted the spare on and headed for the time keeper and missed the allocated time by five minutes and we thought that meant that our gold was gone….all the the gold we earned thus far gone.
“We were relieved to find out we still retained our gold which is good. We have 50% brake 20% of the time then 5% and sometimes zero % other times! It keeps the heart rate up and keeps me alert and Austen wide awake.
“We are so down on rubber, we are very doubtful if we can make it to Budapest where we have a set of four waiting for us.
“We will get there somehow, we will.”
