TP Diaries: Race 4 Change

I?m currently on a plane heading back to the United States, looking forward to seeing family and eating whatever is left over from Thanksgiving. Being out of the country during my favorite holiday isn?t something I like to do, but I had one of the most epic adventures of my life this past week in Africa. Sill having the stitches in my ankle from the latest surgery wasn?t the ideal way to go, but this was an opportunity I couldn?t pass up. Besides, not racing for the past 4 months has felt like an eternity.

The East African Safari Classic is a rally race that only happens once every other year. Picture the Dakar Rally but with exotic animals and nightly stops at the nicest lodges in Africa. I was on the Tuthill / Race 4 Change team alongside Bj?rn Waldeg?rd (one of four former WRC Champions who competed this year) and Ian Duncan (Kenyan National Champion). My Co-Driver was the Legendary Fabrizia Pons (first female motocross racer in Italy, Champion rally driver and WRC winning co-driver). It was an honor to sit next to her and race against so many legends.

For those of you who don?t know about Race For Change, please look it up. The founder is Steven Funk and he has taken his success in life and passion for driving cars and used it to help empower the people in some of the poorest areas of Africa, specifically targeting women, through micro financing. I didn?t know much about micro financing before I met Steven Funk and Shannon Tobin two years ago but I immediately liked the concept. Now that I?ve seen the slums and some of the success stories that have been able to utilize the program to make better lives for themselves and their families, I am a believer in what they are doing.

As Fabrizia and I headed to the first stage, she read me the promoter?s notes. ?Take extreme caution on all crests and blind turns especially on this fast first stage because there are herds of elephants that you will likely meet on the road. Also, there are no laws in Africa that allow us to shut down the roads so be cautious of oncoming traffic, especially near the two busier villages you will pass through. Please take into consideration that there has been a lot of rain in the past week and likely wash out?s, mud holes and ditches that have formed after the notes were made.?

About a km into the 200km first day, driving a classic, rear wheel drive, Porsche 911 for the first time in my life... I looked over to see the speedometer pass by 199 kmph and thought to myself, ?what the heck did I get myself into!? Fabrizia read the next note from the road book, ?Turn right at T junction in 3.5km?. This was my first rally without descriptive notes and at that moment it was hard to decide if the feeling in my gut was utter terror and pure excitement. I quickly convinced myself against my better judgment that it was perfectly rational and continued with the accelerator pedal to the floor. Blind turn after blind turn, not knowing when I would meet up with a zebra or an elephant or a sink hole or a truck or a jump or a river; but confident that I would see them all before the days end.

The rally started off well and even after getting lost for about 3km on the first stage, we still posted a respectable time. Cars start every 3 minutes and we were able to catch and pass 5 cars on the long seconds stage on our way to the stage win. I didn?t feel that we were driving too fast but one of the most experienced and respected personalities in rally, David Campion, came up to me after that stage and said, ?If you win a stage by more then a minute over the level of drivers who are competing against you at this event... It doesn?t mean you are better then they are, it means you took too many chances... Slow down.?

I laughed it off until about 10km into the next stage when I found myself with a shattered rim and a flat tire. Fixing a car in the middle of the bush isn?t the easiest but picture a guy who can?t walk and a lady who weights 110lbs changing a tire in a muddy riverbed. A job that takes two mechanics about a minute and a half took us 12. We lost 15 minutes that stage to the leaders but held a slight lead over the Gentlemen Driver Duo of Travis Clarke (my agent) and Steven Funk (head of Race For Change) who were just cruising along for fun but with no expectations of being competitive.

Day two started out with a flash flood. As the first car came through a dry riverbed, a wall of water appeared out of nowhere and the stream became a raging river. 12 of the first 20 cars would end their day in that river. We got lucky and floated downstream past the mucky area but unfortunately got stuck for 20 minutes in another mud hole on that same stage. By the time the 60th car entered the flood area, the river had again turned into a stream. By midday, all the sunken cars were now sitting on somewhat solid ground and most of them continued on.

Being back in the field for the rest of the day (due to the cars that passed us while we were stuck. It was a struggle because passing was almost impossible in the dusty planes. We would make up 3 minutes on the car in front of us but he would lose 9 minutes on the stage to the leaders. We ended day two only 2 minutes ahead of the slow but sure duo of Travis and Steven. We were in 6th and they were in 7th so we started the next day in that order.

30 minutes behind the leader, Kenyan Rally Champion Ian Duncan, I charged through the first few km of the next stage. I didn?t go off the track but my aggression through the rough section proved to be a poor decision. I blew out both rear shocks. With 150km left in that stage, we crawled through at a painfully slow average of 40kmph. Travis and Steven not only passed us, but beat us on that stage by 36 minutes!

Off to a good start on the next stage but the Hub Axel snapped and my front left tire fell off! Fabritzia and I took all the spare tires and put them on the rear of the car. Then I sat on the back, holding onto a rope to get more weight off the corner that had a missing wheel. We lost a few hours and officially took ourselves out of contention for the rally win (although we managed to pass Ian who was broken down on the side of the road).

It was an adventure but I was more then ready to get racing again. On the first stage of the next day, our windshield wiper sprayer stopped working. This doesn?t sound bad but with so much mud, the wipers would just smear it around until we couldn?t see anything. I was optimistic about the next stage but a rock took out the break-line and we had to run 75km without any breaks. This was a big problem also because I wrecked the transmission by trying to slow the car by downshifting.

So, we went into the last stage without 4th gear? but I was determined to win another stage and we went all out. It was by far the hardest I had been on the car the entire rally. It was a very jumpy stage and we let the car fly! We were in the air so long on one jump that Fabrizia yelled ?O no!? after we took off and I was able to answer with ?It?s ok, we?re going to be fine!? before we touched down! We got stuck briefly, had to make one u-turn, and went down the wrong road for a minute... but we were still able to win the stage.

At the end of the day, it was such an adventure. I enjoyed the people, was able to see the countryside alongside my wife. Animals were everywhere, the car was a lot of fun and I was so excited to be back driving in an event. I was proud to race for Race For Change and it was an honor to be on the same team as some of the sports greatest legends.

To everyone involved, Thank You!

TP

12.02.2011