Day 0: The day before Prologue

Well we made it to Manukau safely and with no real problems with the car.
We stayed with the Kibble family last night at their Taupo home. Huge thank you to Harvey and Sherry Kibble for their hospitality.

We arrived here at the Silver Oaks, Quality Inn Manukau mid afternoon and set about doing final preparation. We set up the HD video system (Huge thanks to Dave Davenport for lending us his system) fitted the Dunlop race tyres, radio system and tried to setup some type of speed control system. The computer that's fitted to the car can control so many functions it's scary. But it seemed to stump us when it came to limiting speed. We just couldn't find the right settings.

The Evo will accelerate to 200kph in a very short time and if we go over this speed we will be penalised severely. The car is fitted with a GPS system by Targa control and they can monitor our speed and position at all times. It's vital that we do not exceed the imposed limit, but at the same time we need to get as close to it as possible.

The final seeding list has been set, We are 18th car on the road in the Modern class. This will change each day depending on our results.

Check out http://www.targa.co.nz/ for details of positions etc during the event. http://targa.co.nz/Results_937.aspx should give you live results.

Meanwhile I've published some pics of the team on day zero on facebook. Follow this link to view them.

Tomorrow we have documentation and Prologue. Prologue is a single stage of approx 10km's. It doesn't count towards the final results, but it helps with seeding. Monday is the first day of proper competition.

Hopefully I'll be able to upload some video of our prologue stage tomorrow.

Till then... Ron

What a stunning day of weather. We drove up on Friday night to Taupo and this morning we were greeted by a chilly sunbathed morning. The ride up to Auckland was straightforward and the Labour weekend traffic didn’t hold us up.

I’m looking forward to getting into the first special stage. Still yet to have a full speed ride in Ron’s Evo but from what I’ve seen of his driving, I have no doubt I’ll be in for an exciting ride.
We’re just settling down for the evening now with a bit of beer induced relaxation. Well, the others are anyway. The car and service vehicles are just sitting outside all locked up and I’m happy we’re heading into the Targa without any stressful issues.

Victor

Just 4 short days till Targa

So much to do so little time!!
Well actually that should have been my post title last weekend, things are a lot less hectic now.
I'm really sorry for not doing more blog updates but as you can imagine the team and I have been working flat stick on getting the car and all the necessary service equipment ready to race.

We had a devastating test day at Manfield last Sunday. After loosing an engine last month, which set us back by three weeks, the gearbox decided to retire in sympathy after just three gentle warm-up laps of the track.
A tooth had broken off a gear and exited the gearbox casing leaving a hole and a cracked housing.
We loaded up the truck again and returned home to replace the gearbox with the one from Murray O'Neil's rally car. Ray Yee from STM is rebuilding my gearbox to be used as a spare in case we suffer a similar problem again on Targa.

So we lost any opportunity to test the car, bed in brakes and get used to the new setup of the suspension. I guess we will just have to get the feel for things on the first couple of stages of competition.

The steroids have done their job and my energy levels are very good. A huge improvement over two weeks ago when I could hardly function at all. I've certainly been under a huge amount of stress this last week and seem to be getting through OK. I'd have liked a few days to really relax before we go, but we have decided to take two days to transport the car and gear to Auckland and that will allow some cooling off period where I can clear my head and re-focus.

There is still a huge amount of goodwill and support pouring in. It really is appreciated. Today for instance Joe McAndrew visited the workshop and shared his experience as a Targa winning driver over a bite to eat. Others have phoned or emailed in their good luck wishes. Thanks guys it really does inspire us to do well.

The car is now totally sign-written thanks to the team at Martin Signs/PT RaceGear. The car looks totally different now, gone is the old FlexTech livery. Replaced with Fujitsu Heat Pumps, Gaskin Ford & Mazda and numerous other sponsors.

Healthwise.. well who knows? I always end up feeling like there's nothing wrong with me at all once the prednisone starts to work. The lymph nodes in my neck are now almost undetectable, the fever has gone but I still have a persistent cough. I'm scheduled for another CT scan on November 11th, so I'll have to stop the steroids as soon as I return from Targa otherwise there will be nothing to see on the scan, which will only delay any treatment plans should they be required (note the steroid inspired optimism).

Then I have a week of jury duty at the end of that month. I could get out of it by playing the sick card... but hey it might be an interesting case and a learning experience.. who knows?

OK, must go. Have to rise early tomorrow to repair the car trailer we have borrowed to transport the race car.

Not long now!

Targa is now just thirteen short days away!

There are about forty small jobs to be done on the car, and most must be done before this coming weekend when we go testing at Manfeild racetrack.
Oddly enough the most time consuming task seems to be that of removing the old decals from the car. It's a painstaking job that looks like it will eat up around 6 hours all by itself. (To give you some idea, that's longer than it took to take the engine out and put it back in again!)

We have now got our major sponsor on-board "Fujitsu Heat Pumps". A huge thank you to Kim Naylor for supporting our cause and helping ensure this campaigns success.

Healthwise: Hmmm not too good on the stamina/energy levels unfortunately. I'm a mile away from how I was feeling last month. At that time, while on Prednisone my energy levels were excellent and I could run for long periods on the treadmill without any discomfort.
The low blood counts I'm currently suffering have robbed me of all my energy, there's just not enough oxygen getting to my muscles.

I'm really hoping that now I'm back on the steroids that things will improve over the next two weeks in time for the intense physical demands behind the wheel during Targa.

Ooops!

I mentioned in the previous post that I went and saw my GP due to my failing state of health.
I thought I might have an infection and he said if I did it was probably viral. I definitely had something as I felt like I had the "flu" but without the outward symptoms. Just the body aches and general Malaise.

It seems to have passed but my energy levels have dropped considerably. The Doctor had ordered some blood tests to see if I had something else that might be causing the constant fever. (I think it's what ever it is that's showing on my liver on CT scan)
Today I got an email from my GP. Here's what the tests showed..

"Hi Ron
Your blood count has dropped a bit (haemoglobin 121 and platelets 51), and liver functions are a bit up as well. Not sure specifically how to interpret all that. ?back to the specialists?"

I was a little concerned to see the low platelet count so I did some research...
What I found surprised me. Here's the background first... I'd been told by the doctors in Germany that I could safely take Ginkgo Biloba for the ringing in my ears (tinnitus) even though my platelet count has never been great. Then when I started running a constant fever six months ago I started taking one Ibuprofen every six hours to reduce it. Lately I've had to take two to get any improvement.

Ginkgo should not be used in patients with low platelet counts and Ginkgo and Ibuprofen should never be used in conjunction because they can cause serious bleeding/bruising or even brain bleeds. (That would explain the large bruise on my knee that I have no idea how I got!)

So with that in mind and coupled with my failing over-all health I've decided to go back on the prednisone as of today. This will remove the need for Ibuprofen and I'll stop the Ginkgo as well.
I'll schedule a blood test next week to see if that has improved things.
I'm expecting to be back to feeling 100% in about two weeks. (Ignoring the Lymphoma and Liver problems)

On a more positive note, The rebuilt engine was installed back in the race car on Monday night and dyno tuned on Tuesday evening by Andre at Speedtech. The power output is huge to say the least at 315Kw to the wheels. We will be running a modest tune for Targa to reduce the change of breaking something. If we need to run the high horsepower setup it's just a case of flicking a switch on the dashboard.

There's just eighteen days to go until Targa begins but there's still time to join the team and sponsor both the car and the Cancer Society. We have set up an account (below) in which people can donate directly into. The funds being split equally between the entry costs and the Cancer Society.

The account is "TLC" 02-0610-0058277-003 (any special instructions can be put in the reference fields)

Your support is appreciated ...Ron

Tired of being sick! Deja-vue

It's been a hell week healthwise, My fever which used to be controlled by taking just one Ibuprofen now barely reacts to two and is peaking a lot higher. I went and saw my GP about it during the week. My thinking was that I may have developed another cause for a fever such as an infection etc, and that maybe we should do some blood cultures just to be safe. He said "it's probably a virus" and left it at that. Bugger. However he did schedule a blood test for two weeks time to check for other possible causes of the underlying constant fever. Personally I'd say Lymphoma would be a safe bet!

Speaking of lymphoma..I've got a new lump ... well actually more of a swollen gland under the right side of my chin. It's the same lymph node that started it all off five years ago. I know this because it was cut in half when it was biopsied and the swollen "gland" is now inflated to an interesting half moon shape as a result.

I don't think I can stay off the steroids for too much longer without a significant reduction in my health. I'm soaking my bed covers at night with this fever and during the day I have no appetite and am constantly chilled to the bone. I think by next weekend I'll start back on the prednisone.
Once Targa is completed I'll stay on them until I see the haematologist on Nov 17th. Hopefully at that point we can start planning some more treatment. There goes my hair again!

Targa preparations are ramping up again after a lull while the engine was rebuilt, an exercise that cost a lot of money even with all the generous support of my sponsors. It may be time to have a clean out of my garage and sell some stuff I think!