When the M-Sport car of Elfyn Evans and Daniel Barritt broke a suspension arm on the Ouninpohja stage (SS4) during Rally Finland, they whipped out one of the best LeMons-grade on-stage fixes I’ve seen in quite some time.
The team ran wide on SS4 and hit a rock, breaking a rear suspension arm. A Snap-On wrench from their in-car toolkit was whipped out on the stages and clamped in place to hold the car together not only through the rest of SS4, but all the way through the end of SS10, when the team could finally do a proper fix in service.
Evans kind of kicked himself for driving into the rock afterwards, explaining in a team press release:
We ran wide at the start of Ouninpohja [SS4] and there was a huge stone on the exit of the corner which we hit and damaged the rear suspension arm. We managed to make a temporary repair that got us back to service, but we lost so much time and the whole afternoon was mainly about nursing the car back.
It’s been frustrating, but it’s from my own doing so I have nothing to blame other than myself. It’s been a long afternoon, on what would have been massively enjoyable stages, so we’re obviously very disappointed.
M-Sport Team Principal Malcolm Wilson, however, praised the pair for the great fix in the same release:
The fix he and Dan [Barritt, co-driver] did on that car was phenomenal. It’s incredible that they managed to get back to service and I think both drivers displayed a real determination today.
Both cars were fully repaired in service and we’re looking forward to seeing what they can do tomorrow.
You can’t finish if you don’t make it to the end somehow. I’m with Wilson—that’s GENIUS. I’m not sure Snap-On could’ve paid for a better ad for their tools, either. All things considered, that wrench still looks pretty straight.
[H/T Dusty Ventures]
Contact the author at stef.schrader@jalopnik.com.