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Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - DTC: The Winners' Route - Dubai - 11 Dec 2021


Ale Vallecchi

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1 hour ago, Niki said:

Apologies @Ale Vallecchi I have to drop from Saturday’s event.. thankfully you are spoilt with the convoy and support.  Have a super drive all! 

Sorry to hear that @Niki. Given this, @Gok Krish and @Ranjan Das, you are IN the drive. Please reconfirm. Thanks a lot.

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Dear Desertnauts

In preparation for tomorrow's drive, we'll be meeting just off the tarmac road between Qudra's Last Exit and Solar Park, under the pylons, on the left side of the road. Please deflate as soon as you arrive. That is not the starting point of the DCT, so we'll begin our drive with a warm up approach to the actual starting line. Once there, I'll share with those who wish the 5 waypoints, so that all can follow the track on their applications. If all goes well, and we manage to conclude the circuit in good time, we'll continue the drive through Lisaili, until exit time.

The following will be the convoy order:

@Ranjan Das in Second Lead

@Sunil Mathew at #3

@marks at #4

@Archibald Jurdi will be at #5

@Gok Krish #6

@JeromeFJ will cover #7

@Rawad will take #8

@Lawrence_Chehimi at #9

@Amir Amiri #10, and 

@Dodi Syahdar will Sweep.

The radio channel will be chosen on the spot.

See you all tomorrow. Have a nice Friday evening.

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Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for the very nice drive this morning.

It was great to go back to the DTC tracks, and to see that cutting through the technical areas was  totally manageable for a group of good drivers. Still it was amazing to see the big cars, Y62 for @Rawad and @Lawrence_Chehimi, and the trucks of @Amir Amiriand @Dodi Syahdar keeping the flow in the tight dunes and narrow bowls. Congratulations for the lead @Ale Vallecchi, we did a great time, and it removes nothing to the performance of  Richard@Wrangeld and his team. They did it discovering the WP on the spot, they are the real champions  !

The second part of the drive, was just pleasure and enjoyment to wander through the wider area between Solar Park and Qudra, with a convoy in perfect configuration, 2 Jeeps, 2 FJs, 2 Y62, 2 trucks ! @Sunil Mathew, it was nice driving with you, @Archibald Jurdi also, I hope your car can get fixed without too much troubles (great mechanical support from @Lawrence_Chehimi).

Thank you all for the drive !

IMG_8195.jpg

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  • 3 weeks later...

DTC: The Winners' Route - Drive Report

"Destroy your reputation. I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on I will be mad" - Rumi

Following the first Carnity's DTC, on the wings of my disappointment for a not brilliant finish, and following my own analysis and self-criticism of that drive's dynamics, I had promised myself to engage in more technical drives, as opposed to what may have become my signature long range drives. The latter tend to shy away from technical areas, while the former measure one's driving skills on a whole different scale, where finesse and control are much more important than raw speed and fast lines. 

Hence, what better opportunity than a very competent Intermediate convoy, to go back to the scene of the crime, and relive the action, looking for a different outcome , at least from the chronometer point of view, while following the route blazed by the DTC Champion Richard @Wrangeld? So we did. We set out to follow as close an itinerary as Richard's, from Waypoint 1 to 5, driving, as Gaurav mentioned, "as the crow flies", and ditching my Desert Wolves team's track, originally designed to be longer, yet supposedly more open, less technical, thus faster.

The specific DTC route also had the benefit of a prequel and a sequel drive: the first to reach the DTC's starting point from the Solar Park meeting point, and the second to get back from the DTC's finish line to Qudra, via Solar Park. The prequel was meant to work as a warm up, and the sequel as a cooling down. 

These two drives within the drive were as fun for me as any other drive I had had in quite some time. The nature of the convoy allowed us to make phenomenally good time during both segments.

We drove the first part, to reach the DTC starting point in 24 minutes, covering 13.6 Km at a speed of 33 Km/h, without any stops.  The third segment of the day, from the DTC's finish line to Qudra lasted 1:42 hours, covering 43.3 Km, at an average moving speed of 31Km/h (and was cut short by a mechanical issue of Archibald's Jeep).

Once reached the DTC starting point the convoy lined up alternating IM's with Support Team members as, s follows: @Sunil Mathew in SL, followed by @marks, @Archibald Jurdi, @Gok Krish, @JeromeFJ, @Rawad, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Amir Amiri, and @Dodi Syahdar in Sweep.

Getting right to the performance, these were our own private DTC stats: 33 Km driven, in 1:08 hour, at and average of 30 Km/h

The 3 reasons for this phenomenal drive were, in order of importance: 

A - We followed a pre-scouted route, blazed by Richard, with a strategy that not only 1) exploited Richard's familiarity with the area (driven in support of many of Gaurav's Leaders Lead sessions), and 2) his expertise in technical driving, but also 3) his choosing to discard prudent planning, and go for the most daring, and challenging track. With this in mind, I would like to make a diversion from the report, and highly recommend each new Leader in the Club (present and future ones), to always scout the location of a lead, if you have not been there before. Just looking at maps is not enough: before taking a convoy in an unknown area, there is no substitute for a recce drive (with other advisors, or higher ranked members). It will insure the success and complete safety of the drive.

B - The convoy drove perfectly, with the utmost concentration and display of skills, recording only 1 quickly sorted refusal throughout the whole route.

C - looking at Richard's recorded track, and considering the quality of the convoy, we managed to cut a couple of corners, from Waypoint 2 to 3, and from 3 to 4, straightening a couple of curvy lines that Richard was evidently forced to take, further reducing the driving time.

In the end, I'd like to thank the convoy members for such a fun day out in the desert, like I hadn't had in while.  Looking forward to always more challenging drives, I wish all of Carnity a great Holiday Season, and a brilliant New Year.

 

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