...and a Challenge it's been

I was woken this morning by the familiar sound of the Evo's exhaust note, I peered out the window and there it was, good as new! The crew has done a fantastic job of getting the car back on the road.



Unfortunately I myself am a little worse for wear. I'm not too concerned about the pain in my ribs from where my race seat impacted with them when we came to the final sudden stop during the crash, I can handle that as long as I don't laugh or cough.

But there's been plenty of both today, so I don't know whether to continue to laugh or cry.

I have a terrible cold, it's been building for several days now and when I woke this morning I was very sick. Even though I'm on steroids that are supposed to suppress fever, I still soaked my clothes with seat before we even got to the first stage. And it was snowing outside!



Fortunately I've improved as the day progressed and other than the painful cough and the usual symptoms one gets with a cold, I'm feeling a lot better.



We eased into the days rallying, coming to grips with the way the slightly bent car now handles. I'm not sure which was more nervous, me or the car! The rear wheel alignment has been set by eye, by the boys at 1am so it's possibly less than perfect.

Ultimately the car is drivable and feels pretty good considering. The wet first stage didn't help get me back into the swing of things though as the level of grip was almost nothing and the last thing I want to do now is fall off again and not bring the car home in one piece. By stage two I was getting back into the groove when the engine developed a misfire. Straight away I knew we had lost a valve rocker and with some luck the guys could repair it at the next service.



Unfortunately we discovered the problem was more serious than first thought and that the problem could not be fixed until the end of the day. So the we have driven all today's stages with only 3 cylinders and a severe misfire. If you are looking at our stage times and wondering why they are so average, there's your reason. The service crew are again burning the midnight oil and hopefully we should be back on all four cylinders again tomorrow. (just got a call from the guys, it's all fixed)



The brake problems have continued and I've made the decision to return to my normal brake pad and rotor setup that I use for sprints. Today while racing at Manfield the high speed shake was so violent that we actually thought the car was going to shake itself to pieces at 180KPH.



Originally the plan was to start cranking up the wick yesterday and making our way to the pointy end of the feild timewise. However falling off put paid to that plan and now with posting a day of mediocre times due to the engine problems our challenge is to complete the rally and bring it home. We never said that this was going to be easy, hence the name "Targa Life Challenge". When you count the number of crashed cars we drive past in each stage you begin to realise just how much of a challenge driving 900+Km's at insane speed on roads in which you never know what's around the corner or over that blind brow is.



Ok that's all for today.. Let's see what tomorrow brings us! ...Ron




Still going... Somehow the team managed to put the car back together last night with the help of a friendly Wanganui panelbeater and today we were back on the road tearing it up. The crash yesterday gave us a shake up and today I found myself often looking over the edge out the side window and tensing up as we approach tight corners with drops on the otherside.

Over the last few days I've really picked up some experience in the co-drivers seat, getting thrown into the deep end. I'm now confidently giving road notes as we travel at a rapid rate of knots through a stage, mostly without missing a beat. It humbles me to think about the amount of work a co-driver needs to do at the national level, giving pace notes and still managing everything else. I'm having enough trouble as it is!

Today was a four seasons in one day. Cold wind, hot sun, we had the whole spectrum. Not to mention, we also had snow close to the desert road and thankfully we didn't have to race through the stuff. Combine semi-slicks with snow and you don't get a very pretty cocktail. Overall, we kept a steady pace through the day and we made it through.

We've got two days left to go now. We leave from Palmerston North in the morning and make our way over to the Wairarapa. Two more days to go and we're going to complete this Targa. This is our focus now, wish us all the best! See you in Wellington!

Updated pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=126990&id=565455792&savedVideo of snow in Waiouru, complete with my hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHJa6xN1klc