The wrap up

It was an amazing week.

The last two days were tough: we covered over half the competitive distance, and most of it in the rain. We backed off the pace, took it a little easier, but still managed to achieve our dry times in the wet.

The worst stage was Queenstown - 99 corners on a slippery, greasy road ... On one side a rock all, the other a plunge to the valley below. I get the steering crossed up a couple of times, but we got through. The stage claimed one of the event's overall favourites, Kevin Weeks in his Lamborghini Gallardo - over the edge, and they needed the rescue team to cut them out of the car.

We hit better than needed times on all stages, so we achieved our Targa Trophy.

We did cop the penalty for passing too close to a chicane, which cost us about 5 placing in the overall standings, but we still managed to win our Class.

And now I've returned to life with speed limits and school pick ups. I guess my dream of becoming a professional race driver will have to remain just that.

Just a quick note

We weren't penalised for passing too close to a chicane. No mention of it by the officials, so either we got past before the 200m board or the person manning that chicane didn't know the rule.

Either way, we're clear.

Day 3 was great.

Some tough stuff to start the day - first stage was wet, the next two were intermediate, along with a couple of the a'noon stages. It's an obvious thing to say, but the car behaves differently on wet roads! Some bits of these roads almost never dry out - between low temps and overhanging trees there are traps for unwary drivers hiding on corners.

And in the afternoon, on a 10k stage - a double catch! Not only did we catch & pass the car in front of us (a 911T), but the one who started 30 seconds in front of him as well (a Mini Cooper) and all in 6 and a bit minutes, on damp roads. We were on fire that stage.

Long tough day today - 450k or so of total driving, and one of the best Targa stages - Cethana. 37.5k of twisty, windy stuff mixed in with a climb, a descent and some very fast bits.

Can't wait!

Relived.

I've just woken up and checked the results website - no penalties for car 713.

Very relived.

Today the pace and difficulty both increase.

And it's raining.

It's going to be a fun day.

A nervous wait

A number of Targa's competition stages have chicanes added - they are there to reduce average speeds, slow you down on very long straights, and to add to the difficulty of the event (trust me, it doesn't need much help).

The chicanes are temporary (or the locals might get a little upset) and made of those red or white road works / crowd control barriers. I guess they're a metre and a bit tall and maybe 3m long.

So, three barriers, right entry, go left, right exit. At the end of a long straight and you're at full noise as it approaches - 300m, 200m, 100m - brakes, clutch, blip accelerator, change down, get through and get back on the power. Easy. You wish.

Chicane rule number one: don't hit them. It costs a 5 minute penalty along with paint, panel & ego damage.

On one of the first stages we cleared the chicane by 2 or so centimetres. And since that one I've been treading a little softer around chicanes. I'd prefer to drop a couple of seconds getting through rather than thump one and have it cost 5 minutes.

Rule number two is don't pass another car within 200m of the approach side. I didn't know about this rule until late today.

Car are started at 30 second intervals - if the cars in front & behind you are moving at the same sort of speed as you then you should have the stage to yourself. But if you're a bit quicker then the car in front you might get to overtake; a little slower than the car behind, you might be overtaken. It's one of the most exciting parts of Targa: passing someone who's doing warp factor 5 while you're at warp 6. And the overtaking rules are simple - you get caught, you let them through.

Now mix Chicane rule 2 with the Overtaking rule.

We had almost caught the car in front of us as we were coming towards a chicane. I thought we'd be hugging their back bumper by the time we all arrived at the chicane and they'd let me through as we both exited.

But 400m or so before we got there he moved left, off the racing line, and signalled me past. So I kicked it hard and went for it.

Very heavy breaking into this chicane - I came in way too hot - through we went and one with the rest of the stage ... Which went blisteringly fast (by out standards).

We were chatting with the car we passed while waiting for the start of the next stage - it's always polite to say thank you after passing. And they mentioned that Chicane Rule 2. I hadn't heard of it.

I'll admit I haven't read every single paragraph in the Supplementary Regulations. Do you drive a car? Know every detail of the road laws? Same sort of situation.

I've looked at provisional results on the web site and no mention of a penalty.

So now I'll have to wait until the morning to find out for sure one way or the other.

Drive like you stole it ....

Before I tell how well we did today, if you're looking for a cozy pub, with good food and great atmosphere, give the Royal Oak in Launceston a try. Corner of Tamar & Brisbane, and an excellent front bar. Cold beer, and no pokies or other distractions.

So, today was Day 1. A little odd that we've been here since Saturday morning and Wednesday was the first day.

Targa Tasmania make the first two days "easy". Maybe a better way to describe it would be "not crazy hard".

The Base & Trophy times (see below) are set for reasonable speeds - the idea is to ease crews into the first couple of days so nobody drives off the road trying to make a target time before they've warmed up and gotten comfortable in their cars.

And that's exactly what we did - got settled into the car, and got used to each other's company again.

Base time is sort of "scratch" or "par" but you don't score any points for going faster, only lose them for going slower. So if Base time is 5:00 there isn't much point in going through at Warp Factor 5 and doing the stage in 4:00. By the same token, you don't want to be any slower than 5:00 if you can avoid it.

We have to be under Trophy time to get a Targa Trophy (which we're trying to get).

Base time is set for the entire field, Trophy times vary by Category.

Both get quicker over the course of the week. The times shorten and the average speeds go up. By the end of the week, Base time is set at something like a 130kph average. Doesn't sound that fast if you're cruising down the freeway. Now try it over a 25k winding goat track of the country road, up and down a mountain - and throw in a couple of almost U turns into side roads to make it a little more enjoyable. This is serious stuff.

We 'cleaned' the first three stages - in other words, under Base time. And we comfortably hit Trophy time on all nine stages.

There were a few messy corners, along with a couple of gear changes that I'm not all that proud of, and I reckon Scott isn't claiming a 100% success rate with his calls.

But overall, a great day and we drove it like we'd stolen it.

An easy day.

Today was Prologue Day.

A "hurry up and wait" sort of day.

Our report time was 9:08:30 (we were 20 minutes early) and expected departure time was something like 9:25.

We were the 115th car to leave - today the field left Silverdome and also started the Prologue in numerical order - so at 115 we were almost half way through the total field of 275.

50 something km later we arrived on the start line in George Town. This is the only stage that we get to drive in a convoy before we compete on it. It's a 5km street stage with a few twists - through the library car park and around the wrong side of a round about to name just two.

After travelling the course (at the speed limit - the road was still open to the public) we lined up in the local park (quite a sight) and waited about an hour and a half before the first car went out. We were given lunch, and we wandered around in the autumn sunshine and chatted with other crews. A relaxing way to kill some time. Wouldn't have minded a beer as well, but ...

Not only is it a "00" event (as is all motorsport), but a number of Tassie's Finest were waiting for us at the start line. And everyone - drivers & navigators - blew in the bag.

Then a line up for the start and our turn was approaching.

Helmets.
Intercom on.
Harnesses tight.
Gloves on.
Lights on.

Roll to the start line and watch for the lights. 10 second light. The 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 ... Go! Welcome to Targa 2009!

Scott was calling the corners: 5 left into 4 right, tight right 3, 150 m, and I was doing my best to take it a little easy. Maybe 6/8 of flat out.

And before we knew it - about 4:13 later actually - we'd done a lap of George Town and our Prologue was over.
The Prologue is only for bragging rights and seeding the field for Day 1's start order: the fastest cars go last.

So if you've go little or no chance of being at the sharp end of things the best strategy on the Prologue is to take it easy. Don't break the car - it's a long time from there to Hobart. Don't make fools of yourselves in front of a big crowd - if you're going to have an off, do it where do one can see it.

There are a couple of other reasons for going a little easier - a low start number means you start early day. I'm fond of a lazy start to the day, but I'm here to drive, and I want to get out there. And if you start early, all being well and if the Gods of Motorsport are smiling, you get in early at the end of the day.

So we didn't bust the car, we just drove quickly, and all went well; in an hour or so I'll get a text telling me our report time for tomorrow.

Radiator problems

This morning we headed out to Symmons Plains raceway - maybe 20 minutes from downtown Launceston - to give hot lap rides to sponsors. I was assigned a couple of Vodafone people.

But first up, a few laps to familiarise myself with the track - it's a basic loop. At one end a cranking left hander, almost a U turn, the other end is a long left sweeper. No issues with the tight left, but the long one had me bluffed, and I managed to do some gardening on the first lap (a small off). No obvious damage (other than my ego).

I've driven on race tracks plenty of times, but always mixed in with traffic of similar speed. A very different story when the track is full and there are put put cars like mine and brand new EVOs and a GT3 997 Porsche or two.

A couple more laps, I was getting used to being passed VERY quickly and time to go back in to collect my first passenger.

The cabin of a race car is not very roomy and it took a few minutes to get the big fella strapped in and comfy. If his breathing (we were using the intercoms) was anything to go by, he was a little nervous.

I was explaining everything as we went around, calling the speeds and telling him what gear we were in. On the second lap, heading up the back straight I asked "have you ever had a Lamborghini pass you when you were doing 160K? No? Then watch it as it passes us on your side". And it did, like we were standing still. And then they threw out the anchors for the end of the straight and it shot a massive burst of flame out of each exhaust. I reckon he'll be telling that story for a while!

Back in to the pits, got one big guy out and started trying to get one very big guy into one very small race seat. He was bolted in and we were about to head out when I noticed steam leaking from the bonnet and the gauge was almost off the scale.

Not a good thing.

Cut the engine, opened the bonnet and it was obvious that the radiator was cooking.

A group of experts gathered and the consensus was that I'd done the head gasket, although there were none of the usual signs, like milky oil.

As the car was cooling down we found the chief scruitineer who gave us extended time to get back to Launceston.

We finally tracked down a tow truck and while we waited we refilled the radiator and decided to start the car. And it seemed fine. So we cancelled the tow car and headed back to Launceston.

Temperature gauge exactly were it should be the entire time. Into a servo near the Silverdome, who flick passed us to the auto electrician.

I run a second radiator fan - the car tends to overheat on hot track days, probably because it never gets proper cool down time.

Mark at Carswell Auto Electrical (I can highly recommend them!) worked out that one of the fans was tripping the fuse. No problem we were moving, but a big problem when we were stopped. We've decided to run with only one fan - I'm not worried about overheating, especially with the weather we're expecting and we can sort out the dud one back in Melbourne.

So from a head gasket (which would have put us out of the event) to a minor fan problem and we're now ready to go for the Prologue tomorrow.

And I don't need any more excitement like this!