Donegal Town Crew Andy Bassett and Keith Stevenson had an eventful outing on the Condroz Rally based in Huy, Belgium with their Golf Diesel Tdi.
A bad choice of tyres on the first batch of three stages saw the crew struggling with a lack of grip, which resulted in a very unsettling high-speed spin. A broken battery connection on Stage three meant that by the time the crew reached the service point in the town of Huy they had lost over 60 seconds to the Seat Tdi's.
The rest of the day saw all the diesel crews locked in intensive battle, with the lead going backwards and forwards. The addition of fog after darkness made driving conditions even more difficult, and also caused one of the local crews Tdi to retire.
However Sunday dawned bright and clear and the Donegal Town Crew started to whittle away at the leader over the first 6 stages. By the midday halt they were just 42 seconds behind the Diesel Class leader.
At lunchtime we made the decision to give the diesel trophy our best shot' said Stevenson 'We stormed over Stage 17 and the inevitable happened; we broke a driveshaft just 200 metres from the stage finish. Although we were disappointed we had given it our best shot, the Golf Tdi had shown good speed and had withstood some incredible abuse, and the Rene George Racing service crew had performed very well. We could not have done much more'.
That completes the 2001 season for the Tdi crew, who are now planning their next event, the Arctic Rally in the frozen north of Finland in January.
A bad choice of tyres on the first batch of three stages saw the crew struggling with a lack of grip, which resulted in a very unsettling high-speed spin. A broken battery connection on Stage three meant that by the time the crew reached the service point in the town of Huy they had lost over 60 seconds to the Seat Tdi's.
The rest of the day saw all the diesel crews locked in intensive battle, with the lead going backwards and forwards. The addition of fog after darkness made driving conditions even more difficult, and also caused one of the local crews Tdi to retire.
However Sunday dawned bright and clear and the Donegal Town Crew started to whittle away at the leader over the first 6 stages. By the midday halt they were just 42 seconds behind the Diesel Class leader.
At lunchtime we made the decision to give the diesel trophy our best shot' said Stevenson 'We stormed over Stage 17 and the inevitable happened; we broke a driveshaft just 200 metres from the stage finish. Although we were disappointed we had given it our best shot, the Golf Tdi had shown good speed and had withstood some incredible abuse, and the Rene George Racing service crew had performed very well. We could not have done much more'.
That completes the 2001 season for the Tdi crew, who are now planning their next event, the Arctic Rally in the frozen north of Finland in January.