Mooched a welder and welded the shock tower back into the car last night and it held. But on the first stage the shock mount blew through. Then the aux fan fried and kept melting fuses and it was hot. On the third stage we missed a jump call (our notes were in Portuguese or something) and hit it at like 80 mph or so and exploded into the air. The launch felt like hitting a brick wall and broke a motor mount arm clean in half.

But the jump was amazing. Later I had a minor off but regained the road. Some kids threw boulders in the road on a transit and I punctured my gas tank losing nearly a half tank in 24 km on the next stage. Best part, the officials pointed out our leak and showed a handful of gas to us when we asked how big it was — I knew we were screwed, but they said we could start the stage so we did. I patched it with just stuff in the trunk — RTV and balls of duct tape— twenty feet after the stage finish, on the side of the road, with the officials watching. Didn't have time at service to fix it so five stages tomorrow with RTV patch. Barely finished the rest of the day. I have a 10 minute service in the morning when we pull the car from parc ferme but we need to put on fresh tires.

I ran into the Rally Mexico organizers in the bar. Petter Solberg is in there doing shots. Having entirely too much fun. Only three real stages tomorrow anyway. But apparently the ex-WRC car in my class or the Evo broke on the final stage which means I am back into third place.