Kuch samaj nahee aaye kay kiya huwa, as I said, we did the recce with two rear spare tyres, and tyre pressures of 22 psi front and 20 rear. And after qualifying decided we will do some changes. So race was done on one spare rear tyre removed, and cold tyre pressure reduced to 17psi front and 16psi rear for increasingly softer sand. So at the start of the race when we were drifting all over (including a offtrack excursion in the bushes, from which I had to reverse back) I thought it was the really low tyre pressure and rear weight reduction. We still pushed it as much as we could and actually caught-up and overtook the car in front just after CP3. However, as soon as some inclines came, I was having trouble, and I just figured my clutch plate had gone, cause I would press the pedal and engine revs would rise immediately and car would not speed up, so we slowed down to preserve the clutch plate, so that we can make it back to camp from mid point, but eventually on a steeper dune it seemed we maynot make it to the mid point. So I parked on the side at the top of dune, because the vehicle I passed started coming back closer to me in those uphill dunes section. We let them thru. We were parked for 25 sec, and then I decided to give another try to make to mid point. When I tried moving off and revved the engine a bit, the rear of NPP sank and it just hit me, that we were in 4X2....................a long list of expletives and profanities started and we started moving again.
We eventually did catch up with the car in front and overtook them again......................but the damage was already done!