Wednesday, January 12th, 2005
TOGETHER AGAIN! One week after seeing each other for the last
time, the members of Vanguard Racing are together again! They met
today in Nouakchott, the capital city of Mauritania. In between,
they have crossed the desert on their own and lived strange
adventures.
Last Thursday's stage between Zouerat and Tichit finally lasted two
days for Ronn Bailey and Steve Myers. They got lost in the desert
several times, got stuck in many sand dunes and finally ran out of
gas on Friday, 50 km away from Tichit. They had to wait long hours
there, until the local military came and gave them some fuel. When
they finally made it to Tichit, they were told that they had to
drive to Tidjikja to be at the start of the next stage the next
day. But they missed their departure time by 45
minutes and were told they were out of the race and on their own,
and that they would again be under the organizers' protection when
they reach Dakar. Adama, a guide from Rally Raid UK, has helped
them through the desert, to get fuel, food and shelter. And
finally, they met with the rest of the team today in
Nouakchott.
Ronn said: "It's been a great adventure and I loved every minute of
it. We have so many stories to tell! I am so disappointed to be out
of the race. But I also feel great because we are together again
and we are going to Dakar tomorrow!"
Steve added: "We are all in good health and in one piece although
Clark got slightly injured. I loved every second of that race. It's
very difficult and challenging, at times very scary. We both wish
we were still racing. It was one of the greatest things I've ever
done. I've learned so much. I had fun driving the car although we
didn't have enough fuel capacity on that stage. I want to do the
Dakar Rally again!"
January 4, 2005
Team Vanguard Breaks Into Dakar 2005 Top 100 – Now 63 Overall
After Two Days of Racing in Africa  Driving Chevrolet Buggy # 380, Vanguard Integrity
Professionals CEO and Co-Pilot Ronn Bailey, along with co-pilot
Steve Myers finished Day 4 with a finish in the top 100 and ended
Stage 5 (Tuesday January 4) in 63 place.
Steve Myers, in his second day at the wheel after
Ronn Bailey drove December 31st and January 1st, spent the day
passing cars in the dust. According to Meyers in a conversation
after Monday’s race, “The car is doing great, and Ronn
is doing very well, although our Easy Trip* doesn't work at
all,” Meyers says. Easy Trip is a device that helps the
co-driver follow the indications of the road-book and check the
distances between them. “Fortunately, today was a rather easy
stage, except for the dust and the difficulty to overtake the cars
ahead of us, Myers states. One particularly resistant Toyota sent a
huge rock that broke the windshield! But the craziest part of the
day, was the end liaison to Agadir, when we tried to follow the
race T4 trucks in the mountain, with big crowds watching. These T4
pilots are something! Our T4 was the rescuer of at least four cars
that were in trouble. The fans in this part of Morocco who seemed
to like us race cars and race drivers, are refreshing compared to
the ones who threw rocks at us and yelled "go home" yesterday.
Tomorrow looks like a long run on Baja-like terrain with a rocky
track. I hope we can fix the trip computer because we're about to
need it very badly”.
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