Raw Motorsport

By 10:00 am I had already been awake and up since 8:30am. We had suffered a problem with our return booking. Our return ticket was Tuesday night, and because of the full Monday night sailing, I had been trying to find another way to get us and the car back early.

We attended the Targa Brunch at 10:30 and I was glad we did that. One of the main reasons for us attending Targa this year was to try and collect the Gold Targa Trophy plate if we could finish within the Targa Trophy times set for each stage. Paul and I were eligible for this coverted award, so we were fortunate enough to receive on stage this award with 14 other recipients.

Not only did we get this gold trophy, but also won our class and category. All in all we were safe, the car was safe and we collected some great trophies. We were happy.

Paul needed to get back to work on Tuesday, so opted to fly out from hobart, as our attempts to get on the Monday night sailing had failed. I dropped Paul at the airport and headed for Devonport. If I was standing at the counter on Monday night, maybe someone wouldn’t turn up and I could jump on.

I arrived in person and was told that it was so overbooked that even some freight would not be going, and if someone didn’t arrive, freight would have first priority. Ok that was it, time to find some accomodation in Devonport.

Driving around the port to the township side I pass Paul Stuart talking to his mechanic with car loaded on trailer and ute towing. I decided to do a u-turn and stop and small talk. I mentioned my problem, discussed the event and Paul suggested the day sailing boat in the morning. I headed off and was about to head into the TTlnes office when Paul Stuart rings and suggests I should return to where I had seen him, so I could enjoy and beer, as he had sorted out a slot on the boat for me.

The short of it was the ute had been booked twice, and Paul’s navigator Mike Herrod had flown back early. Thanks Paul it was great to stumple on that opportunity, so I arrive as need on Monday mornng off the boat and straight to work.

Targa 2007 is over and it was very kind to Paul Girt and me. We still have some photos and video to go up on the site, and we will compile a dvd of the in car action for the 5 days.

I thank everyone that has shown any interest in this site, and for all the support from family and friends. Stay posted as I will continue to document the post event stories as they unfold over the next few weeks.

“Dial Before You Dig” have been great supporters for us and this year with Rex Broadbent and Mike Goedheer winning the Classic section outright, we think that DBYD have received great media and public coverage of their community service. Thanks to the team at DBYD Vic/Tas including Mark Binks and Scott Reid, and also thanks for the team at PRPartners - David Rowell and Angela for there help and support.

We hope you got out of this event what you expected, I know we did.

After arriving in Hobart we received our finishing medallion, and we are asked to park in “Parc Fume”. That was a surprise, so we must have done something right, the scrutineers want to check our car.

We exit the car and meet the “Dial Before You Dig” group that are having a BBQ on the lawn at the Hotel. We help ourselves to a couple of beers, and proceed to the finsh line area to welcome fellow competitors and friends. Over the next 2 hours all the cars arrive and the outright winners are announced, and provide the mandatory spectacle of wine spraying on the podium.

Tonight at the Gala dinner, the winners will be announced. Paul and I opted not to attend the official dinner (Not everyone can due to the limited space) and head out for a dinner, then back to the after party.

I distinctly recall something about 4:00am before I closed my eyes, and grabbed what little sleep I could get before the targa breakfast next morning.

We arrived in Burnie last night nursing our tyres. We had plenty of issues through the day with a stage down graded to touring. By Service we knew that unless we could clean our tyres up we might not be running today.

Out with the heat gun and screw drivers, and off we set on the front tyres trying to clean out the grooves that had filled with melted rubber. During the day and heat build up on the fronts, which had melted the tread into the grooves, making the tyre look like a slick. Within 20 minutes we had retored the tyres back to something that looked like it had tread.

Paul and I stayed out at Wynyard (35 kms from Burnie) as accomodation in Burnie is scarce. As usual the volunteers driving the buses are pushing more hours than we are. Up at 4:00am so they can shuttle competitors around, and no finishing until 10:00pm at night. That doesn’t leave them with alot of time for eating and sleeping, but as usual they all push on. Thanks Coal and his wife for your help over this event.

We were fortunately across the road from a pub, so we ate and headed for bed ready for the 6:45am pickup.

By day 4 lunch we had only completed 1/2 the competitive kms for this event. That means the tyres still have a long way to go on day 5, and it is a big one. We had to get to the lunch break in Queenstown with tyres they would let us run on. More conservative driving to protect what little rubber we had left.

The Straun stage of over 30kms was down graded to touring due to a crash. The driver was suspected of having spinal injuries, and a helicopter took him out. That incident probably saved us from elimination for the afternoon.

Queenstown lunch break and the Tyre scrutineers are out with there depth gauges checking the cars as they arrive. After lunch there is Queenstown, then Mt Arrowsmith (close to 50kms of competitive in one stage) and Tarraleah.

We obviously had protected our tyre’s well, so we get the green light, and off we head knowing we have 3 stages to, and dry weather ahead.

By tarraleah we had done it. Cruising back to Wrest Point in Hobart, I reflectd on this year and why it was so hard. We had similar conditions last year and our tyres made it relatively easily. I put it down to pushing harder on days 1, 2 and 3 and realise that you can never truely relax in Targa. There is always some challenge that becomes your Mt Everest. Our Porsche 911 has proved to be the best piece of machinary I have ever owned. She has never let us down and that takes a tremendous weight off your shoulders knowing that your equipment (if treated well) won’t let you down.