Targa Tech

Today was technical inspection of the cars and we passed. The cars are staged in an ice rink with big plastic tiles over what I think is the ice. It is fun to be in a rink! I had a navigating tutorial in the penalty box. 

The cars funneled in throughout the day and the stadium slowly filled up more than this and was open to the public for a car show in the evening. 

Dad and I took the safety class this afternoon. In our years of racing, we have never had so much safety instruction. We even practiced CPR and abdominal thrusts (aka the Heimlich maneuver, no an ab exercise). Targa Newfoundland sure does place high priority on safety for competitors, volunteers and spectators. It is refreshing. Though, I sure hope to not have to use our new resuscitation skills. I did take not of the advice for a water landing - don't try to open the doors until the car is full with water,  then take a deep breath and open the doors. Dad says Audis floats so we're keeping an eye out for a pair of oars. 

The Audi received her sticker bling. Car number and a few sponsor stickers. 

Can't leave this one out! We've promoted beef across Mexico and keeping it going in the frozen north. Fueled by beef! 

The only trouble dad got into today was he was told he couldn't smoke his cigar inside the arena. Sorry, Darren! 

I've been nervous about the computations and navigations I need to make for this Grand Touring class. The navigations (directions) I will need to make are similar to what I'm accustomed to from La Carrera Panamericana. However, the timing and scoring for this rally class are much different. I've gotten wonderful tips from the Hume Media team (thank you, Craig!) and received great direction from other very experienced rally navigators today. Remember those time and distance equations from high school algebra? I didn't either but was reminded of them today. We'll see how good my math is tomorrow...

We have the first breathalizer test tomorrow morning before we go to run the Prologue stage - it's a practice day where the times don't count but do decide order of go for Day 1 on Monday. Yes, we really have to take a breathalizer test every morning!