| THE 2008 RACE |
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 | | September 18, 2008 - Today was not our most successful day in terms of penalty points.
We lost time on every single stage. That's to be expected, though. We're novices, and the times get faster every day. Still, we're on track for a Targa plate, which is a tough thing to do. Our goals going into the race were to 1) finish and 2) get a plate if we could. In order to get the plate, you need to finish within 135% of your base time on each stage. You can't take huge penalties, and you can't miss something due to a mechanical problem. It's a test of consistency.
On the road, we're snacking constantly. The meal stops are really erratic - today, lunch was at 4:30 and tomorrow it's at 11:30. Having a supply of healthy snacks in the car keeps our blood sugar up and our attention focused. It's kind of funny, really. The nets I put on the transmission tunnel for route books and rally tools have become a stash for graham crackers and little tubes of honey. The honey's kind of nice not only for the boost in energy but also because both Janel and I have raw throats. For her, it's from the exhaust fumes while waiting to start stages. I'm fighting a bit of a cold, I think.
So, leg 4.
Stage 1, Little Bay East. A nice luxurious 9 am start. But wait! It's a 2 hour drive to get there! And of course, we have to undergo our breathalyzer testing first. Ugh. Once the appointed hour rolled around, we took off on a twisty, moderately smooth run through the hills that was fairly challenging. The only notes were for particularly sharp or dangerous curves, including a little slalom through a small town. This included the only triple caution we've met so far, a great opportunity to land in the ocean. Janel abandoned her professional navigator mode to emphasize this as we approached. We failed to get wet. Overall, a pretty fun section of road although we did take about 36 seconds in penalties. We then had breakfast which included fried baloney.
Stage 2, Harbour Mille. It was a run back through the stage we'd just run. Going through the little town, the hammering on the rear was just too much for me to take. As soon as we got back to service, I quickly lifted the car and dialed in a bit more ride height. It's something I should have done a couple of days ago, but the car was working so well in the fast stuff that I didn't want to lose that. Really, the hits that are bottoming the car are huge ones. The car's taking the abuse though. The stage itself went well, with a couple of clear corners taken quite quickly. Probably almost as fast as a real rally driver would take all of them! We took 4 seconds longer to get back than we had to go the other direction, and the base time was shorter. So we took almost a full minute in penalties.
Stage 3, Mooring Cove. This one was a blast. It's short and smooth and winds over a number of blind crests. If you had more confidence, it would be a real roller coaster. We went a bit slower, took a 4 second penalty and had a lot of fun. That's a keeper.
Stage 4, Marystown South. This is another city stage through subdivisions, down both narrow little driveways and sections of four-lane road with no dividers. There are also several great spectator areas. We had a good time on it, but it was fairly bumpy in spots and Janel got tossed around a bit. 31 seconds late.
Stage 5, Garnish. This was another fast coastal run with a village in the middle. The open road was fun, although a bit spooky over some of the crests. The car was comfortable at the higher ride height and seemed to have a good combination of stability and travel. The tight bit through the village was really tight and really rough. It would have been more fun to take the direct route right through town, I think. The rest worked pretty well. About 34 seconds in penalties. A 6000 rpm+ misfire that showed up yesterday reappeared. It's not a big problem as I can simply hit the next gear and use the engine's torque. But it's a bit worrisome.
Lots of penalties today. Why? Well, the times are more aggressive. And we're still novices. The fact that our Miata is in the second-newest class means that we have to go much faster than the older cars in order to zero stages. Fair enough, we're theoretically more advanced than they are. Also, being relatively underpowered means that we can't regain speed as quickly as a big car if we slow too much for a corner or if there's a tight turn in a fast section. Surprisingly, our small size isn't as much of an advantage in the tight cities as I'd expected, mostly because again we rely on the ability to carry speed through a corner to make up for our lack of acceleration. But since every corner is a new one to us, we can't carry as much speed as we could. Of course, I'm not trying to make excuses. Like everyone here, I spend the transits trying to design the perfect Targa car!
Stage 6, Fortune 1. This is a short village course that's all full of right angles. This makes it a bit more predictable than the coastal ones that seem to be built on giant rocks, and thus easier to carry a bit of speed through. We didn't zero it, but we did manage a decent time that was only 12 seconds late. By comparison, one of the rally leaders (a hero driver in a new factory EVO rally car) took a 5 second penalty. Janel had spent some time looking at the map of the course and had spotted a turn that should probably have been in the notes, so she added it in. And thank goodness she did, it would have added some real confusion otherwise.
Lunchtime! Already - all we'd done was a 2 hour transit and 6 stages. We demolished our plates of food, then wandered outside.
Stage 7 was a repeat of Stage 6 - in the same direction. This was a first for us, and it was an opportunity to see how much time I'd pick up after seeing the course once. The answer? None at all. We turned exactly the same time. However, this time the roads were covered in gravel after the Open class rally cars had chewed them up and spit it all over. Gravel on pavement is like trying to drive on ball bearings, and it requires a good set up for the corner or you'll just understeer right off it. Or understeer to the edge of the gravel patch, then snap into oversteer as the front wheels grab. I nailed a few of the corners really nicely on this one.
Stage 8 was Stage 5, run backwards and renamed Frenchman's Cove. We were exhausted from the long day and late nights, so I was running a bit slower and more carefully to make sure we brought the car home. I did hit a couple of corners perfectly which is always a big thrill and surprisingly rare. We tiptoed through the village as it looked as if someone had brought industrial machinery in to tear up the roads - those Open Class cars really do some digging if given the chance. One short piece of road looked as if it was a dirt road through a field. 47 seconds in penalties.
Stage 9 was a recap of Stage 4, the bumpy Marystown run. Again, having seen the stage backwards was a bit of a help and I was able to just nail a wide hairpin turn in front of the big spectator area. Not spectacularly with a big slide, but quickly and smoothly. I was quite happy with that. Again, 38 seconds in penalties, but we made it to the end of the day tired and safe.
By the end, it wasn't quite the fun it has been for the last few days, mostly because Janel and I are sleep deprived. It's great on the stages as we've turned into a very good team. She's even looking up now and again to see what's going on, where a few days ago she only watched the odometer and the notes. But lots of time in the car (what, 13 hours today?) and little sleep means there's less goofing around than before. It's a real testament that we can still work together well like this.
The car's holding up well. It looks as if that misfire might be related to a leaky valve cover gasket, as the plug threads were a oily when I pulled them today and the car's used a bit of oil. We'll see what happens with them tomorrow. I was too tired to do a real nut-and-bolt on the car tonight but it's just taking this incredible abuse with aplomb. I know of at least three engine swaps on other teams, a fire and two holed radiators as well as broken axles and other sundry problems. So far, we've had nothing. Knock on wood.
entry 37 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Adding yet more ride height after the second stage.
I've lifted the car by 2 turns in the back and one in the front by this point, and it's going to stay where it is. This was done in a bit of a hurry - Janel didn't even bother to get out of the car.
entry 38 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Heading off on a stage.
I'm not actually sure which one - I think it was the really bumpy one from Leg 3. On short, fast stages, the time it takes us to get up to speed is fairly critical so I've been launching hard all week. To get an idea of what the notes are like, the first instruction is for "square right don't cut" amongst those houses, nearly a kilometer down the road. I always find out what the first instruction will be and how far it is so I can build a mental picture of the first corner. I'll do the same for any tricky parts, so Janel usually only has to give me a quick clue and I know what to expect. Or what the two dimensional drawing looked like, anyhow.
entry 39 - tags: leg 3 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Chatting with another driver between stages while Janel talks to my mom.
My parents have made friends with just about everyone on the event, I think, and have a much better idea of what's going on outside our car than we do. We've been seeing them briefly throughout the day, and they help keep us fed and deal with logistical problems during the day. If we break something and the car needs repair, they may not be quite as useful as the teams of mechanics that follow some of the others around, but it's a real family affair. My aunt and uncle are also working the event and are big cheerleaders for us whenever our paths happen to cross.
entry 40 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Even the big name drivers have to get dirty sometimes, of course.
Frank Sprongl goes bobbing for apples under the hood of his monster. This car sounds very angry.
entry 41 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - There's quite a variety of cars here.
I've probably posted that at least a half dozen times by now, but for a car guy this is great.
entry 42 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Meet Betty.
Betty is one of the surviving Minis, and I believe the only one to finish every stage. She's a real little beast and a big crowd favorite. This is on the Fortune stage.
entry 43 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Mmm, a great lunch at Fortune.
The meals are kind of fun, as they're always homemade instead of the result of some sort of commercial enterprise. The deserts especially.
entry 44 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - After lunch, attacking the stage at Fortune for the second time.
The gravel on this corner isn't all that bad compared to some, and I was able to set the car up for it before I got in so it didn't really affect me much.
entry 45 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - One of my favorite cars in the race is this Alfa.
They're running in the Grand Touring class, and have no metric odometer. This means they're translating all the route book instructions to miles from meters. On top of keeping an Alfa running! Applause please.
This is the fast way to take a tight corner. The crowd prefers the handbrake, but the clock does not.
entry 46 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - The spectator area on the Marystown stage.
It's a real thrill to drive under this, and I'm always much more careful of my line when there's this much attention!
entry 47 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - There was a crack in the paint on the front fender of the car.
It's been there for a long time, it may have started in that off during testing. But the paint was starting to lift after all the vibration, so I glued it down with a sticker.
entry 48 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - During the rally, we're running special license plates.
We don't have any way to mount a front plate (there's no structure under that front bumper anymore) so we have a vinyl decal.
entry 49 | | |  | September 18, 2008 - Bill Arnold is running a very fast BMW Bavaria in the event.
He's a past winner and really knows what he's doing. Here we're making a comparison between the size of our equipment. And check out the difference in wear - mine has three days of racing on it!
entry 50 - tags: leg 4 | | | September 18, 2008 - We're running 17th overall right now.
I'm quite happy with that. If you want some other pictures, there are some showing up on Gordon Sleigh's page. Time for bed, it's the last day tomorrow.
entry 51 - tags: leg 4 | | | September 19, 2008 - Janel's turned into a great navigator.
First off, she's very organized. That might sound simple enough, but there's a lot of paper and info to juggle over the course of the day. And it's almost as if she's omniscient - if I want to know how far it is to the nearest gas station, she can tell me. Or to the nearest turn, or rest stop, or lunch, or (of course) if there's a nasty turn over the next hill. It's kind of funny.
On the stage, she's confident and accurate. Even on the busy, tight little villages she's giving me what I need when I need it. If I need clarification, I get it. It took her a day or two to get up to speed in reading the instructions (and for me to get used to following them!) but she almost never makes a mistake now. It's wild. She's a major reason we're still on the road and have made it through every stage unscathed so far.
entry 52 - tags: leg 4 | | |  | September 19, 2008 - If you finish at least 75% of the stages in the Targa, you get a finisher's medallion.
Guess what these are?
More details tomorrow. I'm pooped.
entry 53 - tags: leg 5 | | | September 20, 2008 - Another early start and another relatively long transit.
Not quite as long as we'd anticipated, so we got to the breathalyzer/control about an hour early. On the way, we saw a spectacular sunrise over a breathtaking desolate and cold landscape. I used to work in the Northwest Territories up in the Arctic, and the land near Marystown has that same harsh beauty. It's also almost completely untouched. We were well ahead of the train of Targa cars so we had it to ourselves. Lovely.
I was also under orders from Janel to find her a moose, and we got a good look at two big bulls on the way. We didn't get any pictures, but she was quite excited. Now all we need to find is an iceberg and a whale.
After another short transit, it was time to get down to work. Stage 1, Osprey Trail East, turned out to be a fairly smooth open road run. We had a target speed of 118.2 km/h and there was a 2 km SRZ in the middle, so we knew it had to be a quick one. And it was fantastic. The road kept a fairly consistent character and we were able to maintain a good speed. They'd warned us about three patches of gravel at the start and it was a good thing - normal traffic throws rocks on the road as a normal course, it turns out, and without those warnings we might have had some sketchy moments. As it was, the car was handling perfectly and I settled into a nice fast groove. I had enough left over to adjust my line to deal with bumps and small gravel bits, but we weren't dallying around. We managed to zero the stage with about 7 seconds to spare. What a great way to start the day. The car wasn't happy, though. My misfire was back and we were having trouble pulling to 5500 rpm at times. On the open road, I was able to deal with it fairly well and use the torque of the engine instead. We hit a maximum of around 179 through here.
I've been calling Janel my "guardian angel" when describing to people what it's like to drive this kind of stage. I'll be hoofing along down the road, concentrating hard on trying to read what's happening next, and this voice in my head warns me that there's gravel on the right just over the next crest. It's wonderful. She's concentrating just as hard as I am. The entire week, she never led me wrong and I had full confidence in her. It's been a real immersion course in rally driving this week and we've come through it as a good team. She trusts my driving and I trust her calls, so we're both calm as we work at our maximum concentration to get down the road as fast as possible.
Stage 2, Spaniard Bishops UIC. We pulled up at the start line to find a sign telling us to reset our odometer and proceed to instruction 6. The start had been moved. We found out later from a local that this was because the fire department was in charge of closing the roads. The new guy was supposed to do it and, well, didn't. So after a very fast scramble by the Targa volunteers, we were able to run the last 3 km of this nearly 7 km stage. Great work by the timing team and other workers. It turns out the part we were missing was a little bumpy through a moderately tight village, then a smooth roller coaster far above the ocean beside a cliff. The start was partway through this bit, and we had multiple high speed crests that wandered back and forth slightly. It was huge fun at first and Janel's instructions were key to maintaining speed. Right near the end, it tightened up a bit and we came through nice and quick. Due to way things had been changed, we hadn't the chance to set up our pilot so we had no idea if we were fast or slow. The engine sure wasn't happy with me though.
Time for lunch, nice and early at noon. We had another traditional "cold plate", with the most incredible array of home made desserts afterwards. I think the ladies of Brigus were in competition to see who could make the best dessert, and they just kept coming and coming. It was difficult not to gorge ourselves senseless. After eating, I stuck a new set of plugs in the car to try to deal with the misfire. My theory was that it was either plugs, wires or coils - and I had plugs. So that's what I tried.
Stage 3, Brigus. By the time I hit second gear, I knew it wasn't the plugs. Nuts. Well, on to the task at hand. Brigus is an amazingly tight and narrow run through a small town, with white picket fences blurring on both sides. It's basically an autocross and fairly smooth. So it should have been perfect for us. I hadn't walked the course at lunch - it was right beside where we ate - so I was driving it blind with Janel's instructions to keep me at it. I was able to drive far more aggressively than if I'd simply been trying to follow the arrows, and it's a real rush to be heading down a narrow one-lane road between houses, banging off gears, without being able to see what's over the next little crest or corner. Janel kept us on track, even correcting me to make sure I knew that the little right we'd just taken was not the square right I should be expecting in 50 meters. We made it through quickly and without incident, but were well off our base time - about 35 seconds late over 2.05 km. In fact, we were 4 seconds behind our Trophy time.
That didn't seem right. I could have gone faster with a bit of practice, but I certainly wasn't over Trophy. In line for the next stage, there were a lot of shocked drivers. I don't think anyone higher than class 5 had managed to hit Trophy. The older cars (lower classes) had a much slower time to hit so it was a bit easier for them. Even experienced drivers who usually zero Brigus were taking 17 second penalties. Something wasn't right, and I was a bit upset that my dreams of a Trophy plate were gone due to an overly-aggressive base time. Since Trophy time is a multiplier of the base time, a short duration stage has a much smaller difference between the two. That's why coming in a minute late on a 30 km stage is not a big deal, but 35 seconds on Brigus is. I was reassured by the fact that I was faster than anyone else I spoke to, even an experienced MINI driver. I can't believe some of the big cars actually managed to fit through some of those sections. The stage is different than it had been in the past, so the organizers had simply made their best guess for times.
On to Stage 4, Marysvale. This stage has another triple caution, a set of raised railway tracks that are approached downhill. It's a wicked compression/jump/compression set, and it claimed a Porsche very dramatically a few years back - you can find the video on YouTube. Otherwise, it's a nice medium speed blast through a village. We took it very carefully through the caution (much to the disappointment of the spectators who were gathered there) and were quite happy with a 5 second penalty at the end. We're seeing more crests in the stages today and Janel and I really have to work together to keep the car on the road.
Stage 5, Conception-Colliers. We were a bit worried about this one because there was a warning for bumpy pavement. Really? After some of the stages we've done, now we get a warning? Yikes. It was about 6 km long and the bumpy part was in the last kilometer, so I knew we had to run hard for the first bit. And we did. It was another quick series of bends along the edge of the water, with decent sightlines and the opportunity to carry some good speed. I had a lot of fun, moving the car around nicely and taking advantage of little dips in the road to get some banking on a few corners. Just like the first stage, I had the right level of commitment that allowed us to go very quickly but without any scares. The first instruction was a square left at a T, loose gravel, off camber. Janel didn't tell me about the guardrail or the exposure, but that doesn't make any difference as I'm trying to avoid going off the road in any case. It's a good thing she warned me, because we could see a fresh set of skidmarks going straight through the gravel-filled intersection right up to the guardrail. We kept scooting along, then turned into the "bumpy narrow road". How does a road like this get created? It was the width of our car, nothing more, and it wound around through the trees and up and down. It was like a mountain bike trail, but paved. Well, sort of paved. The bumps weren't craters with bad patching like we'd expected, but tall mounds like giant anthills. It was the weirdest thing. The worst ones were painted pink, and I dodged and weaved the Miata around to put them under the wheels so I didn't straddle them. Who would have expected that off-roading would have prepared me for the Targa? The car was working extremely well, with the hot tires providing me instant response to make course corrections in a very small area. We came out of it, and Janel immediately started calling "Go go go!" for the last 600 meters to the finish. She usually finishes her instructions with "go!" once we're on the last stretch, but she was more insistent than usual. So I kept my food buried - right over a sharp speed bump at full throttle, which didn't bother the car one bit - and we crossed the line just as the pilot readout flipped from -1 to 0. We'd zeroed it! She'd been watching the times and knew that if I pushed just a little harder we'd make it. Definitely not the nervous navigator I'd started off with at the beginning of the week. We were both laughing like loons when we came across the line.
It's been a long week, and yesterday was a hard day. But stage 6, Marine Drive, was the last one. The fatigue from yesterday was gone and neither of us wanted the race to end. We pulled up to the start line and found another sign announcing the start was 2.38 km down the road. As we entered the stage, I recognized it as a utterly breathtaking road high above the ocean that we'd taken on our way back from the odometer check, almost a full week ago. It was perfectly smooth, fast and flowing. The perfect final stage, and we were going to drive the best part of it as fast as we could.
It started off really well. I could recognize enough of the corners to fill in what wasn't in the pace notes, and Janel's calls were accurate and timely enough to make sure we didn't get into trouble. Then it happened. We were running hard and she called a left/right S over bridge. I was moving pretty fast and had to brake a bit harder than expected when the corners came into view - a great downhill sweeper on to the wide bridge, then a visible and open right out of it. The car was up on its toes as I braked for the downhill part as we entered the turn - and there were a set of skidmarks going right where the car would have gone if we'd been pushing too hard. At the end of the skidmarks was an upside down Nissan, the car that had started before us. Beside it was a Porsche in the ditch and I saw a red cross card. Again, we were the first on the scene of a crash. Since we were now experienced first responders, we knew just what to do. Janel sprinted up the road to try to slow down other cars so we didn't add a third to the collection. I saw that the driver of the flipped car was helping the navigator out through the windshield, so I flagged down the car behind us and sent him on to tell the organizers. There was a radio point just past the corner - obviously, the corner was a potential trouble spot - so the stage got shut down quite quickly. Everybody was just fine, the half roll was on to soft muddy dirt. What had happened was the 911 had fallen victim to the classic rear engine oversteer and simply gone backwards into the ditch. The Nissan, running a few cars later, had been going a bit too fast to deal with the surprise of having the Porsche in trouble and went wide into the ditch sideways, where it got tripped.
After everything was sorted out, we got back in the car and drove to the finish. We couldn't go full speed because the long pause in cars had spectators wandering about a bit and of course our time was null and void. When we crossed through the flying finish, it was a bit of an anticlimax. No adrenaline, no screaming engine as we finished a week-long race. Just a parade lap on a smooth, curvy road. A bit of a shame that, but we'd done it! We'd finished the targa without a scratch on the car.
We drove through St. John's with our helmets on at rush hour - that's going to get some attention, let me tell you - and over the ceremonial finish line down at the harbour. It was a fairly emotional time for everyone, lots of jubliation and relief.
My uncle Rob was extremely proud. He and Eric were the two who got this whole effort started, and he's planning to run next year. Of course, all the rest of the family was overjoyed for us as well. We had to put a bit of a damper on the festivites by submitting inquiries to have our time for the last stage deleted - you don't take time penalties for stopping to help a rolled car, of course - and to protest the Brigus base times along with everyone else. But that didn't really prevent us from walking around with big goofy grins as we tried to assimilate what we'd just done.
The best compliment I received was from the sound engineer for the TV crew. He'd obviously seen a very large part of the rally, and he said that Bill Arnold and I were the ones giving the school on lines through corners. Nobody else was as smooth or tidy through the bends. That's a huge compliment, to be compared to Bill. He's a multiple winner of the event and probably would have won this one as well if a strut hadn't collapsed on the penultimate stage. Rarified company indeed. Someone else noted that he could spot the real experienced drivers because when the tail stepped out, they just steered and the engine note didn't change - and that was the way I drove as well. Now that's the autocross experience there. A number of people offered to email me pictures of the car. One photographer handed me a print of our car in a full slide on a tight corner, dirt flying off the rear wheels with the fronts at the perfect angle for countersteer - and Janel not even looking up from her notes. I wanted to pin it to my chest and walk around and say "look!". The amazing thing was that I was able to say which of the thousands of corners it was. I guess I might have been paying fairly close attention.
More to come, it's time to relax for a bit. It's odd to put pants on this morning instead of a driving suit, for the first time in a week. We'll know the results shortly, as the results last night did not take the Brigus stage (or our 10:44 penalty on the last stage because we stopped) into account.
Janel's first words to me this morning were "Have they posted the results yet?" I think she's turned into a racer.
entry 54 - tags: leg 5 | | | September 20, 2008 - The final results are up.
We're 16th overall! And we got our Targa plate as well, which is what I'm really happy about. You can read the results on the Rally Scoring website. We were just a few seconds ahead of Bill Arnold's final time after his strut collapse.
The times from the final stage were discounted because a number of cars had stopped for the accident. Nobody was zeroing the stage so accurate penalty numbers would have been impossible to calculate. Add into that some changes in the base times for Brigus and the last day was fairly eventful for the scoring crew.
16th! Wow.
entry 55 - tags: results | | |  | September 21, 2008 - Janel, packed and ready for travel.
She says this is actually comfortable, kind of like sitting in a recliner. In fact, the car was surprisingly comfortable even for 13 hour days. Those backsaver pads from Pegasus Racing were the key.
entry 56 - tags: leg 5 | | |
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THE DIARY