Our Mitsubishi Evo went through it’s first real service of the event, with new front brakes, rotated wheels, and minor surgery to repair an intermittent misfire. » More Photos

The stupidity of not just spinning on a straight, but spinning on a straight in a SLOW section of a stage is somewhat balanced out by the style points of pirouetting the car and managing to not just keep it on the road but also to keep it going in the right direction. Unfortunately the spin (plus a drop in my confidence after almost writing off the car off) cost us close to 30 seconds on the stage.

The remainder of the day was uneventful. Long transits connected some exciting roads, all leading into the final stage of the day through Clarenville. This city stage is similar to the Gander stage run the day prior, with the addition of even more narrow roads and significant elevation changes. There are a lot of junctions and blind sections through the city that can catch you out, so it's a matter of pride that I was able to run the stage penalty-free and was complimented by a fellow rallyist and organizer on how smooth we looked from outside of the car.

Despite all of this hard running, the car only needed its first service this evening. New front brake pads and a tire rotation gave us a chance to clean about 10lbs of dirt and muck out from inside the wheels. We also addressed an intermittent misfire that plagued us throughout the day, traced back to an engine ground wire that managed to come apart from all of the bouncing and slamming we've put the car through. All said a very reasonable service for such a grueling event.

Making it past hump-day is a fantastic accomplishment. There are many less cars in the event today than there were at the start, and we are now well past the half-way point. We are that much closer to the finish and to our Targa plate. The times for the day were not posted in the evening, so we are unsure where we are in the standings, but we will continue to drive our pace and try to take the class 9 win.

READ THE INTRO HERE
READ THE ABOUT THE MAZDA TEAM HERE
READ LEG 1 STORY HERE
READ LEG 2 STORY HERE
READ LEG 4 STORY HERE