Targa Days 1 & 2

What a blur rallying becomes! It is 9:30 Tuesday night and I just finished my calculations for tomorrow's stages. We're in the Grand Touring Class which is run in a time/speed/distance rallying format based on calculations, timing and driving accuracy. So we are given an end time and average speed for each section. We then have to calculate various points along the section at which we will be passing an odometer point (I have an ODO in front of me on the dash) and at which exact second we need to pass that point with the goal of crossing the finish time at the optimum time. Sounds easy - challenging to do. Because Targa didn't release the times and speeds until we got our route books on Saturday, we have to calculate as we go. Some teams have a few people and programs and spreadsheets to help with the calculations. I use a time/speed/distance app on my phone, a calculator and a pencil. It makes me nutty! A necessary evil for the class we're in.

So the last two days:

Day 1 was LONG. In the car at 7am and out of the car at 7:30pm. We covered a lot of distance and some stages were delayed making for an exhausting day. Though, it was a gorgeous Newfoundland day and we had ZERO penalties. That made for waking up at 5 a little better.

Lined up at the first section on day 1. We had a little drizzle but the stage was very fun. 

Waiting to run in reverse a section called "Turks Gut." Marinus Damm enjoying the Newfie sun (http://dammralliers.com/).

I'm enjoying the sun, too!

Cod Au Gratin. Cod is the national food of Newfoundland! I really don't know if it is but it sure is a staple. The star of this homemade meal was the partidge berry cake with brown sugar sauce. I make sure to always try their desserts and they are always divine.

Day 2: Fueled with a McDonalds coffee and McMuffin, we were off! It was another beautifully sunny and warm-ish day. 

Cars before the roar of engines. Cars are staged in the Eastlink Events Centre in Clarenville. It's a hockey rink!

Transitting to our first stage of the day. It's always important to grab the route book for the right day. My cockpit.

The end of one rally stage was in Boat Harbour. It's an iconic fishing village. 

Boat Harbour

Crab baskets

That's the Newfoundland Labrador provincial flag under the Maple Leaf

The community of Harbour Mille gernerously served roast BEEF for lunch today and it got a thumbs us from us! *I really do love fish, too*

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Harbour Mille

Harbour Mille

We found Steve Strupp and Greg's next project in Terrenceville:

It was a lot of work to bring ashore.

Inspecting "Captain Jack's Bar and Grill" potential (the famed speed racer Jack Rogers)

My eyes are crossing - I better get some sleep. Hopefully a good update tomorrow!

Targa Newfoundland 2016 Begins

We've arrived on the Rock once again for Targa Newfoundland 2016. After a long day of travel, we arrived early Friday morning and were looking forward to picking up the Audi from Trans Can. After last year's Targa, the Audi went back to Ottawa for safe keeping and some tune ups from Rob Kleins at Robson Racing. She is in great shape and just how we remember her!

Holy moly - we're on the program cover! 

I met Dad at LAX from PHX and we then flew together to Toronto (in the pretty light above) then on to St. John's.

We are again in the Grand Touring Class. There is no "equiped" and "unequipped" this year - they are combined to one larger Grand Touring division. It was "unequipped" that we lucked out to win last year and it is fun to be in a larger, more competitive class this year.

Friday was a day of picking up the car, running errands, and getting situated. Yesterday was tech and we passed with no problems, receiving our official car number and sponsor decals.

Today was the prologue - a test day for everyone and a qualification for tomorrow's official start. It was good to work out the kinks after not being in this car for a year. All cars ran through 4 sections and it was much needed. After completely forgetting about my timers in the first section, I got back on track for the second. The community of Flat rock served us a traditional Newfie meal (mashed turnips, yay! *sarcasm*). But really, the food was delicious and the generosity of the towns we overtake is applaudable. These small villages are gracious hosts to close down their roads and towns for a day and put up with a bunch of car nuts.

Driver's meeting before prologue

The weather Friday and Saturday were sub-par but today made up for them. After wind and rain and chill, today's sunshine and warmth was much appreciated.

A traditional Newfie meal - roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, mashed turnips, peas & carrots.

A gorgeous day in Flatrock at the Community Center

A few minutes to soak up this beautiful sight in Bauline

Off on an early start in the morning with breathalizer at 6:15am. Then we rally our way off the St. John's peninsula and finishing tomorrow in Clarenville, our home until Friday.

Day Three and the Finish

I have never claimed to be an on-time blogger  but at least I'm an on-time navigator. Here we are -we've been home a week and I'm just getting the post up about the last day of racing. Allow me to relive day 3 of the Chihuahua Express.

The third and final day of racing took us east from Chihuahua City to Ojinaga. This route is a drastic change of scenery from the pine trees and cooler weather from days 1 & 2, but it was still beautiful. Into the high desert we went.

We raced 5 back-to-back sections on the way to servicio and had a little break to walk to the lookout and see this vast view:

It was a fast day of racing meaning the sections were more open than the first two days with more straights so the cars reach higher speeds. We also had a very long section (29.65 kms is a LONG time to be calling turns) that we ran twice - out and on the way back. It was a full day of racing and it was quite warm so we were much relieved to make it back to town and be finished! One piece, the car running well, and having had a fantastic day racing. It was time to celebrate! There was a little celebration in a mall parking lot and then we headed back to the hotel to break open the tequila.

photo by CNRM - Comisión Nacional de Rallies México

Time for some Fortaleza!

Enjoying some crisp tequila with our good amigos Renee Rodriguez, Geezer and Vance Stewart

Time for celebrating! Chacho and the race organizers hosted a lovely dinner and awards ceremony. It is always a fun time because the racers and crews finally get to relax and enjoy their winnings. It is so much fun to cheer for our friends as they are announced day and over all class winners. It's also nice to pick up some hardware for ourselves, too.

Our very good amigos in the Historic C class. Jack Rogers and CJ Strupp were the overall winners (we raced with them in Targa Newfoundland, also), followed by Gerie Bledsoe and Fernando "El Fer" "Zorro" Garcia and the Gregory family - John, Chrislana and Matt. 

Overall results for Original Pan Am: US! followed closely by Jake "The Most Interesting Man in Mexico" Shuttlesworth and The Swede Ralf Christensson. This was extra special for us and for Jake because this was Jake's first time racing his '54 Ford (same year as ours, slightly different model). This was a long-time coming for Jake to race in Original Pan Am and it was so much fun. I'm sure his red '54 and our white '54 Vicky will duel again. 

Aaand...we won our class and placed 17th overall (results here)! It is a wonderful feeling of accomplishment to have raced every day, finished every state, combined with great times for an Original Pan Am car. I am still processing the ups and downs while getting back to reality. I'm in the post-race-depression mode: no police escorts through traffic, no one cheering me on in my daily commute, no smells of exhaust/cigar/fuel (what better to wake up the senses), and no racing amigos to swap stories with at the end of the day.

I'll follow up with another blog with some more thoughts, photo and video. For now, here are a few must-watches:

By Graham Maddock for Chihuahua Express (phenomenal drone footage):

Day 1 (we roll up to A (green flag) at :14)

Day 2 to Copper Canyon

Ruta Norte interviewed Chrislana and me (we didn't know what for at the time). We're at 3:16 here.

MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS to our generous sponsors!

Baja Bound Insurance

Calderon Tire, Santa Maria, California

Tequila Fortaleza 

Race to Copper Canyon

Today was great! As Dad told the race director today, these are world class rally roads, and though I really have no expertise to prove that, I will just have to agree because today kicked ass. I wish I could have all of you in the car with us to experience the rush of racing on closed roads at unlimited speeds with a driver I completely trust. We are taking some in-car GoPro footage but it just doesn't do it justice. I think the videos make it seem slo-mo. Anyway, did I mention how much fun we are having??

More beautiful Chihuahuan countryside. We had a long transit through land like this to the race sections, which were higher elevation and quite wooded. 

Servicio today was in Creel (twice). The crews left much earlier than we to arrive to the service spot before the roads close. Left to right is Jack Roger's Mustang, our Vicky, and Jake Shuttleworth's '54 Ford. 

Racing to the top of Divisadero, the outlook of Cooper Canyon, was a blast. The views didn't stink. 

Gregg is getting a first hand experience of car/mechanic/service crews. He is the best windshield washer around! 

The office:

Aaand...we wind the Original Pan Am class again today! 

One more day of racing - tomorrow east to Ojinaga (or Okinawa as Dad keeps saying). 

Giddy up! 

P.S. I hope this all makes sense. It's 10:45pm here and i don't have much brain power left today. I'll tell better stories later! 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Madera in the Sun and the Rain

Today was a whirlwind! The day started beautiful with pretty clouds that turn to storm clouds by the afternoon. Regardless, we raced across some beautiful country in the state of Chihuahua. 

I really don't have many photos from today because it was nonstop. For some reason the transits (sections in between the speed sections) are really tight. Usually, if the sections aren't back to back and have about 30 km or more between, you have time to get out of the car and take a breather and there is especially usually time to take a breather at the servicio stop. Not today. It was hurry up to the next section and servicio was a circus and then it was time to haul ass down the road. I did have time to take one picture before a speed stage:

The Chihuahuan countryside is beautiful. This area was very agricultural with rangeland with cattle, horses, crops and many fruit trees. 

A few rain drops hit our windshields in the afternoon and then the heavens opened and the Chihuahua Deluge of 2016 happened. We, fortunately, we're done with the last speed section before it really came down. Others weren't so lucky. The streets of Chihuahua City were flooded and some of the cars with lower clearance had terrible troubles. We got soaked but found a minute to seek refuge in a car trailer in the hotel parking lot and share some laughs. 

The best news is: we won our class today! We only have three cars in our class and we are all friends so we have some healthy competition going on. Looking forward to Copper Canyon tomorrow!