The Iran Car Club banquet....

Ummh?  Seems to be the general consensus from all those who attended.  We were promised the deputy President of Iran and got the deputy deputy president and director general of the Institution of Physical Education instead due to a cabinet meeting taking precedence! 
Goodness. The experience was interesting in the way perhaps a meeting of the masonic society would be to those who were not members. Lots of ritualistic back slapping and endless thankyous and loads of claptrap all while we waited patiently for our supper. Most lost the will to live after ten minutes. 


The Banquet  turned out to be the same as every other meal in Iran.  Pressed meat kebab and rice washed down with coca cola. At least we were given an alabaster gift which weighs a ton and will make a good wheel chock.  I don't mean to be ungrateful but Iran was a funny country and not really to my liking. A lot of people were nice but some were most unpleasant and with the kids throwing rocks at the cars we are glad to have left to be honest 


Anyway one or two of you have asked about the scoring system which keeps us firmly stuck in third place when we are clearly the best team out there!  Well basically the rally works on a series of timed exercises. Some are A to B timings and some a special stages where speed matters.  In reality if you break down or get lost on these trials you incur penalties which add to your time. 


Therefore the cars in front of us have not lost as much time as us. Until they either break down or get lost we cannot beat them as the time difference is too much to make up. The important point is that if you arrive early as you have a faster car it doesn't count. You only get penalised if you don't get there within the limit.  You can make time up on special stages but these are typically only a few minutes on you competition.


Basically we messed up on day one through inexperience and are now stuck where we are for the time being. I hope that's clearish!  


Off to supper in our beautiful ski resort hotel now. Pip pip.