Raw Motorsport

We are still here after a difficult start. Friday has been completed with an Expo in Launceston, yet we have not made any real impact on the cars around us. This morning was slippery for 1 or 2 stages, but this is not giving us the wet conditions that would enable us to push through.

I have decided that there is no real hope for us mere mortals when someone like Jim Richards has a crash. Jim has tackled many Targa’s - 16 - winning approx 7 or 8, and he has never ever had an off. Today Jim retired from the event, and this has really refocused most of the field on what we are up against.

As I continue to repeat, this is one tough event.  We are approx 1/2 way thru the event with 2 days to go. Maybe rain tomorrow, but we will see. The car suffered a broken exhaust claim yesterday, but that was welded and refitted last night.

The expo was great, and dinner even better. Paul and I had the foresight to book the local steak house and we were really looking forward to the meal we had to offset the “weight watchers” lunches they have been giving us each day …

I am hoping that everyone has taken the chance to view our google maps with our telemetry over laid for each stage. This is the quickest and easiest way to keep up with our progress.

visit PelicanCorp at www.pelicancorp.com and click on News and Targa.

Today was a little better than yesterday, and all of a sudden we have found some pace. Targa is about getting home every night - people and car intact, and unfortunately every day there is a group who don’t.

Today 400m from the start of a stage, 3 cars came to grief, including 2 that rolled. Every night Paul jokes that we are winners, and he is right. Every day is a race, not just against your competitors, but against the clock and yourself.  You need to pace yourself and as they say, “be there at the end if you want to win”.

We are reminded every night about the battles each of us have with this event, and many competitors end up losing that war.

Reliability, tyres, weather, fuel, navigator and driver need to function for 8 to 10 stages each day at 100%, and then some, just to complete each day. It seams easy, but many stories are told of competitors that come to Targa only once, having not come to grips with the intensity and challenge this event offers.

There are other more famous tarmac rallies from yester year, but in this modern day, I suspect that Targa Tasmania can be put up as one, if not, the most difficult tarmac rally currently available for the average punter. (I don’t expect many of us will ever get to sample the WRC tarmac rallies)

On that note I will close today, feeling comfortable in continuing to achieve our main goal. Arriving safely each night and to be in Hobart on Sunday.

Glyn Crimp’s 924 GT - one of those battles that was lost.

No major hassles today, but also no major results. We had a slow start, and that maybe due to a car that rolled over in stage 4. We were stopped and subsequently had a bad time. Hopefully we will get a derived time, which may make our overall time a little better, but we are already a way down the pack. We will wait and see how it unfolds over the next few days.

We had a great pasta meal tonight, so hopefully a good day tomorrow.