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We had all sorts of weather today on our Marathon track from Krems in Austria to Linz, via Budweiser in The Czech Republic. We drove 485 kms on farmer roads mostly, only partly cleared of snow. The wind was howling and the fresh overnight snow was blowing back onto the road after the morning snowplow runs. This meant we had the trickiest conditions of the week to contend with. One moment the road was clear and the next you wrestled with a snow bank.

This morning during our first regularity many cars ahead of us decided to put chains on to get up the first hill. We rather relied on the rear-weight bias of the 911 and let the 2.7 RS engine’s torque do its work. This strategy delivered us 20 minutes advantage and warm hands….

A Lancia decided to return in its tracks this morning as we were driving on a road over the crest of a hill, with gale force winds chasing powder snow from left to right. Silverado was driving slowly at about 40 kph trying to avoid the growing snow banks, when we saw the Lancia approach. It was either going to be a head on collision on this narrow road, or the side of the road. I chose to move slightly to my right and wriggle by the approaching car, when my right front tyre caught some snow and pulled us into the snow bank. Unfortunately we destroyed a narrow sign post as we went off, which destroyed one of the driving lights and dented the front bumper. With the help of a nearby snow plow and several competitors we were out in no time and the car and crew continued to run strongly all day.

There were many offs in the brutal conditions of today, but nobody was injured. Competitors all help eachother recover from mishaps and new friendships are born that way.

Making our way to the Final Time Control, we were slowed down by ever heavier snow fall. We were behind a fuel tanker for 20 minutes on a one lane road and very spirited driving on the last 25 kms ensured an on-time check in and avoidance of penalty time. We arrived on the minute exactly at 20.53 PM here in Linz Marriott… Tomorrow is the final day of the rally and I bttrr log off……