Day 3
The third day of competition proved to be extremely rich. It was necessary to pass the remaining parts of the technical inspection.
The first stage was the tilt test, which verifies that when tilted at a 45 degrees angle any technical fluid does not leak away out of the car, and at an inclination of 60 degrees the car does not turn over.
This test was passed without any difficulty, and after receiving a second label, the team went to the noise test. It was not so smooth: at first attempt a 110 dB threshold has been exceeded. But with some help from our friends from MAMI, who provided a replacement muffler, we were able to keep within the permitted range of noise.
Only the last item of inspection was ahead — the braking test. While on test it is necessary to accelerate the vehicle and to brake after. Braking should provide all wheels blockage, also the engine should not stall. There were no problems with braking, not to say about acceleration. It turned out that the car refused to accelerate to any sane speed no matter how the pilot was pressing the gas pedal. After several attempts an engine settings problem was found. It was noon already, and the braking test was conducted till 1PM. Fortunately, the engine adjustment took about half an hour, whereupon, in spite of the rain started, the braking test had been successfully passed. Regrettably not only the braking test was conducted til 1PM, but two first dynamic events too — acceleration and «eight», which we were not able to participate due to lack of time.
Thus, on first year, our team fully passed technical inspection. It should be noted, only People’s Friendship University team while on previous Italian FS stage had achieved this before. But this year three fresh teams out of seven Russian teams could repeat this achievement. Except us teamы from Nizhny Novgorod and Yekaterinburg also overcame techical inspection. And this year the bar was raised, because we did not only passed inspection, but also took part in the dynamic events.
In the evening of the same day the third dynamic event was contucted — autocross. In this event pilots had to drive two laps along the short, but winding track.
Started rain was no doubt to run on. Teams boxes which were mere tents faced the problem of flooding. Under these conditions we prepared the car for the race and went to take a place in a long line to the track. Because of wet track using rain tires was inevitable, although our team did not expect that you have to experience it in work.
Ar the autocross events two attempts attempts are given for two pilots. For the first one, of course, it was more difficult, he received several penalties for missed cones and in the second round even lost control beacause of the wet road. But the co-pilot was able to take into account all the features of the road and came 21st overall. The team was very satisfied with this result, because our first car had left behind more than half of the teams, and even showed the first time amongst Russian teams.
On this the third day events were over, and the team went to the camp in the hope of warmth and shelter from the rain.
