A week ago I competed for the first time as a co-driver in the Pre Codasur Rally, a warm-up event for the South American Championship round in July. It was not a bad debut at all since we were leading our class in the S1600 by two minutes until we broke a driveshaft on the first stage of the last day. Then on the penultimate stage we had transmission problems and it was game over.
It was a real shame because I really wanted to win. Maybe I would have been ok if we would have not been leading or if we won but now I have something inside that I can’t get out. I guess I know how it feels now in this sport.
We had a few busy days prior to the rally as I had tons of work and on top of that I had to take an intensive last-minute course of co-driving that consisted of approx. three hours with my teacher Ive Bromberg (one of the best co-drivers in Peru). Luchito Alayza (my driver) had also final exams at the university until only a few hours before leaving for Huancayo.
We left Lima very late in the evening (Thursday) and we arrived in Huancayo at 3am just to get up at 6.30am to do the recce. This was a bit hard in the beginning as I have never done it before but at the end I think I got the hang of it. I was exhausted at the end of the day with just a few hours of sleep, recce, Shakedown (although we did only one pass) and the ceremonial start which we had to wait a lot for since the big cars were starting in front of us and on top of that we were starving!
We started with the right foot on Saturday winning the first stage right of the bat. We had a few problems setting-up the rear suspension but Lucho was able to fix it to finish the day two minutes ahead of our closest rival Samuel Benedetti.
Everything looked great for the last day of the rally and we were determined to just take it easy until the end. But on the first stage we broke the driveshaft coming out of a U turn that had a deep pothole. We had to drag the car until we reached the midday service and now the advantage was of only 30 seconds.
After the mechanics did an excellent job fixing the car we left service to complete the last two stages. During the regrouping, my window wouldn’t go up and we had to look for a piece of plastic to cover the window with tape…very fancy!
We started the stage and a few kilometres before reaching the end of the penultimate test we damaged the transmission. Although Lucho fought to continue we couldn’t go anywhere and we had to park the Toyota Corolla. It was really a bummer for us as we were picturing ourselves already in the podium spraying the champagne. It would have been great to win on my debut but I’m sure it will happen some day.
I know I still have a lot to learn but I am determined to continue forward. I learned what I had to do and not to do as a co-driver and for sure I will apply it on my next rally which will be the South American round beginning of July in Huancayo. This time I will compete with Lucho Sr. hopefully in an Impreza N4 class. I’m already planning to continue my lessons with Ive so I’m better prepared next time and hopefully do the entire championship next year.
I want to thank Ive, Lucho and his father “Luchon”, Ana Abuid for her great help during the services, the mechanics from the team, the guys from amigosporelrally.blogspot.com for the support they gave to Diego (Barco) and I, and my family who did not agree very much in me competing in the beginning but that have supported me tons at the end.
Note: it happens that we found out later that the reason why my window was not working was because the lock button was pressed on Lucho’s door. Yeah…we feel super dumb!
Here’s some of our photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/9515730@N03
and some videos, including one where Lucho talks a bunch nonsense in Spanish (sorry)...something he does quite often!
You can find the Spanish version of my blog at http://www.amigosporelrally.blogspot.com/
