Targa Tasmania 2008

Targa Tasmania 2008. We went, we saw, we conquered! Well, not quite, but it almost feels like it :)

I've been back a week now, and I think I'm still living in the Targa Blues. What a superb event! This year was quite a change for me to other rallies I have been in, partially because I was with a (comparatively) low budget team, but also because I was in a classic car - a 1979 Ford Escort RS2000. It was also interesting seeing as the car was not only borrowed, but also rather hastily put together as we were a rather last minute entry.

Flying down to Tasmania was fairly uneventful, although once at the airport there was an interesting struggle to find some mode of transport to the cottage that we were renting. Due to work and other commitments I was the last of our crew to get to Tasmania, so I was traveling alone. There was a mining conference on in Launceston, and I think we must have milked Launceston of all its taxis, because before long I found myself and half a dozen other strangers standing in the cold outside the airport, with no taxis to take us to where we needed to go. And then it started to drizzle. Yay... Fortunately before we all got too wet and cold a maxi taxi turned up, and so we all jumped in and shared the ride :)

Monday was spent getting things like documentation and scrutineering done. Unfortunately our Escort had a problem with vibration (apparently the first time it was really driven was the drive from Devonport...), and this in turn had ripped the rear gearbox seal out, which also proved to be difficult to find a replacement for. The tail shaft was sent away to be fixed, and this seemed to take away most of the vibration.

The next few days of competition quickly taught me that half the challenge of doing a rally in a classic car, is getting the car itself to the end. The car continued to vibrate itself silly, my door stopped working properly, seals refused to actually seal properly... and then we accidentally dropped the car off the jack, effectively smashing the sump in. Oops. This was on Day 2.

Fortunately, we managed to push the car over to a panel shop and weld a plate onto the sump to pull it back out, but in doing this we also ignited the engine oil, which blew out the tappet cover gasket, effectively pumping all our oil out in a hurry. Oops... Chris and Matt (our service crew), with SST#1 (Special Service Tool #1 - a hammer) managed to get the seal to temporarily seal, and after pouring yet more oil into the engine, we got it back to control where we could have a proper look at it...

On Day 3, our starter motor failed, so we spent our lunch time busily trying to replace it with another one. And then on the way to the next stage the wire promptly fell off the replacement, so we ended up with no starter motor for the rest of the day, yay!

At the end of Day 4, we started to notice that the engine was losing a lot of water (more than usual!) - we blew the head gasket! We threw everything we could think of at it, Chemiweld, the lot! Unfortunately this didn't quite work as well as we hoped, and we churned through many many bottles of water as we started Day 5. Paul joked that we had a 10L petrol tank and a 50L water tank in the back of the car...

Mt Arrowsmith, the longest stage by far, was a true test to the water holding capabilities of our car. And it failed. Almost. Paul was constantly glancing at the temperature, and between counting the kilometers to go, watching the water temperature and reassuring Paul that it was alright, watching the oil pressure and calling the notes, I certainly had my work cut out! I don't think I've ever worked so hard as a navigator! Unfortunately, with 10km to go, the temperature started to head far north, and we just about coasted to the finish line. The engine was cooked, even 2nd gear (on our 4 speed box) was playing up, and all we could do was cross our fingers and hope that we would make it to the finish line.

So for the last 3 stages, we dragged our little Escort kicking and screaming. Coming into the corner where Iain and I crashed last year, no 2nd gear and understeering, the little voice in my head went "aww man, not again...". But Paul had it all under control, and we made it through. And puffing black smoke and creating a hell of a lot of noise and not a lot of go, we chugged through the last and final stage through Hobart, to finish at the Wrest Point Casino. We were chuffed at making the finish line. Absolutely chuffed.

And then the lady comes up to us and says "you're on the podium, so please park over there". Paul and I look at each other. "Yeah right. Really???" It turns out that even after losing time through the last few stages on Day 5, we somehow managed to sneak up to 4th place outright in the Late Classic section, and because the person who won also won the Classic section, so we got moved up to 3rd place, ON THE PODIUM!!!

The rest of the night was just a blur. Me standing on the podium, then the rush of trying to figure out how to open the champagne bottle (while getting absolutely drenched in champagne), then wondering why I couldn't really spray very far, and then figuring that it was too late to try to stuff my finger in the top because I didn't have anything left to spray... It was awesome :)

All up, many many thanks to Paul my driver for driving like an absolute legend, Chris and Matt for keeping the car together despite it's efforts to fall apart, and Mel and Jasmine (from Bothgirls Racing) for their support and help throughout. I had an absolute blast, and will have grand memories from this for a long time to come :)

Photos in the Photo album