Posted Saturday, May 5, 2012 at 2:32am
After SS8 Lauchlin O’Sullivan and co-driver Scott Putnam are 12th overall and fourth in the Super Production category at the Oregon Trail Rally east of Portland in a resort community called The Dalles. At the second service of the day the crew is fourth in Super Production 2:38 from third.
We’ve had lots and lots of issues with the car. Everything from brakes going out to brakes locking up. We had a broken brake line after coming off a stage. We were late leaving the last service because we didn’t have the stuff to fix the brake problems right away. I think we lost 15 minutes with the problems today but I think we can still get to the Super Production podium by the end of the event.
We came into service and we were very down on power. The brakes were still sketchy but the crew is working on that. We’d hit the accelerator and the turbo boost would go up to about 15 pounds then immediately drop off. We’re having problems with the intercom. I can’t hear Lauchlin he can hear me. We’re not going to screw with that at this time. The front suspension feels loose. It’s just a laundry list of things at this point.
We were hoping that the car issues were behind us but clearly that’s not the case. These stages are absolutely brutal. You’re going down the stage and hitting rocks. We hit one so hard that we broke the wheel. We had to change it on the stage and put the wheel in the back of the car. That cost us about four minutes because we had two cars pass us while we were working.
It’s just been a fairly eventful day so far. We were 16th after six stages. Now we’re twelfth after eight stages. We have one stage then a 20 minute break in Dufur, Oregon. Then one more stage before the day is over and we return to The Dalles for the overnight break.
