Reilly Traveling Circus

Day 3 has been a long one. We remounted our freshly cleaned air filters on the car and headed out with a 9:30 start. First up was another lap around the dirt track, this time counterclockwise. We substantially improved our time from yesterday and then were off over the roads of rural China. Our regularity performance was hindered a bit by having to pass one of the support pickup trucks on the regularity course but overall, it wasn’t too bad. It was very, very hot today and in the afternoon, multiple participants started experiencing fuel boiling issues due to the temperature and the high ethanol content in Chinese gasoline. Another learning experience for us. We had issues at the racetrack at the end of the day and had to run both fuel pumps. We did a fair job on our first lap but missed the pit entrance on our second lap and wound up with a poor time. Back to Ordos to experience fuel evaporation in rush hour traffic, culminating in a stall at an intersection near the hotel. It took about 10 minutes to get the car started again. Consultation with the mechanics in the hotel parking area turned into a tutorial on fuel evaporation, heat management and the variable quality of petrol in China. We apparently predisposed ourselves to this afternoon’s issues by using 92 octane gas when we filled up this morning, as 95 wasn’t available at that particular station. Our mitigation plan is to improve oil cooling by removing the front license plate and wrapping the engine compartment fuel filter with a couple of washcloths from the hotel and keeping them wet to help cool the filter. Fingers crossed. We are into our first desert campsite tomorrow after what promises to be a very long day. Today was about 8 hours but tomorrow promises to be about 10 hours. We probably will not have internet access for a few days, making it impossible to post until we are back in a hotel.