Four Wheel Drive Club of Sri Lanka

Text by Darshan Maralanda, pix by Anuradha Ratnaweera

The Convoy set-off today at 7:45 a.m. from Tianfuyuan Resort parading the off road machines around the beautiful city of Sanya. The convoy reached the prologue site by 9 a.m. and the special stages started soon after all participants went through the starting ramp.

Team Sri Lanka started off on SS2 with 3 competitors ahead of them in their [upside-down] Dong-Feng badged Nissan Patrol Y60 modified trayback. Yes, folks it is a Nissan Petrol with a TD42 4.2l Diesel Engine on standard chassis shedding most of its bulky body weight by sacrificing the dashboard, winder glasses, rear glasses, toolkit and a downsized spare wheel on Maxis Buckshot mudders. This vehicle has been lovingly prepared by a local mechanic Arbin.

The Petrol went through its crash testing on SS2 by hitting a rock after crossing a water hole resulting in minor modifications to be done to its Dong-Feng face with a high lift jack by Arbin himself. Sean and Rushi felt much at home on this right-hand driven Diesel Patrol which was a rare sight in these parts of the world. The grunt of the Patrol carried them through most obstacles without much bother except for those where winching was mandatory where the 12000 pound electric winch was slowly rolling at snail's pace. However the Lankans had a good day where the winching opportunity was only limited to SS3 and SS8, and the Patrol was keeping up relatively in par with some of the most modified gasoline engines.

The Buckshot mudders were giving away on the hard terrain. Fortunately for the Lankans, it was towards the end of a special stage thus completing it. However, Arbin's help was invaluable for his prompt help by replacing tyres off his service vehicle to keep the Lankans going. Arbin's efficiently was flawless, but the team's efficiency in communicating with Arbin was limited to sign language and diagrams.

The team completed SS2 through SS8 and also had the opportunity to do SS1 thus took the chance to complete all SSes which was planned over two days of prologue. However, misfortune struck when the tie-rod end of the drag-link popped resulting in a DNF on the last SS of the day. This was due to the excess tress on the Patrol during the previous SS8 which was the longest and the toughest, and can be named as the vehicle eliminator for the day.

After two more special stages of the prologue on day two, the teams will head to the jungle where the real fun is expected to begin!

Watch this space for more updates!