I could not come to Hub Rally 2010 because of floods so do not know what exactly had happened there, heard only that Nadir was on Pole after qualifying but his LC malfunctioned during rally and hence had to stop. If Evo wins because Nadir's LC malfunctions, cant call it fair and square win for Evo because no matter how well maintained a vehicle is, inevitably, some day it will breakdown. This happens to the best of the best international teams with millions of dollars of budget, Nadir's LC, maintained by the regular mechanics/chotas of Nusrat was of course no exception. On the other hand, except Jhal 2008 which Nadir lost by 4 seconds to Ashraf, all rallies of 2008, 2009 and 2010 where Ronnie and Ashraf finished without mechanical failures, were won fair and square by Nadir.
Before Hub, last mechanical breakdown of Nadir's LC was in the qualifying round of Cholistan 2009, where he moved to automatic transmission Toyota Vigo for Rally and won the A Category.
I was there and examined Nadir's Vigo personally. It had King's suspension but shocks were without rebound setting i.e. simple off road ones. Nadir's vigo also did not have the chip or the automatic transmission cooler. Chip was given to him by Channa and transmission cooler was lent by Rashid Abdullah. Both these were fitted by the mechanics of Channa and Rashid during the night before the rally. Nadir probably did not even had time to tune himself with the extra power of the chipped vigo/its handling before the launch.
In that rally, Ashraf rolled his current/then new Evo before stage-break and Nadir caught Ronnie calculating too much. Nadir was also faster than all the rally prepared manual vigos in B Category, which included Amir Magsi, Asad Khoro, Amir Abbas and Nauman, thereby proving to all that he wins regularly not merely because of his very well prepared LC but mainly because of his exceptional driving skills.
Its because of this event why I am firmly of the opinion that Evo in the hands of a driver matching the skills and bravery of Nadir can beat him fair and square, however, this is yet too happen and till that time, in local rallies LC/Nadir combo rules.
Mithi 2009 was a completely different story. I know you were there to watch the rally but dont know for sure if you went on the track. Let me tell what happened there and why.
Though Mithi seemed exactly like Cholistan, yet it was not. Sand of Mithi was more soft and the vehicles digged a lot more than Cholistan. My jimny never failed to accept the 2nd gear in Cholistan but in Mithi, it consistently lost momentum in second. Result was that there were patches where instead of restricting myself to 45km/h at 6500 rpm in the first gear I opted to engage the Low gear and cruise at 60km/h in 3rd gear. Wherever Jimny accepted the 4th gear of low range, I shifted to High Ratios in the first available opportunity because there I knew Jimny will take 2nd and may be 3rd as well, resulting in better speed.
Because of this phenomena, Nadir who runs 15 psi in front and 14 psi at back in Cholistan, reduced the air to 12psi in front and back. Result was that his Micky's came off twice, thus lost time in changing two tyres. Ronnie found about the failure of Nadir's strategy and started calculating again. Result was that though Nadir could not beat Ronnie's time, Amir Magis in his B Category Vigo came out to the overall winner.
Have already lost lot of working time,,,, will check reply at night