Primal Quest

A Long Stop in Purgatory - Kinetic Energy Unranked

Rob / 14.07.2002

As the Subaru Primal Quest draws to a close the determined effort by Team Kinetic Energy goes on, but sadly they are now unranked.

It’s been a brutal and mountainous course, with some extremely high temperatures, and a combination of the dust and high altitude causing a lot of withdrawals. Many finishers are having lung and breathing problems, and this must be worse for the slower teams who are out for longer.

Though they started last Kinetic Energy have kept going as others withdrew, staying ahead of the cut-off times, despite going off course a few times. But from CP20 to CP21 – the aptly named ‘Purgatory’ – things went wrong. The average time for this trekking stage had been around 8 hours, but Kinetic Energy too over 31 hours. At the moment we don’t know the reason why, but the news is that when they did arrive at CP21, which is Transition Area 5, Warrick Taylor pulled out of the race and the others continued as an unranked team after a 7 hour stop.

They are now with a couple of US teams at the back of the pack trying to complete the full course and are through CP24 on a trekking stage.

Confirming just how tough the race is/was Matt Siegel of EcoInternet/Golite explained why the 3 unranked team members pulled out just a couple of miles from the finish – it was because Pete James was suffering severe dehydration to the point of delirium. \"I\'ve never seen Pete like that before,\" said Siegel. \"We made the decision that since we were unranked, it just wasn\'t worth the risk to go on.\" It’s also come to light the team became unranked early in the race when Anna McCormack suffered from breathing problems and was told she couldn\'t use her prescription medication without dropping out of the race.