Thursday, 29 April 2010 20:28

Well, the morning started out as a beautiful day. The sun was shining and, with a report time of 0859.30, Graham and I went for an early morning swim - great! We got there at 0830 and, did the early morning checks on the car - everything was perfect.

We travelled on out to The Sideling for the first stage of the day… 5,4 3,2 1, go! We got along the first few corners and noticed that my door was not closed properly! Try driving at 150km an hour and open the door to close it properly - nearly impossible! Anyway, that distracted me and I finally got it shut. A dry Sideling is great - full steam ahead - the beginning of it is reasonably tight corners and rough. The tyres started locking up under braking. I looked down at the dashboard and noticed the ABS light on so on one of the tight corners I switched the engine off and restarted it - the light went out! Great!

Off we go again. Three more rough corners and the light was on again - not good when you come up to the 500 metre straight section with high speeds and you need great brakes to stop quickly at the end. So I had to be braking early all the way down the Sideling to save any bad moments - the last 6km of the Sideling is downhill. Well, if you look at the results, we did a good time anyway. It's just a  pity I couldn’t use the full potential of the Mustang. The handling was OK after the further tweaking I had done from the day before, but it needed more adjustments, so when we got into Scottsdale we adjusted the rebound and bump settings to what Rick Kemp recommended over the phone. Off we went to Ledgerwood, went through the stage and picked up time. The car was handling a lot better except for the suspension bottoming out on the bump stops from large dips in the road at high speeds. The balance was good and forgiving, so it was decided that the settings were on the best place for now.

We carried on to Moorina and Weldborough. On Weldborough, we hit one large dip that made the front seem like we had a flat tyres. I kept driving to the end and checked the car - all appeared fine. We started Pyengana and the car felt great. Graham was calling the notes well, the car flowed through the corners like a breeze and I was happy. About 1.5km from the end, the Mustang started to feel slippery front to back on the corners. As we came to the 5 left that Graham called I hit the brakes, they locked a little I then lifted my foot off the brakes and the Mustang kept going straight ahead! So I tried a  quick acceleration to cut the rear loose and give the front steering back, but it still went straight ahead. At this point of time the only thing I could do was plan the safest exit from the road - so straight off the edge we flew!

Over the graded track, collecting shrubs and two smaller trees, we stopped before the big one. "#$@%&%&, my car!" Graham described it as like going really fast through one of those automatic car washes - stuff just hitting the screen and not being able to see where you were going! "Are you OK, Graham?" "Yes fine, how are you?" "OK!". Trees against Graham's side meant he couldn't get out. My door only opened just enough to get out. I went up to the road with the OK sign and waited for Graham to bring the safety triangles. I was standing for 3 or 4 minutes, and still no Graham. Then I thought, "Oh, is he really OK?" I ran back and found him just getting out of the car on my side! He was trying to call the emergency number to let the officials know we were OK, but there is no signal in the Tassie outback!

I grabbed the triangles and placed them on the road as required with the OK sign, and went back down to see if we can get the car out and drive it back to the Silverdome. The owner of the property came over and asked if we were hurt. "No, we're OK," Graham said - he was just devastated from being out of the race! So we cleared the trees off the Mustang and I got changed into some overalls and jacked the car up to remove the Tree from under the front. We let it down on the ground and then two guys gave me a push as I drove it out of the Bush. We inspected the damage - flat left tyre, front radiators damaged and leaking, splitters and bumper destroyed windscreen broken, wishbone mounting broken, right hand headlamp and so on.

"Can we fix it?" No, it was too hard, so we threw it on a trailer and caught a bus, following the race field all the way back to the Silverdome. On the way we stopped at an incident at the end of Elephant Pass. A GT-R lost control and ended up in the river. The navigator and driver were unscathed, which was very lucky after crashing over 200km an hour.

On the way back while sleeping in the Bus…"20 cans of black pressure pack paint should do it, and we can swap the rollcage…" My visions of how we could go about repairing the Mustang. I called Marty up and told him I need the spares off the Saleen Chaplain's car, and I would give him a rental car to drive for the rest of the event. He replied, "We will go with the flow - whatever you decide to do." I called Greg Crick - Targa friend and boy racer - and he offered me the Honda Dealership workshop, so I then called Robyn and bounced the scenario to her and she was happy to help! The only problem that really stopped us was the broken windscreen, so we all went to dinner instead! We called everyone in our team and friends to let them now we are out of the race and OK. We then organised to catch the Spirit of Tasmania home early, and for the car to come with Marty and Maudie on Tuesday.

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A big "Thank You" to all the following:

Mike Batten and Paul Batten (Car 244) for lending us his trailer to take the Mustang to Devonport.
Greg Crick, from Greg Crick Honda in Launceston, for lending we his ute to tow the trailer - thanks mate, I look forward to competing against you in Targa again soon.
Steve’s Mobile Magic Car detailing for allowing me to leave the broken Mustang in his garage - give him a call for a car wash on the way home from Tassie on 0448 758 582.
All the people involved in getting the Mustang and Graham and I back to the Silverdome.
Marty and Maudie for delivering Graham and I to the Spirit for the early trip home.

Sorry to Graham that we didn’t make the end this year, and all you fans following Graham and I. Also to the 'Targa Old Timers' team for letting you down, and especially the guys at work who helped prepare the Mustang this year. Special thanks also to my wife Robyn and business partner Alby for your support towards my motorsport efforts, and I am happy to say "Congratulations" to Graham and Sandra for their 39th wedding anniversary (that Graham will now be home for!) and to Marty and Maudie for their 45th wedding anniversary - well done!

Well, we will have to come back next year and try it  again. See you then, and we'l post some in-car video footage (including the accident) soon - stay tuned,
Craig.

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Leg 2 Results
TS9 The Sideling - 06.30 + 01.48 (14th)
TS10 Ledgerwood - 02.00 + 00.35 (=11th)
TS11 Moorina - 03.30 + 00.40 (=14th)
TS12 Weldborough - 06.00 + 01.17 (15th)
TS13 Pyengana - Accident
After Stage 12 - total penalty time 07.53 (13th)