THE INCA TRAIL

the big South American adventure rally

Day 38: Rio Grande - Ushuaia (257km)

The Catts' Cortina leaves the final Control of the day - the most southerly Main Control of the Inca Trail - at Ushuaia. The Dyke-Price's Healey approaches the Control in the background.

Today sees the rally reach its most southerly overnight halt - but we must wait until tomorrow for its literal turning point. Ushuaia may not be the most southerly settlement in the world, but it is the southernmost city, with a commanding position on the water's edge of the Beagle Channel, named after the ship that Charles Darwin arrived in in the 19th century. Mountains rise up behind the city, and across the Sound, too, making a lovely setting. This is the jumping-off point for Antarctica, and growth of tourism there has given Ushuaia a new-found air of prosperity.

At the end of today, at the Inca Trail's most southerly Main Control, a woman in her eighties was among the crowd watching the cars as they came in. She was English, and on her way for a holiday in Antarctica. She came to chat to Don and Pat Griffiths during a quiet moment between cars arriving. It turned out that she was Pam Wright, who navigated George Kendrick to victory in the first of the Mobil Economy Runs in the 1950s. She obviously retains all her old spirit of adventure, as this is a return trip to Antarctica: 'I just love the place', she says.

We heard when we arrived that Wilhelm and Barbara Lambertz had had a lucky escape overnight, but not so their Toyota Land Cruiser. They had decided to head to Ushuaia ahead of the rally, but en route on the mountain road first the right hand wheels went off the edge, and then, trying to correct the error, the vehicle crossed the road and went off to the left. The Toyota is in a very sorry state, but it was good to hear that Wilhelm and Barbara came out of their ordeal unscathed. Latest news is that it seems the Toyota can be made roadworthy again, and the couple hope to be able to see the event through to Rio.

More about medals

As reported yesterday, we now have just four crews keeping their Gold medal hopes alive.. Paul and Mary Kane, in their Shelby Mustang, have had a remarkable run, and still hold a Gold Medal clean sheet: in 38 days they've still not dropped below Gold standing at any point. There is one crew still on Silver medal standing: Bart and Jolijn Rietbergen, and until today we had two on Bronze: Renger Gulliker and Anton aan de Stegge. But Anton was unlucky enough to break a wishbone during today's Regularity Section. He's been towed back to Rio Grande to get it fixed, and will wait there to rejoin us when the rally route doubles back from Ushuaia to Rio Grande.

Team Time

We looked at the 4x4 medals and team results yesterday, so now let's take a look at the Classic Reliability Trial team standings. In each of the competitions - Club/Ecurie Teams, Marque Teams and National Teams - there is one team that has pulled out quite a lead over the rest. But there's still time for that to change should a mechanical problem put a car out of the running for a few days.

In the Club/Ecurie Teams, Ecurie Cod Fillett is well ahead with just 2,053 penalties between their three lowest scoring cars: Paul Wignall's Volvo, John Bateson's Escort and Bart Rietbergen in a second Volvo PV544. John Blanckley, fourth member of the team, has his score dropped at present.

Second team in the Ecurie challenge is Team Africa: they are currently dropping both Paul Merryweather and Alastair Caldwell's scores, but the best three (David Garrett, Alexa Scott-Plummer, David Reville) have an aggregate of 7,032.7. The remaining three teams (No Name, Team GB, The BAA - BAA's and La Juerga) are looking out of touch with the hunt now: in third place No Name have accrued 66,929.9 penalties, and in sixth La Juerga have 550,722).

Formula Ford have a massive lead in the Marque Team competition. On 17,386.1 penalties, things will have to go very badly wrong for one of their crews if they're to be beaten: Team Mercedes, lying second, have 101,650 penalties from their best three scores. But Formula Ford could be on a knife-edge. Three cars must finish for the team to qualify. Unlike the opposition, they only started with a team of three cars, and David Liddell's Escort RS1600 has already run a few thousand kilometres missing fourth and top gear. But Formula Ford team manager Colin Francis comments: 'Judy and John 'Tom' Catt are doing a grand job - they're really keeping their tails up, instead of pussy-footing around. They've begun clawing their way back up the leader board after a few problems, so we're feeling pretty optimistic.'

The National Team competition is a three-way fight, between Team UK and two Dutch outfits: Maxima and Holland 300. Team UK (Blanckley/Scott-Plummer/Merryweather/Wignall/Bateson) are out in front with just 2,507.8 penalties, with Team Maxima (Rietbergen,/Gulliker/Schildkamp/Meus second on 55,761.4 and Holland 300 (Zwartendijk/van Geen/Constandse) a little further back on 291,393.1).

More team updates when we reach Buenos Aires - or sooner if need be!