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...

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5th June to 4th July 2004 day by day