day 7 last day and La Bufa

1.00am
After one too many beer (s) at the reception Sam struggles to get a key to our room as he's not the Mr Snitzer? on receptions computer.  After much slurring and expletives  they finally give in and hand over a duplicate card to get into our room.

We wake at 5.10am the phone goes off - its a call for Mr Snitzer.
Again at 5.11 am it goes off - again for Mr Snitzer !!!!!!

No more sleep,  we are wide awake and for the next hour lie in bed listening to the noises of cars being started up and tested.

Sam does his early morning homework and marks up his notes and alterations to the day

I love the WARNING handout on P287where the RH1 turns into a blind RH4 

There is an air of excietment as this is the final day. Lots of good luck tidings.

I spot a new face on the next team - but it turns out its his "last day good luck wig" that he wears every year throughout the last day.

before...........................

after....................................

 We go out behind the yellow and red 356 of Robert Curry thats been patched up. Whenever I see him he's wearing a "Jiffy lube" t-shirt. Thats a brand that i sometimes see in chemist shops?

Exactly how many jiffy condoms do you have to use to get a tshirt, yet alone full car sponsorship??

All stages run well. we even manage to film from the cockpit and from the front of the car with a mini go-pro video camera!!

We run four dry speed stages - that all went well

Then run two service stops . First for a oil and water / brakes service to check things over before the infamous downhill La Bufa -

with everyone wary of its blind peaks - none moreso than Gerie who got it so spectacularly wrong in 2005:

To see video click on:   La Bufa Downhill FAIL 

after the downhill on la bufa a final service for the cleaning and polishing of the car before the last speed stage back up laBufa and the run into Zacatecas for the end.

It starts to rain YET again.......

We make the finish arch and get instructed to pull into tech for a final car inspection /weighing and to measure the actual engine size etc. We see one of our close rivals - the blue XK150 on a trailer - which can only help our standings.

The party starts......   For two hours we all party like crazy. Bottles of tequila are passed around, beers flow with back slapping and  hugs all round.

Its the final chance to let off steam and to congratulate fellow cars.

Lauren manages to sign her name on some poor passing mexicans arse.

The Mats Hammarlund mechanics hunt us down and douse us in beer. 12 x 2 bottles each  - thats a lot of beer spray!!

At the awards our friends Carson and Lauren  get 1st for day and 1st overall in Original Panam class.
Lauren also wins the attention of "Growler" a particularly deep voiced "hands-on" mexican!!

The Hammarlund  mustang with Stephan and Peter  gets  overall 2nd in Historic C  and 10th overall.

Memo and his studebaker come in 2nd for day and get 3rd in overall.

Taz and Rudy come in 7th overall in their super-fast Datsun.

Asdrian Stevens and Sam Burg with final day awards Mexico

We finally also get a 1st in class for the day and a rather surprising 1st in the overall classification for our class Sport Major.


we say goodbyes to Mats Eva and the nechanics

Get to bed at 2am with alarm call 4am to fly back home....