London
to Sydney Marathon
5th June - 4th July 2004
Day 10 - Alexandroupoli
to Bursa (Turkey)
ANOTHER DOUBLE
FOR McANDREW
Today the rally left Greece and Europe and
moves into eastern Turkey and Asia Minor. The Gallipoli Peninsula
is a place of legend and memories particularly for Australians
and it is here that today's two stages were run.
Anzac Cove was the epicentre of the war
in 1915 that claimed the lives of 250,000 Australians and
Kiwis and an equal number of Turks and the whole place had
a silent dignity about it.
Today's battle had an Anzac flavour to it
but this time it was the Kiwis vs the Rest. The 3-car Honda
team is an all-Kiwi affair and Lorimer who leads the Toyota
team is an ex-pat Kiwi and that's where the heat of the battle
is on this event.
Joe McAndrew did what he does best, yet
again - scoring a pair of spectacular stage wins. "Twenty
five minutes of flat-out racing, they were brilliant stages,
some of the best we've had so far," said Joe with a cheery
grin.
Jimmy McRae was less cheery having had McAndrew
bearing down on him all day like a runaway train narrowing
his lead to a scant nine seconds. Lorimer consolidated his
third place courtesy of Shane Murland in the Honda winning
the Dick of the Day Award.
Asked to explain this distinction a red-faced
Murland confessed to doing a 360-degree spin 50 metres into
the first stage of the day. "No damage to the car, it just
cost me about 20 seconds and a huge bruise to my ego," he
quipped.
Other laments came from Chip Johns who broke
a throttle cable as he left the morning start. Co-driver Jim
Hurman knitted it back together and they stuttered away.
Less fortunate was Nelson Marshall who discovered
he had left his passport and air tickets at the previous night's
hotel and set about an 800 km round trip before he tackled
today's 400 km drive - a man on mission!
Richard Martin Hurst in his V8 Capri Perana
clouted a man-sized bump in the stage that caused his wing
mirror and trip meter to fly off and gave him a pain the neck.
Co-driver Tony Devantier who spent half an hour fixing them
back on declined to make any comment about the pain in the
neck!
Steve Blunt in his
Toyota damaged his exhaust, raising the noise level in the
car to the point where conversations with co-driver Bob Duck
were conducted in mime. "Better than being shouted at," was
co-driver Bob's comment. more...
Check
out daily reports:
5th
June to 4th July 2004 day by day
|