If only the SMU Jimco had the reliability of Mick Jagger at the sweet old age of 79!! Well after a 3rd outright at Pooncarie with the car not quite behaving itself, the team went to Finke 2022 with high hopes……albeit heading to the famous SMU bogie track! Finke 10 SMU 2.

Some really good pre running and a nice test run for the car expectations were raised within the crew. However these expectations were soon again to be shot down in true Finke style. Finke Desert race – where Off Road Dreams go to die!

On the start line for Prologue no less, with the driver and navigator with eyes firmly on the prize before take off…..5 seconds left to literal take off the car goes into limp mode. Some sort of sick joke from the Finke gods which yet again will one day will make a result at Finke that much sweeter.

So (another) DNF in Finke prologue saw us seeded for the race to Finke on Sunday. A new battery thought to be the culprit as we chased an electrical gremlin and the old battery reinserted with the issue hopefully resolved. Yet again on the start line for the main race Sunday and with 10 seconds left to start, the car goes into limp mode again……REALLY??????

Turn the ignition off, turn on a few times and finally the SMU Jimco gets going – lost 16 seconds on the start line but hey its a long race so lets do it!

Good run with clean air, car quite still not its usual self we end up losing all power at the 65 km mark. Game over. Frustrating to say the least….

Electrical issue (presumed) still to be diagnosed and only now have toys began to be gathered and put back into the cot….there has been a lot of collecting….

Car now washed and we will begin the effort to ascertain what has happened although it is certain that we won’t be hitting the track again until we are 100 per cent sure what has occurred and it is fixed!

No date for next race….maybe Pines if all is fixed within the time frame. Otherwise 2023. Looking for motivation….it is always darkest before dawn!

GO SMU!