Sand Stage Race Day
The test was run in the order the teams left the build. The Staffordshire Bulls set off first, 20 minutes ahead of Maximus, who were 40 minutes ahead of the Rally Dragons, who led the Chainsaw Clan by three minutes.
The Staffordshire Bulls' pick-up had no problems driving over the sandy course, but it was a different story when it came to finding the buried key. Their vibrating sieve struggled with the heavy sand on the course and seemed better at collecting than sieving. In fact they were still looking for their key 20 minutes later when Maximus arrived.
It was a great opportunity for Maximus to overtake. But as they deployed their cycle-powered machine they discovered the hooks were too long and prevented the rotavator from turning.
So both teams were having problems. The Bulls had been reduced to violently shaking their sieve by hand, while Maximus had to bend all their hooks to shorten them.
With only Paul cycling and with Will helping lift the rotavator, Maximus managed to get their machine working, sort of. But by that stage the Bulls had given up on their sieve altogether and had resorted to fishing for their key with a hook on the end of a piece of string!
Now, with time ticking away, it looked as if the Dragons and the Clan could be in with a chance of overtaking both teams.
Finally, the Bulls found their key and legged it off. Maximus found theirs just a couple of minutes later. Just as well, as by now so much time had elapsed that the Dragons had joined the race.
The Dragons' rake was the simplest of all the designs and with nothing to go wrong it turned out to be the most effective - they found the key with their first rake. A couple of minutes later the Chainsaw Clan reinforced the simplicity point - their rake turned up the key in an equally short time.
Dune assault
The pressure was on the leading teams as they hit the dune, but the Staffordshire Bulls made it look easy. They roared over, with their double wheels giving them plenty of power and flotation on the soft sand.
The Bulls had won this stage. If current overall leaders Maximus struggled to get over the dune then the Bulls stood a chance of snatching the Scrappy Races Rally lead.
And the dune wasn't as easy as the Bulls had made it look. Maximus didn't bother using their matting road - they just went for it. But their camper van got bogged down halfway up the dune. With the Rally Dragons and the Chainsaw Clan hot on their heels, it could have been a costly mistake. But they rolled back to the base of the dune, unfurled their matting road, and with a minor hiccough, trundled over the top of the dune to finish second and retain their overall lead.
Rally Dragons' captain Nikki showed unusual caution as she approached the dune, and the Capri got bogged down before getting to the top. On her second attempt she gave the car a lot more welly and sailed over, just as the Clan's lorry hove into view.
Resigned to fourth place, the Clan were still determined to get over the dune and avoid incurring an additional time penalty for failing to complete a test. With the other teams cheering them on, they manfully went to work laying out their mighty metal road. Even so, the going was slow until the other teams piled in to help.
With 12 pairs of hands on the job, the road was quickly laid out and the Chainsaw Clan's lumbering lorry edged its way cautiously over the dune and across the finish line.
Winners of the Sand Stage - Staffordshire Bulls
Sand Stage results
07:36:28 Staffordshire Bulls
07:49:43 Maximus
08:06:38 Rally Dragons
08:53:06 Chainsaw Clan
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