It had been 12 months since I navigated last and was good to receive an email from Steve Spada a SSCC Member asking me to become his navigator for a few Tarmac rallies. It was going to be good to be back in something modern as I am more use to the faster pace…
I organised to meet Steve at 5am for the big drive down to Mt Buller. We were towing the Mitsubishi Evo 6 down there which is a good 10 hour drive. I was excited and got up at 3:30am. I got to Steves place early and he wasn’t even up yet! Great Start! I gave him a wake up call! We threw all my gear into the race car and we were off. We had an appointed time of 2:30pm to be at the scrutineering bay and documenting by. We only just made it to the top of Mt Buller by 2pm. Steve Said” See your worrying about nothing” I said “ahuh!” It was good to be back at the top of the mountain. We took the car off the trailer and went straight to scrutineering. We went thru the fundamentals and we were all set for the next day. I was hoping to have my new race suit to show off but it wasn’t ready in time. I had brought myself some new race boots and socks as Targa is now back running under CAMS. So you need all the up to date fire retardant gear. We went off to our cabin to unpack and meet up with some other Sydneysiders. Anthony & Toni Rizzo are newlyweds and a lovely couple that were running in an early modern Subaru and are members of the WRX club. They had a big accident the year before sending the car end over end a couple of times and landing upside down in a river. They made it out with only a few bruises! This THC was there come back. They had rebuilt the car and were ready to run again.

In rally there are a few types of pace notes. You can use the road book given to you at documentation and a trip meter or you can use pace notes. With pace notes there are two main types 1-10 and 1-6 notes. The number means the grade of the corner. Spada uses 1-6 notes which I was a bit apprehensive in using. I had only used them once before at Targa Tasmania in 2010 in the Zero car. They are completely different to what I was used too and comfortable with. I have always used the 1-10 system which gives you the grade of the corner first and then which way the road goes. For example 8R into 6L into 2L into Kink followed by 10L. Where the 1-6 notes have ½ in them as well as reading like this R3 into L5 ½ into Immediate R2 and then R4 ½ . It doesn’t seem like a big change but the corner that used to be a 10 has now turned into a 6 and there are ½ in the 1-6 notes which can be hard to get out in one mouthful at times as I found out.
We decided to head down the mountain on Friday morning to get some supplies for the house. We started to head down the twisty Mt Buller Road when one of Spada ears wouldn’t become unblocked. He was trying everything! Holding his nose and blowing, Yawning, Sticking his finger in his year and yanking it out. But nothing was working and it was becoming painful! I was starting to think that Steve liked to cut everything really fine. We eventually got to the chemist and I stocked up on Kewell’s (I will tell you what they are later) and tissues and stuff and Spada got Hay fever spray and ear cleaning stuffys. We went back out to the car to try and unblock the ear. I was starting to get worried as this would hinder my driver through out the whole event! I decided as the female always does that it was starting to get serious and we were running out of time! We had to go to the doctors to get it checked and worse case scenario to the hospital! We headed off to the local surgery where they said the next appointment would be in an hour and that the doctor wouldn’t be able to do anything unless Steve had been taking ear drops for the past three days! I was like look lady we are here to Rally we need a solution. Steve asked me “Why didn’t you tell her who you were!” I was like” This is no time for jokes Steven! LOL I wasn’t happy with the answer the receptionist said to us. That’s it we are off to Emergency!” We walked in to the hospital and being a country town it wasn’t big. A lovely lady came to help us and I was a bit shocked when she asked me “Don’t I know you?” I was like “Umm don’t think so, I’m here for the Rally and I come from Sydney” The Nurse said “I’m sure I know you!” I said “Well in that case could you please help us. My Driver has a blocked ear and we are here to WIN!” The nurse said” Oh well I would love to help you but all the doctors are on call and you will need to go to the surgery” I was shattered that my story hadn’t worked. I had told the nurse of the ordeal that we had over in the surgery just a moment ago. She obliged and said the receptionist didn’t know what she was talking about and that she would ring them and get us in with the appointment and try and get Steve’s ear fixed! We said Thank you to the Nurse and asked her to come and watch us in the afternoon. It was so good to see the locals backing the event and getting involved and happy for us to be there. We went back over to the surgery and sat in the waiting room for about 30 minutes. I was starting to stress as we need to get back up the mountain and get ready for our leave time for the prologue stage. Steve was finally seen by the doctor and his ear was ok! No infection and told Steve to chew lollies or gum to unblock the ear from now on when going up or down the mountain. It’s funny how the altitude affects some people and I was hoping that was the worst thing to happen to us this weekend. Wishful thinking!

THC is made up of one Prologue stage on the Friday afternoon and then 8 stages each day on Saturday & Sunday. The prologue stage was basically the same as last year about 2.5kms long and running through the small streets of Mansfield the main town at the bottom of Mt Buller. The streets were lined with people and the hay bales were in place. Spada has a fast Evo so we were at the back of the pack with the likes of Scott Miller in his Evo 10, Tony Quinn in his other R35 GTR cause the one he normal uses is still on the boat coming back from NZ Tarmac Rally and of course the White Hot Lamborghini. The prologue stage is qualifying for the event. This gives you the line up and your start time. We raced through the prologue stage with minimal fuss. Spada was taking it easy as he hadn’t had much seat time leading up to the event so was taking his time to find his groove again. I was ok with this as it would give me time to get up to speed with the 1-6 notes. We did a pretty good time and were going to be staying up the back of the pack. Our biggest competition is Tim Hendy in his new R34 GTR and Sammy Stevens in her Evo 6. Tim usually runs a Daytona and has done very well in the past few years but he wanted to change category and class and it was going to be a battle till the end between us all.
The weather was particularly warm for Melbourne being in the high 20’s and keeping hydrated was going to be the key. The first day was only little stages with Mirimbah stage being only 6.76km long. This was the stage nearly at the bottom of Mt Buller road. We call the start of the stage “Fin’s corner” as the stage starts 50m before a R3. It’s a twisty little stage and good wake up call to what was in front of us. Then the next stage was Barwite only being 7.5kms long and I was feeling ok up to this point and thought I had the 1-6 notes under control. Boy was I wrong! The next two stages Tolmie 16.55 km and Whitfield 8.68kms I was completely lost as Spada would tell you. Half way through the Tolmie stage I lost my notes! This means that I didn’t know where I was in the book of pace notes and had to tell Spada “I was off the notes”. This was quite scary for me as it had been a long time since I had fallen off my notes. The next stage Whitfield I was no better. I start off in the first 2 minutes doing ok and then lost my notes again. I was having trouble seeing the corners as I was reading them and recognising and trying to decipher what a 3 ½ corner looked like and when you have a series of 4, 5 and even 6 corners you can loose where you are up to in the book. I was kicking myself by the end of the stage and it was time for lunch. If you didn’t already know I don’t eat much while rallying after an awful experience I had at a Dirt Rally a few years ago with Vomiting twice in a rally car. So my solution is to not eat! I have lots of water instead and use motion sickness tablets called Kewell’s. Now this system has worked for me for last few rallies I have done. But being in Spadas car was going to be a whole new challenge with the warm weather, the quick car and not eating until dinner time. All the food looked awesome at Lunch but I wasn’t game to have any. Spada sat there quite pleasantly munching away on all the great food. He said he needed it to stay focus which I can understand. We caught up with a few of our rivals to see how there were going. Spadas competition in the past has been Dowie & Bryan in an Evo 7 and Father & Son Team Perni & Perni in a Porsche. Both of these teams were sounding strong when we spoke to them at lunch I consoled in Nicole Bryan that I had come off my notes. She had told me she had done the same. I felt a little bit better after that as she is a very good navigator and has been doing it for a long time. Nicole also told me that the car was playing up and was losing power. So the only two cars we had to worry about on Day 1 was Perni and Hendy. We were about to do all the stages again on the same road backwards. The first stage was King Valley, Powers Lookout, Bridge Creek and then the best stage of the day Mt Buller!

I had told myself at lunch that I had to harden up and get a grip. Spada was also encouraging me to do better and wasn’t going to let me forget that I had fallen off my notes not only once but TWICE! The teasing went on for the rest of the day which I needed to reinforce that I could do better! Powers Lookout stage had oil on it in two different places and the bitumen surface was starting to break up. There was so much gravel and it was quite slippery that we didn’t want to risk an “Off” for the sake of a few seconds. A R35 GTR came flying up behind and I didn’t know at the time. I said Spada “Is there was something wrong?” and then I saw the R35 GTR along side and then in front of us and was gone out of sight around a corner in half a second. I was so happy to be nearly at the end of the Day 1 stages. We started transported back to the Mt Buller stage. I could hear a helicopter and ignored it for about 10 minutes as it wasn’t unusual to have that noise around as the helicopter often flies in and out of stages filming the cars! But it was a constant noise I asked Spada “Can you hear the helicopter?” Spada said “Yes I can” and we both started looking in our mirrors and over our shoulder to find it. Well this went on for about 5 minutes. I looked to my right and could see above the driver’s rear window the weather shield was flapping madly and I said to Spada. “I can see something flapping lets pull over and race tape it down and hope it’s that! Cause if it’s not then its going to be something mechanical!” Which we both didn’t want! We taped it down and started driving again… Guess what! It wasn’t the weather shield flapping! We knew it was more serious. We got to the start of the Mt Buller stage and pulled over to the left out of the way to check the car. Yep sure enough we had cracked the driver’s side rear rotor. Right on one of the slots and it wasn’t just a facial crack it went through the whole disc. Spada solution to this was to get up the mountain as quick as he could before it got worse, I laughed. But do you think he was kidding!!!! NO!!! We did the fastest time up the mountain than anyone else in our category. We did it in 2:02 we even beat the Porsche that was leading our category up the mountain by 4 seconds! I was blown away and Spada said to me at the end “Told you it was my mountain!” We went off to replace the two rear rotors for the next day!

I awoke on Sunday morning with a clearer head of what I was tackling and a more focused approach. It was going to be bigger stages and more challenging roads. The field of Targa cars was still looking strong with hardly any crashes or mechanical failures on Day 1. We headed off to Parc Ferme to prep the car and fill our water bottles. We were greeted by Paul Dowie to hear that his car was not going to be competing he had a diff issue and he was out of the rally. We lined up and slowly started making our way down to the Time Control to be released to head off for the first stage Mirimbah. We were greeted near the Time Control by Perni to tell us they were probably out of the Rally due to the Porsche’s central locking system going berserk on the passenger door and not unlocking .This is unsafe and a risk for the navigator if there is a fire or a crash and he couldn’t get out of the car. So it was down to us, Hendy and Stevens to battle it out to see who would get Second and Third Place. We knew First place was out of reach as a Harbord Porsche’s had been flying through the stages. It was hard to believe as we hadn’t seen the car once on Day 1 or even in the initial line up. It’s as if he came out of no where. But the driver has a circuit racing background so he knows how to drive.
Day 2 stages were Mirimbah, Jamison which is about 13kms then the Big River stage which is 31kms long and the longest stage in THC! After that is the Skyline stage which was only about 8kms long and then lunch. I was dreading the Big River Stage and Sunday was proving to be the hottest day out of the whole competition. We flew through Mirimbah and Jamison Stages but Stevens was gaining on us and Spada wanted to make up some time. Then it was time for the Big River stage. I was absolutely delighted to see the officials had made another sign at the Time Control to greet me! I gave them all a big smile and wave to say Thank you!

I had managed to stay on my notes through out the whole day even with the way I was feeling. I think the heat and lack of food was starting to take a toll. Plus I was putting immense pressure on myself not to mess up again! By the end of skyline I was feeling very light head and glad to see it was the Lunch Break. We parked the car and I went for a walk to get some air and stretch my legs. I was pumping the water in to me and had half a sandwich to see if that would help. I even took some more Kewell’s to settle my stomach. I started to feel better after about 10 minutes and went to sit down on the table with Jim Richards, Barry Oliver, A mustang driver and Spada. Me being my up front self I asked the drivers including Jim if they had seen the sign at the start of the Big River Stage?? They had all said Yes, We were wondering who that was! I then went on to tell them that it was me they were referring to. Jim Richard piped up and said have you just had Twins? I politely told him “No, I haven’t Jim they are ref erring too”…..and I looked down at my chest! The boys started to laugh and said “Oh the Puppies “I smiled and started to laugh with them. I said the officials are very funny and are friends of mine from when I was in the Zero Car at Targa Tasmania. It was a bit of highlight for us to have a laugh with Jim. One of the THC officials started to walk over to us all sitting on the table and told us there was no rush to leave as the first two stages after lunch have had problems and we would be leaving later than the time they first gave us initially. We all got up and started to walk over to our cars to prep them for the final stages of the event. It was 5 minutes later that we were giving the ok to leave. We discovered that were starting to have a fuel pump issue as they were getting extremely noisy and started to cut out intermittently on left hand corners. We needed the Evo to last to the end. Spada started to nurse the car a little to try and help it make it to the end. The Skyline2 stage had a massive line up to start. Even with the break and the extra time we waited. The helicopter was flying over head and we gave them a wave. A driver and navigator in a WRX a few cars back from us started break dancing on the road for the Helicopter film crew! We went to stand in the shade and talk to the locals that had come out of there houses to see the rally cars. The Vanderbergs are Targa veterans and have traded there Evo 9 in for a sponsored Mazda Rx8. Spada thought it would be funny to stir me up by getting there attention. These are the guys that wrote the notes I was using and didn’t like very much. So I called Spada bluff and when Simon came over to us I told him I didn’t like the 1-6 notes very much! Spada wasn’t that impressed and was a bit shocked I had said it….I was like you dared me! The Vanderberg’s had been having issue the whole two days with boost leaks and intercooler pipes blowing off. We let them in front of us as Spada doesn’t like the pressure and it can be a bit hard on some stages with cars coming up so fast behind you and you not seeing them and then they whizz past you as if you are standing still.

The line was starting to move and we were creeping up to our turn. We started and it was fast and the surface was starting to break up on these stages as well the gravel didn’t seem to matter to much on Day 2. We flew through it and started the count down. We had 3 stages to go and both of us were not looking forward to Eildon which is Big River Backwards. We found that there was a massive line up again but all the cars were quiet. A serious accident must have happened. I heard cars coming from behind us and was a bit baffled as all the competitors were in the line. It was FIV vehicles and ambulance that were heading to Time Control. We were one of the last cars in the line and only half of the competitors had done the Eildon stage so far. We had been standing there for at least 5 minutes when we got the call that they were making the stage a drive through as it was going to take to long to clear the accident. Spada and I jumped into the car and were a little relieved that we didn’t have to do the big stage. It was a parade of cars all going about 50kms an hour until we got to the wreak. A R34 GTR had come in to hot into a corner and lost control and speared into an embankment and ended up landing on its side. The Navigator and Driver where both taken to hospital with non life threatening injuries. The Car was a write off nearly every panel on it was damaged and was covered in fire extinguisher dust as it had caught on fire also. There were only two stages to go Mount Terrible and Mount Buller. The Fuel pumps where getting noisier as we transported to the second to last stage. We breezed through the stage even passing the Vanderbergs on it as they had problems again with boost leaks. It always gives you a little bit of a thrill passing someone on a stage. It means your fast haha!

So it was time to transport to the last stage. The transport was at least 50kms and the fuels pumps where whinging like two mosquitoes trying to wrestle in a tin can. We were nearly there, nearly at the bottom of the stage and we had the fast guys just behind us and the sweep car! We stopped just before the Time Control and turned the car off to get suited up and helmets on and to give the fuel pumps a rest. The officials were pushing us to line up but we weren’t ready! Spada went to turn on the car. He has two switches that he has to switch up and then push the button to start. This is all because a service crew member once took off with a driver’s keys to the rally car and he lost the rally because he couldn’t get in to his car let alone start it. But what do you think happened next. We were so close to the end, the times were in seconds of one another!The switch that turns the fuel pumps on Broke! Spada was flicking it like a mad man but it was limp, there was nothing! We still had the officials calling us to the line! Spada yells to me to open the glove box and get the race tape out. He wrestled with the switch panel to try and get it off to check out what has happened with the wiring behind and if we could hot wire it. The officials said the cars are leaving in one minute intervals instead of 30 seconds but you have to hurry! We madly scrambled to hot wire the fuel pumps. Spada gets the two wires and touches them together we have Mosquitoes!!!!! Yay!!! I madly rip off pieces of duct tape to tape the wires together and out of the way. We get strapped in and line up with only moments to spare. We only had 3 cars behind us plus the sweep! We started and the first part of the Mt Buller stage is very high speed. Spada was on a mission to make up time and to get to the top before anything else can go wrong! I was calling a 5R and I panicked that Spada didn’t hear me I said it again 5R but he wasn’t slowing. I then call “Woah!” Spada told me off for saying “Whoa” and he was right I get a bit nervous with the high speed stuff as the 5R isnt that anymore if you don’t slow down enough. We pushed on up the mountain. I stayed on my notes and we even passed a car on the way up. We came in to the last corner a TL3 so hot that the EVO was understeering the whole way around the corner. I was crossing my fingers that it would finally grip and take us to the flying finish and we wouldn’t be side swiping the stone wall on the driver’s side. The crowd loved it thought we were spectacular drifting on the last corner. We made it through to the flying finish and to control to be told immediately to follow the official and line up in the Scrutineering Bay. Of course after the massive push we made up the hill and turning the car off instantly. The temperature went through the roof and spewed out half of its coolant. The thermo fans suddenly decided they didn’t want to work either and Spada had to plead with them to come on. Steve had lost an engine before like this and didn’t want it to happen again! It was such a relief to finish! I had done much better on Day 2 but the funniest news was yet to come! Who placed where?? Did Hendy beat us? It took the officials at least 20 minutes to sort out the times. While we were waiting the last few cars that were behind us where coming in. The White Hot Lamborghini was on Fire! They had an oil leak that day but thought it was fixed. It sparked on the last bit of the Mt Buller Stage and came up the mountain to the TL3 in a blaze of fire out the back end! By the time it reaches the Scrutineering Bay it was a smouldering mess. The driver and navigator where in high spirits despite the face they just had one of the most expensive BBQs around and laughing about the experience to the TV Crew interviewing them.

The Times were announced the Porsche was in First Place!
Tim Hendy was in Second Place!
Spada and Nicholson were in Third Place!

What was the difference in time you ask…….1 SECOND! We were off SECOND PLACE BY 1 SECOND!
Tim couldn’t believe it and either could we! We all shook hands and congratulated each other. It was time for the podium and a big first for me! I finally have a Targa Plate and a Medal to say I finished!!

Stay Tuned for more Adventures from Spada and me as we will be taking the Evo to Targa Wrest Point in Late January!

Targa High Country is a brand new tarmac rally. The guys at Octagon that make the fantastic event called Targa Tasmania happen every year have now branch out to new country. They have crossed the seas to the mainland, to the Victorian snow fields and to one of the best roads and scenic areas I have been fortunate to visit in Australia it’s called MT BULLER!!! Octagon set up a three day tarmac rally through out the townships below Mt Buller and the great road itself up the mountain!
To end the rallying year for 2010 I thought I would go out with a bang! I had a feeling I was going to experience something new with this last rally for the year. I put the feelers out to get a new ride for THC. Jenna answered the call with telling me about a driver called James who was looking for a Navigator for his Late Classic 1973 Porsche 911 RS. I jumped at the opportunity as I always do and took him up on his offer. I checked to see what type of events James had done in the past. He had done a bit of racing in Australia, Overseas and was Targa Tasmania veteran.

Leading up to the event the correspondence between James and me had only been over email. He lives in Canada at the moment and has another residence in Melbourne which is where his Porsche lives. James was only flying in to Australia for the week to do the Rally and to see family and friends and then fly back to Canada. We were speaking quite a bit over email with working out pace notes and when I was going to fly in to Melbourne.
We decided to go with 1-10 pace notes which I was more than comfortable with. James decided it was best to do recce before the event. So with my flights booked I flew into Melbourne on the Wednesday night to be picked up in another Porsche! I was starting to get the feeling James liked Porsches! This one was a Turbo 911 in stunning red and a convertible! He picked me up with my massive bag in tow. It was a bit hilarious shuffling the bags around in the tiny Porsche. We crammed them in and jumped into the little car for the 2 1/2hr drive to Mansfield from Melbourne Airport. I awoke bright eyed the next morning for recce. We had downloaded the recce notes from the THC website. We managed to do recce of all the stages in one day. The longest stage was 28.3km. The way they planned THC was in the morning you go through and do 3 stages on the one road and when you get to the end .We have a go lunch stop and then turn around and do the three stages again backwards. I was confident with following the notes and getting a feel for James driving that we were going to go well together. So with recce done and dusted and happy with how we went we drove up to top of Mt Buller to the 4 story lodge we were staying in. I really love the feel of Mt Buller and hope to come back one day and ski when it’s all white with snow. James actually found a patch of snow for me to see as I have never seen or touched it before. Mt Buller really gives you that feel your on top of the world!

There was going to be a Street stage for the Prologue. I like how Targa does this as a nice stepping stone into the event on the Friday afternoon. It’s great to see all the locals come out to watch the glorious cars! Have a chat to you and the kids were getting there posters autographed. We were mid pack for the start of the street stage and it was great fun flying through. James was amazed that I could wave to the spectators while calling notes. We got through the stage with no problems except for the back end of the car stepping out quite a bit but you get that with cold tyres. I was used to James driving after that stage. He was happy with my calling and after saying hello to the locals and a good dinner with some funny stories we drove up the gorgeous road to the top of Buller to have a good night sleep and get ready for the big day ahead.

The Saturday and Sunday both had 7stages per day and after doing the reece we found the stages to be very fast. A lot of nice smooth 8 or 9 grade corner at the start and then the stage would come into tight twisty stuff that makes you stand up and pay attention and then finish off with very fast flowing corners at the end of the stage again. The Saturday stages where Mirimah, Barwite, Tolmie and Whitfield which then turned into King Valley, Powers Lookout and Hathill in reverse ending with transport back to Mt Buller and the last stage going up the awesome road!
So first stage Mirimbah was 6.7km long and it was hard for me to get my head around the stage due its going down the Mt Buller road! Which is kind of unheard of until the Targa crew came along. So it’s a fast flowing stage as the bottom of Mt Buller was always 6 or 7 level corner with some 3R and 3L thrown in for good measure and then 9 and 10s corners at the end. We went well through it and James and I both said it was a fast stage! We felt good and were on a roll. We transported to Barwite stage which is just outside Mansfield on the road out towards Whitfield. Barwite was only a 6.72km stage. Was a nice twisty one to set us in the mood! I liked the little stages to get myself back into the groove as I had been out of the navigating seat since May! Tolmie/Powers Lookout was going to be the longest stage on Saturday with being 16.28km I found it a bit more sweeping corners with a few tight ones thrown in. Whitfield/Kings Valley was my favourite all day with it being 8.57km long and sweeping corners. Targa High Country was shaping up to be a very fast event and it pushed your senses, reactions and wit to the fine point. As many had found out on the first day there was a few offs and breakages with cars and engines through out the day. We ended the day with the best stage Mt Buller and I was buggered by the end of it. Plus it was freezing up the top of Mt Buller with it just being just at the end of snow season. So with Saturdays stages in mind we debriefed and set up where we needed to do our fuel stop for Sunday and headed to bed. Fuel is a major factor when doing Targa events and setting up when and where to fill up or top up. You really need to think about it and put in a plan of action for your crew and driver.

Sunday stages started again with Mirimbah and then transporting the total opposite way from Saturday’s stages. We went through Mansfield to head to Jamieson stage which is 10.32 km long and very twisty stage with lots of 4 and 5 grade corners. It was setting us up for the Big River stage being 28.22km long and very tight and the biggest one in the whole event! I was overwhelmed by the fantastic welcome I got from the Big River Official start crew. If you remember from my Targa Tasmania story I made friends with the officials of the event and I found out the boys hadn’t forgotten me from May! They made a big sign from a under sheet of metal that had fallen off a car on the start line. They thought they would make good use of the sign with a big welcome to me and the “Twins”. I found it very funny and was impressed I was remembered! We finished off the morning with the 8.32km Skyline stage and this one started off tight and then went into sweeping corners in the middle to end with tight stuff.

I asked my SSCC Mates Patrick and Chris at lunch if they had seen my sign! They laughed and said was “That YOU!!!” The boys were doing well in the Black HSV. It was great to have some of the SSCC Tarmac crew there at THC. Crowe and Bourke were experiencing overheating problems on the Saturday but with service crew working on it till dark she was running a lot better on the Sunday! Spada and Condon where there as well in the Evo 6 and were at the pointy end of the field which was great to see. Poor Christine (the navigator) had a cold and was fighting to keep her voice so they were down to sign language in the afternoon of Sunday stages! I was deeply saddened to see Matt Walsh and Anthony turn up at lunch stop – CAR LESS!!!! The Yellow M3 BMW had a big off at 130km on a 8L corner on the skyline stage the car was wedged under a tree. It smashed the car up pretty bad but the boys where ok and got out with a busted twist and a few cuts to the face from the windscreen shattering. Spada and Condon where the first car on to the scene they waited for back up and checked the boys were ok. They then took off to make sure the finishing crews knew they needed help. The skyline stage was downgraded due to all the accident and the big river stage which turned into Eildon turned into the first stage for us after lunch. Cars were off everywhere on the stage they were on their roofs, stuck in ditches and off in the bush. When you go through the stage you look up to make sure the crew have the “OK” sign up and if they do you keep going. But I make a point of trying not to look at the crash car as if you focus on it to much that’s where your car will end up too.

We started off well in Eildon stage and were on the pace we caught up to a Porsche 966 that had started in front of us and past him with no problems. We had been doing that a bit through out the event as we had passed a few cars on two stages on the Saturday as well. We were nearing the end of the stage when we caught up to another car. Past him with no worries but about 5 corners after that we came into a 5L and hit some gravel that was on the road and lost control of the car and went up the right side of an embankment. James was quite upset and was trying to get the car going again. We had hit it pretty hard and didn’t know at the time but broke the steering arm on the driver side. The car was having trouble starting as it rolled down the embankment into the ditch. James managed get the car going again and rolled around the next corner which was a 4R but the engine gave up after that and it didn’t want to fire. We rolled to a halt on the left hand side of the road and I made sure we got the cones out to warn on coming drivers and the “OK” sign so they don’t stop. It was hard going through all the emotions and seeing the driver upset cause of all the work gone into getting to the event to be over by one mistake when we hadn’t finished yet and weren’t ready to stop. James tried a few more time to get the car going again but it just didn’t want to fire. It wasn’t until the end of the stage when the last car had gone through and we were pushing the car down the road with some helpers that we realised the steering was broken. Then the “accident bus” turns up! It’s the bus that picks up all the driver and co-driver that have had offs throughout the stage. We started hearing all the stories of the other drivers. I think James and I came out of our accident mildly considering the stories we were hearing. A crew in a Gemini had an off and had landed on its roof. The tow truck that came to recovery it in the morning was in the process of picking it up and putting it on the back of the tray and hadn’t mounted it correct only the back of the tray to only see the Gemini toppled off the back of the tray down the embankment further then where he was the first time and that’s where the Gemini stayed for the afternoon. He had to have one of the best stories I had heard in a long time. But all the drivers were commenting that this was the “sad bus”…I piped up as I usually do and said “No! This is the bus of AWESOME! We tried to do awesome things and they just didn’t turn out the way we hoped!” They all laughed and felt a bit better about themselves I hope!

It was my first off in a rally ever and it was a bit surreal. I guess it was the best way to go off if it’s going to happen. As minimal damage to you and the car. I was glad that I had the Hans device as I reckon my whiplash would have been much worst. I partied that night with all the Tarmac guys and told our story a few times as they were telling me there’s. Everyone had a story to tell with the new event and I was most upset to find out we were running third in class up un till our accident. I thought the Saturday stages where the best out of the whole event. The showroom class found the THC event the most hard with running out of brakes by the afternoon due the stages begin very hard on brakes in the tight twisty stuff. It is a great event and I hope it makes it to 2011 and I get to experience it again. Over and out from the Tarmac Rally Crew!

Well the title says it all…Wakefield Park in August is “Snow Bunny Time” to me! Anyone that has been there knows how bitterly cold it can be! But there is a twist to this story already! It seems that Georgie and I brought the sunshine with us! The State Champs had glorious weather all weekend which completely ruined my idea for snow bunning it up!

Justin, Georgie, Scotty and I all drove down the Friday night. Now Georgie and I have sort of started a tradition. We like to get roast pork rolls with extra crackling and gravy at one of the servo stops on the way to and from Wakie. We have got Justin hooked on them as well but Scotty not so much. Scotty took it upon himself to say “I reckon they won’t have Pork for us”! I was in disbelief in what Scotty was saying and told him “If you have jinxed us your in sooo much trouble!” After Justin felt it was necessary to scare me and nearly miss the turn off for the servo we rocked in and you wouldn’t believe it! Scotty was RIGHT!!!!! Much to my disappointment there was NO PORK! I had been so looking forward to a roast pork roll. We made the decision to go on the other side of the Highway to see if they had pork…This is how “full on” we get about these roast rolls! We all piled into my car and I proceeded to race around to the other side, much to Justin discontent and all I could hear was him giving me driving lessons from the back seat! Guess what happened next??? NO PORK on the other side either!!!! “OMG!!!! “ So in the end we settled for beef and I will now stop talking about the food and start talking about the motor racing!

We got to stay in a proper house and I was surprised to see how many motels were booked out for the weekend. I don’t think I will go into the story of what happened Friday night. But let’s just say Black& Pink bunny ears, Jim Beam and fishnet stocking are a hilarious mix and equal to good times in a house! haha

Georgie and I rocked up to Wakefield Park on Saturday morning with coffee/hot chocolate in hand and the place was bursting at the seams with race cars, transporters and trailers. With 10 categories running on the weekend you could understand why the circuit was heaving with cars ready to race. We went and set up camp with some of our favorite people the Southern Sporting crew. The Streets – John and Peter were there with the White Evo 3! It was Pete’s turn driving the EVO this weekend and he was doing an amazing job! We found Phillip (Kingsley) Lake in the carport opposite the Streets camp with his yellow Escort! This was my first time meeting Kingsley and it was an absolute pleasure. He did a fantastic job battling it out with another escort all weekend in the Under 2 Litre Class. Kinglsey sure knows how to block a car behind him and in the 2nd race they were having a fantastic tussle amongst themselves. Greg Tasker was doing a “come back” to the track with his Radical SR3 competing in the Sports Car class. It was good to see him back as last time we saw him was a few months ago in a cloud of smoke off the main straight at Eastern Creek with a blown engine so it was good to see him out amongst them all. John Walker was also making an appearance this weekend in the HQ Category. He said he was having trouble with the car and found a blown head gasket so had to make quick repairs on Saturday night with a “el cheapo“ head gasket from Repco and it lasted all of Sunday for him and reckons it preforms better than the expensive ones! We found Ryan Jagger also across from the Streets camp in the carports. Steve Jagger was doing some minor tweaking of the car Saturday morning and proceeded to grumble to me of the very heavy traffic in the practice groups the day before which wasn’t fair but Wakefield Park did try and fix that up to the best of their ability.

So with the Hello’s out of the way and the cars tweaked and prepped we waited for the groups to be called up to the grid in their respective categories for qualifying! I don’t know what it was about this weekend but it was on for young and old in every category. The grids where all very entertaining to watch and it must be due to the race meetings being so far apart for the competitors that they are just itching to get out there and have some fun! I must admit that I have a few favorite categories that I prefer to watch which are the Over and Under 2Litre classes and the Radicals! I was delighted to see that David Loftus was at the front of the grid in his “girly” (His words not mine) Toyota Starlet and he was hungry to chew up and spit out the current lap record for the Over 2 litre class at Wakefield Park! I had the chance to get to know the BSM crew over the weekend and they are a very professional, dynamic and funny bunch of guys! So with the grids set, Scotty camera ready for action and Georgie and I looking on in anticipation the Weekend was set for some awesome racing!

All the SSCC members qualified well and trouble free. Race 1 for Greg Tasker was great as he moved up to position 10th after qualifying in 13th and was peddling around doing 1.05’s in the 14 lap race (I wish I could do that). John Walker moved up to 4th Position after qualifying 5th in the HQ’s and doing low 1:18s on the track. Under 2 Litres category were all having their own little battles and Ryan Jagger held his 4th position throughout the race that he qualified in and kept the likes of Geoff Fear in his Nissan Pulsar at bay. Geoff was experiencing a miss firing issue all weekend and in his last race unfortunately blew a hole in the sump on the warm up lap. Kingsley in the yellow Escort did a cracking job of moving up 3 positions to 16th in his first race after qualifying in 19th position and cruising around doing 1:12s. Justin McClintock in the Sparco Toyota (Not a Lexus!) Altezza held his 11th position that he qualified in and was making the Altezza so wide on the circuit that Gillespie in the Honda civic had no chance of getting passed him. The Over 2 litre race was incredible, Lofty was driving the little starlet on 3 wheels around most of the track and due to not having much time to adjust suspension settings before the race the little starlet was bouncing off the ripple strips. Lofty experienced yet another gearbox breakage on Friday practice and spent all day repairing that instead of adjusting suspension settings. But there is a twist it seems that all that trouble was worth it. The gods were smiling and it wasn’t just down to his driving ability…Lofty broke the lap record by nearly a whole second, the previous record was a 1:06.2 and Lofty did it in a 1:05.53!!! (WOW!!!!!)And to top it off he won the race as well…I don’t think a Saturday at Wakefield Park gets much better than that! Pete Street qualified in 10th position and gained 2 positions off the start to 8th place. The Evo is such a rocket in its 4wd mode off the line and Pete soon found himself huddled up in a pack of Commodores and was on the defensive blocking and weaving as the Holden’s kept trying to attack from behind. For the first day of racing it ended well and with the sun setting we all decided to head off and have some nice dinner and stir up the other drivers on what was going to eventuate the next day!

I found Sunday morning to be déjà vu as Georgie and I rocked up to the track with coffee/hot chocolate in hand again and seeing all the hustle and bustle. There was going to be two races today and everyone had a plan! The looking of swiggly lines on the data logs the night before. The friendly stirring up of the guys that will be sitting next to you on the grid is all part of grass root motor racing and it’s what makes it great!

Race 2 was a bit slower for Greg Tasker in the Radical and he was still holding his 10th position but due to some oil down on the track from the last race his best lap time was a 1:07. (I still wish I could do that) John Walker on the other hand didn’t have a very good time at all and fell back to 12th position. Ryan in the bright green corolla was pulling out the tactical moves and went up to 3rd position! Gillespie in the Honda Civic managed to get pass Justin much to Georgie and my dissatisfaction and finished in 11th place. Kingsley was making the escort as wide as a house on the circuit to block the other escort been driven by Craig Wildridge. Kingsley wasn’t going to let him pass and finished in 13th Position and getting into the 1:11s! Now you seriously wouldn’t believe it that Lofty wouldn’t be already satisfied with his winning lap record the day before, but David Loftus in the Toyota Starlet wanted to go faster and with a new pair of boots on the “girls car” he was set to try and see if he could do it… So what do you think happened? Do you think Lofty did it? Well I will tell you that later as for the moment Pete Street in the glimmering White Evo 3 is more important in the battle of 4wd vs 2wd! Streety managed to gain another 2 positions in this 10 lap race with those pesky Holden’s nipping at his heels throughout the race and he finished in 6th place doing great times of 1:08.

It was time for the Trophy races to wrap up the awesome weekend of racing. I got to catch up with Tasker before his race and see how he was going. His MX5 is nearly ready to be brought out so look out for that in the next few months. Greg was back to 1:05s and came in at 13th place in the Radical in his last race for the day. Walker in the HQ was back on top of things and came 8th in his last race. Jagger held his 3rd position and Justin was battling it out with Gillespie throughout the whole 12 laps. Gillespie just had that ” little bit longer legs” on Justin from Turn 2 to Turn 4 and he couldn’t get passed him even though there times were so close. Kingsley went back to position 16th with a 1:12.3.The Over 2 litre trophy race and I haven’t forgotten to tell you! Did Lofty break the lap record in the previous race??? To answer that question! YES!!! He managed to get another .2 of a second out of the starlet and re-broke his already awesome lap record with a 1:05.30!!!!!But did Lofty line up on the grid for the last race? We watch the Over 2 litre cars drive out of the marshaling area and Lofty did a burnout off the line in pit exit and saw that he only left one black mark instead of two. He knew he had broken a drive shaft. So he bowed out of the last race and never lined up on the grid. Much to everyone else’s sigh of relief I’m sure (haha). Streety was sitting on the grid and waiting to pounce. He was off and doing very well until he had a spin half way through the race and moved back to 10th position on the grid where he stayed for the rest of the race.
What a weekend for warriors!!! Parts were broken, Tyres were spun and lap records were smashed! Sound like an awesome weekend of racing to me and hope to see you all again at the next round in October!

P.s Scotty and I attempted to get a roast pork roll on the way home and you wouldn’t believe it!!!! Scotty jinxed me again! No Pork AGAIN, They only had beef! I think I will have to invest in a sock for Scotty next trip down to Wakefield Park with me!

The last two years Superlap has been hosted at Oran Park Raceway and it was getting bigger and better every time since it started in 2008, it was with great sadness seeing Oran Park closed forever at the end of January and with that Superlap needed a new home. The promoter Ian Baker from Hi Octane Racing had more in mind for the 2010 Superlap. Yokohama was once again on board to sponsor the great event. Ian, CT from Yokohama and their Crew set off on an overseas adventure and searched high and low for some of the best Time Attack cars in the world. Their first stop was Japan to find the Panspeed RX7, R Magic RX7, Tomei Cusco WRX and the record holding Tsukuba Time Attack Cyber Evo. Then they moved on to America where they invited the Sierra Sierra Evo. With locking in all these magnificent cars they headed back home to start preparations for the World Time Attack Challenge.

I had been anticipating the launch of the 2010 event and had been bugging Ian and Nathan on the car forums about when the details were coming out. Ian & Nathan saw my enthusiasm and invited me to come on board and be a part of World Time Attack Challenge for 2010! I was ecstatic by the invitation cause this motorsport event is right up my alley with the line-up of JDM cars entered, the glitz and glamour (as I like to call it) of all the trade stands in the pits and the level of entertainment that was envisioned and was going to come to life over the two days. I wasn’t going to miss it for the world! I attended a meeting at the Yokohama Headquarters to find out what was needed to make WTAC bigger and better than ever before. We went through the fundamentals and I was given the role of organising all the motorsport crews and volunteers needed to make the event go ahead. It was new territory for all of us as the event was going to be held at Eastern Creek International Raceway for the first time and I was taking on a lot more responsibility than ever before and was ready for the challenge.

I started recruiting people straight away and went seeking volunteers for Flag Points, Marshalling & Crowd Control. I booked Timing, Fire Crew (Firechase), The Recovery Team and I was going to be Race Control. Jeff Bolous has been the Clerk of Course for the event from the start and was going to be the first time for me working with him. Jeff booked the Medical crew and we were set and ready for the epic two days ahead. I was very excited to get a call from Ian to tell me the news that the international cars had landed on Australian soil. He invited me to come and have a sneak peek at the cars and I tell you now that Ian did not have to ask me twice. I was out to the site in a lightning flash. It was starting to become very real for all involve when you see that container door open up and the gorgeous race car sitting so loud and proud inside it makes all the effort worthwhile. The teams started to unload the cars out of the containers and to meet the Japanese & American teams in person before the event was out of this world. The language barrier with the Japs didn’t seem to matter much as we were all so excited to see what was beginning to unfold around us. The amount of gear that each team brought was incredible and the cars were so tightly packed that it was a delicate job to get them out. There were spare engines, body panels, turbo’s and pretty much anything that was on the car they had brought a spare for. There were a few Australian competitors hanging around that day and came to have a look at the competition and were pleasantly surprised at the level they were going up against. Garth Walden has been the raining champ for the last two years at Superlap and was going to be driving the Tilton Evo once again to defend his title. It seems the theme to put a fox amongst the pigeons is an understatement with such an exhilarating driver like Tarzan Yamarda at the realm of the Tomei Cusco WRX and the Cyber Evo. Superlap is the hunting ground for the innovative driver to step out of one time attack car and into another in the Pro and Open Classes. Tarzan had a strategy already planned it felt before he even set foot on our great country which was to give nothing away and playing who’s hiding the timing beacon on both practice days leading up to Time Attack. To see these magnificent cars up close that I could actually touch them and smell them was surreal and there was no better displayed car at WTAC than the Sierra Sierra Evo with it’s pristine carbon fibre body panels and red &black colour scheme it was simply stunning and was definitely going to be a heavy weight contender on both days. I am trying not to forget the Aussie and I was happy to see that David Loftus was back piloting the mighty BSM R32 GTR with a new paint scheme as well it was all pretty in blue! Jose Fernandez was also a very different flavour entered in Superlap with his freshly built Ex Ford Falcon V8 Supercar hosting a Turbo 6cylinder engine and it was packing a whole load of punch!


It was the Thursday night before the event and I was getting nervous and excited all at the same time. I had done my best leading up to the event to have everything in place. Georgie and I tried to calm our nerves and get some shut eye before we got up at the crack of dawn to get ourselves ready and off to Superlap by 7am. We had to meet and greet all the officials on Gate 7 and we were quite surprised to see queue’s already. We helped the gate officials get the pit crews and crowds into the grounds before the event started at 9am. We both headed to the Tower to get our key officials their radio and brief them of their duties and the place they would be seeing all the action. I found this particular morning a very trying time for myself. I learnt a lot from the experience, on how I handle pressure and what I need to put in place for the next WTAC to make it smoother flowing for all. I would like to Thank Georgie and all the Officials that helped out at WTAC I couldn’t of done it with out you guys! . But enough about the logistics to make an event work let’s get down to the fun stuff.

The Pro cars were the first class out and I was sick with anticipation of what the international cars would do. Being there first time out on this circuit and up against Aussie veterans like Garth Walden, David Loftus and Warren Luff. The Internationals were strutting their stuff and it was David Empringham that put down the fastest time in the Evo with a 1:32.2480 he set the pace for the Class. The Cyber Evo nearly destroyed their engine trying to match the time Emperingham had laid down for the lead. They worked overnight to fix the engine and went out the next morning smashing Mark Skaifes V8 supercar record for the circuit and putting down a 1:30.5870! The Aussies were battling hard to try and keep up and laying down excellent times for themselves but couldn’t get close to the Internationals top times!

I found myself a lot more relaxed on the Saturday and was enjoying the event. Georgie and I popped out of the control tower while the drift battles where on to go and catch up with some of the SSCC members that were in the Open Class Category. I was upset to hear that John Bright with his freshly built R32 GTR was out of the race with the engine loosing compression in cylinder 6. He wasn’t overly impressed either with all the time and prep that had gone into the car to get it to the event and it was on fire too with setting a blistering time of 1:41.42 on his first and only session. John is going to be one to watch next year when he comes back with a vengeance! Craig Burgess in his R32 GTR set a time of 1:43:18 which was a Personal Best for him at Eastern Creek. Plus you couldn’t miss Mick Hiscoe in his Evo with fluro orange wheels and setting a fast pace behind Brighty with a 1:41.7830! Steve Spada thought he would give the Tarmac Rallying a break in the EVO 6 and put down a great time of 1:48.05. Beau Yates was also there and competed in the Drift Competition with his AE86 Sprinter and Won! Well Done Beau. I have gone for hot laps in that car and was outstanding but that’s another story for another time! With the day nearly coming to an end and the Pro cars were trying to better Yamada V8 record smashing time with no luck. Yamada in the Cyber Evo took first place closely followed by Empringham in the Sierra Sierra Evo for 2nd Place and Yamada in the Tomei Cusco WRX took 3rd Place. Warren Luff was the First Aussie over the line with 4th Place and only being a half a second behind Yamada in the WRX.

It was a sensational event and I learnt a lot from my experience and can’t wait to run it all again next year. We will be back bigger and better than ever and my fingers are crossed to have more international contenders to take on our Aussies in 2011! Please Click on the link for all the latest news on Superlap

I finally made it to Targa!!!!The whole reason I became a navigator back in 2009 was just so I could experience this event and I was here. This is the top of tarmac rallying and the stuff that happens you just couldn’t dream up. I felt very special when a good navigator mate (Daniel “the ladies man” Wilson) rang me and asked if I would like to navigate in the Zero Car. This is a bit of a privileged role and was a good eye opener for me to see how Targa runs behind the scenes. So with the fundamentals over and me locked in for the nav seat with Darren Fogarty from Victoria another rally driver I have never met and about to jump in a car with. I jumped on a plane and flew down to Tassie. It’s been awhile since I have graced my presence on Tasmania and was feeling good to be back.

I met up with Darren at Symonds Plains Raceway as Targa had put on a ride day for all the sponsors. I have never been to the track before and was a surreal experience it looks so small and not really a race track with its double apex and hairpin corners. Darren wasn’t what I expected either he looked like an IT guru not a rally nut but we got on great. I was excited to chat about what we had to do the next day. I would be navigating in a brand new Mazda 6 turbo diesel which sounds worse than they actually GO well until I get in the car but I will tell you that part later! I got to meet up with Craig Burgess & Patrick Bourke from SSCC with the all mighty GTR. They were having an issue with loss of oil pressure on the track which is so bizarre for this car to have issues like that but that was nothing to what was going to unfold for Craig & Patrick over the next 6 days. Thomas from BT Motorsport and Ivo had come along for the ride as Craig’s service crew and were racking there brains as what could be wrong with the car. They started testing the flow of oil from the oil cooler lines and it wasn’t flowing as it should. Craig worked out that the only thing that had changed on the car before it came to Tassie was the oil and filter. They worked out that the gauze in the filter was too fine and not letting the pressure and flow through properly. So now there was a mission to get a new filter on the car, Patrick found an “old mate” that had like 20 in his truck and was happy to give us one to use. There is one thing about the Tasmanian people they are more than happy to help you out and so incredibly friendly! So with the filter changed and the oil flowing like it should. Craig was out on the track to do some happy laps. I scored some hot laps and we ventured for the first lap and I was just a little bit scared as the track feels very high speed. You go flying down a straight to the hairpin as it dips down and around to the left then you rocked up pretty much off the clock to a sweeping right hander with bumps!!! Yes Bumps!! Then braking hard for the double apex left corners and back onto the straight past the pits. So once I had done it once and felt the GTR hold I was ok and giggling the rest of the way around the track on my hot laps! So with my awesome ride under my belt I was ready for the competition to start!

With just over 270 cars entered for the event it was going to have so many highs and lows for all involved! The array of cars that enter the event is incredible from your historic’s to your production cars to your highly modified and the highly expensive Lamborghinis and Ferraris. As I was checking out the competition in the Silverdome I bumped into another SSCC member Jeff Byrant from GT Motorsports. He was Service Crewing for Porsche GT2 and was going to hear all about the issues that his car was going to face through out the competition too. Jeff was a great help to Craig and crew throughout the competition and was much appreciated as Jeff is a bit of a Targa Vetran.
I was also going to be using 1-6 notes for the first time as a safety precaution as the zero car only goes at 70% through the course to check the stage after Double Zero and to tell all spectators, officials and competitors that the stage is now live and the first competitor car will be 3 minutes behind us and then all cars after are a 30 second gap.

Targa does a shakedown as the first day which is a town stage 50km outside of Launceston in Georgetown. The town stage is only about 4kms long and all marked out by arrows on boards and tape. You actually go through Georgetown’s main street and it was so fantastic! I was in “Ohhhhh” that they would actually let you do this! The spectators lined the streets and came out from there houses to see the cars fly through. It was a shake down for what was to eventuate and it was feeling awesome!
We lined up at the start tent and it was the first taste that the officials on Targa would get of me. I am now going to tell you how bad my ego can be but I became a bit of a highlight to all helpers involved as I like to make my job fun! I’m very friendly and love to have a laugh so as long as I get a smile off the volunteers that are working with me to make the event happen that’s enough to make my day. So with the jokes aside and double zero happy with the stage they called it code GREEN. Which means we get a start time and line up to go tearing through the stage ourselves. I started the countdown and with 10 seconds to go the emergency orange roof light goes on and the siren goes on. I tell you it feels like your about to chase a criminal 5,4,3,2,1….GO! Darren and I we where off and you could feel the body roll of the standard Mazda through the tight street course with no roll cage or harness mind you! I was bracing myself in the seat and trying to get my head around calling the 1-6 notes as well as checking the stage for anything dangerous. To see if we are happy with the condition of the surface to be dry, intermediate or wet! We are driving through the stage at 70% and just as we go around the tight 3 ½ left. Darren takes the car out wide to see how she handles but didn’t realise the spoon gutter came to an end and we hit the square gutter with the front driver’s wheel. He was quick thinking to stay on the right course and got off the square gutter in time for the sharp 1 ½ right hand turn. We managed to finish the stage and got our finish time. We drove up to a servo out of the way to check the car. We were both hesitate to get out of the car but got out and walked around to see a good size bubble in the tyre and some white scuff marks on the outside tyre wall of how much it had rolled on the sidewall. Must of looked pretty impressive as the phone calls started to come through “who the hell is driving the zero car??”“ He shouldn’t try to be Mark Webber you know!!” ha-ha. We decided it was best to be safe rather than sorry and changed the tyre. It felt good to be on the tools again as I hadn’t done it for a month or so when I last saved a girl on the side of the road. Dads should really teach there daughters to change tyres my mobile “angel” service is only on a part time basis!! haha

It seems we weren’t the only ones to have issues on the shake down stage with Burgess and Bourke having gearbox issues. The gearbox decided to get stuck and didn’t want to select gears correctly. They rolled through the finished line and still got to put down a half decent time even with the issues. They took the GTR back to the Silverdome to work on it and try and get it to select the gears correctly. Spada & Condon went well in the shake down also it was there first Targa and decided to start with RookieRally first so where only tackling the stages for 3 days in the awesome Evo 6. Some might not know the great story of this EVO. It seems to be a little Aussie Battler as last time it was in Tasmania early this year it got stolen from a security guarded yard. It was on a trailer and locked up but the crooks managed to cut through the fence and take the car away without anyone noticing. The only things the crooks didn’t realise were the power and the closeness of the rally community and how fast word travels. It went around like wildfire that the car had been taken and the Tassie guys were on the case. It was found 2 days later just down the road in a street still on the trailer with a tarp over it and not a scratch on it.
Day 1:
It was an early start for us and I was getting used to it as we are the second car on all the stages. I was my usual funny self with finding out and getting introduced to Mike (navigator) & Ed Ordinski Driver of the Double Zero car. This guy is an Australian Rally Champion and I have watched him fly though forest a few times through the years and here he was in front of me. I was a little taken back and started babbling “That’s Ed Ordinski, No way!” I proceed to go up and give him a big cuddle and stated “I’m hugging Ed Ordinski right now” So with the introductions over and my highlight at Targa in my mind we got into the Zero Car to have my first real taste of a Targa stage and I was ready. The drivers all get a start time to be at the start of the stage and have to make there own way with the roadbook. I got to try a different trip meter in the Zero Car and I like it a lot better than the Terratrip. It’s called a Monit and it’s a nice little easy to use unit. It looks a lot more modern than the other styles of trip meters I have seen and used. There is no silly calculation with this device it’s really wire in and away you go! The stages on the first day where all quiet short in the morning and then leading up to the slightly longer ones with Sheffield being the longest and Mersey lee being the one with the most carnage. The wet weather was playing games over Tasmania and was following Darren and myself around all day. The morning stages weren’t to bad a little damp but after we went through it was as if the heavens opened up for the entrants and raining on there parade! The best stage I found was Mersey lee as it had a wooden bridge half way through and even for us in the Mazda was really struggling for traction. It nearly put us into the side of the bridge at one stage and we weren’t the only ones to find this out. There were 6 entrants that made contact with the bridge due to not slowing down enough and 4 of them actually got wedged into the side of it and the tractor needed to pull them out. With all these incidents it holds up the day so there was a huge queue beginning to happen at the start of Mersey lee and Sheffield stages. We had finished the day and was radio to double back to the start of the Sheffield stage to recheck it due to Targa needing to open the road to get a school bus through. It was a bit of an effort to get back to the start of the stage with all the road closures and all we had was a map to work it out. The road book only tells you how to get to one stage to the next and home again. We made it and found out in the end we didn’t need to recheck the stage so I got to see the” starts” at Sheffield. We were at the back of the field with all the fast cars so there were some fantastic starts the Torana and Burgess’s GTR and the Lambo were some of my favourites! The R35 really let the Nissan side down with no launching but they are an automatic after all! Spada & Condon were putting up a great fight for the second day of competition in the Rookie Class and were in the Top 5 fastest times in most stages on the day. Burgess and Bourke were doing great as well with being in the Top 5 of fastest times in every stage of the day in there early modern class.

Day 2:
This day caught me way off guard with the first stage called “The Sideling”. It’s a very technical stage with lots and lots of calls close together. It’s very twisty and given the horrible weather was extremely slippery as well. It looked like going through a rain forest at certain parts and had a wooden bridge in the middle that was a bit tricky to get through with the slippery conditions and then you start heading back up over the hills to the end of the stage. I couldn’t believe that I came off my notes. We weren’t even going that quickly through the stage but I was lost and wasn’t sure where I had gone off. I must of gotten behind in the calling the notes as straight off the line was all 4 left,4 right,4 1/2 left, 4 1/2 right for about 1.5km which is a very busy stage!!I eventually found myself on the notes and got back to calling it right but was a little upset with myself that I was so caught out so quickly and found it tricky to come back on the notes. Was a very big learning curve for me and I need to be fresh and bright eyed for that stage next year! I wasn’t the only one that had trouble on that stage with Craig and Patrick starting off so well in the stage and hoping all the gremlins in the gearbox had been sorted until ¼ way through the stage the gear box broke again and was stuck in a safe position on the stage. They put the triangles out to warn oncoming drivers that the car was stopped on the side and they sat back and watch the rest of the entrants whoosh past them until it was time to pick up the car and get it to a workshop to fix it once again. The rest of the day was getting all the entrants warmed up for the tougher stages in the contest. We were travelling quiet a few kms around Launceston area. The longest stage for the day was Rossarden and was nice sweeping corners sort of stage. Spada & Condon had the best day with being in the top 3 fastest times for almost all the stages in the day in the Rookie Class. We had the day end at Longford another town stage and I found these the most fun with the crowds they draw and the naughty feeling you get by screaming through the streets in your race car!

Day 3:
Were more stages close to Launceston and travelling out to Devonport and then ending back in the Silverdome. We were averaging at least 8 stages through out the days and were now starting to do some of the stages backwards like Mt Roland which is Cethana tomorrow the opposite way. The day started out better as I wasn’t going to get caught off my guard like I did on “The Sideling” one of my least favourite stages at Targa now! I was getting better at my role as navigator in the Zero Car. Darren and I were getting on very well and having a laugh now and again in the car. I was mucking around with the start officials at each stage and making friends. I was a little shaken when I discovered that there are leeches in Tasmania…YES LEECHES! One of the start tent officials had been bitten by one and was bleeding profusely from pulling it off his leg! Glad the medical team where on site to tend to the wound. But due to hearing this horrible gossip and seeing the evidence for myself I invented the “leeches dance” as I wasn’t going to pull my sockets up over my jeans and look that silly. I proceeded to hop around side to side and taking each shoe off the bitumen at a time like a mad woman. Darren said if you’re that worried about it just stay in the car which I did decide to do as much warmer in there. At least it was an entertaining morning, as you would imagine the officials all stick together and as I got to the next stage they wanted to see my leeches dance. They assured me that there were no leeches at that particular stage so I obliged them with my very famous dance that was going around the Targa family like wild fire! Craig and Patrick were back on there game with the gearbox fixed and them in the top 5 times in there early modern class on each stage for the morning. They put down the fastest time for the “Caveside & Quamby Brook” stage for there class as well which was fantastic to see and lifted the spirits of the team since the days leading up to now had been a bit disappointing. The Mt Roland stage was the highlight of the day with an oil spill and fuel spill on the stage about ½ way through and so many of the cars spinning off and other trying to miss them so the stage was downgraded to a drive through which was much to the relief of everyone involved.

Day 4:
This day was sending us out of Launceston to Ulverstone to Strahan with some of the biggest transit stages to get us there. I was getting excited to see more of the Tasmanian countryside and go to the west where they say it has its own set of weather. I found this extremely funny as the Tasmanians like to feel bigger than they are. I was picking on some of there ideals and they weren’t impressed by it at all. Burgess & Bourke were on fire for the first stage “Mole Creek” and put down the fastest time in the early modern class. The tension was going through everyone for the second stage of the day “Cethana” which had the oil spill and fuel spill on it the day before but everyone was assured that the spills had been cleaned up and we saw where they were on the stage when we went through and didn’t move an inch off our path so it was deemed safe. Burgess & Bourke did the 2nd fastest time for this stage also. But on the way to the 3rd stage “Gunns Plains” they had issues…Yet you guessed it!! The gearbox again!! I swear if I found the gremlin I was going to strangle it. The issues really start to take a toll on you when nothing seems to go right and all the preparation that goes into even getting to Targa in the first place! The boys weren’t giving up though and found another friendly workshop just outside of Burnie that had a hoist so they could pull the gearbox out to find out what was wrong with it this time. Darren and I were about to find out we had our own set of problems about to unfold. We got to the start of the 4th stage “Riana” and the Mazda was feeling ok until about ¾ through the stage that the Mazda suddenly lost power. Darren was telling me how it was feeling and we were worried we wouldn’t even be getting to the end. We started to panic a little with the first competitor car is only 3 minutes behind us and we were basically just rolling through the stage. We made it to the end and got our finish time and pulled over just after the finish tent and called in the problem to headquarters. This was going to cause a problem with having no Zero Car for the rest of the 5 stages that were on today heading to Strahan. We managed to get to the lunchbreak stop in Burnie and took it to the Mazda dealership workshop to see if we had blown an intercooler pipe off or try and find something obvious that was wrong. We got her up on the hoist and had a look around but couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary that could be wrong. The car was sounding ok and functioning ok but it was just down on power like the turbo had stopped boosting. The afternoon stages were all on the one road heading to Strahan and everyone decided not to risk putting the Mazda through that. We limped the Mazda to Strahan on the service road and Darren and I were throwing ideas around what could be wrong. I had put forward that an actuator could be faulty. We would find out that I was RIGHT! Yes I am going to take that one because I do like to feel a bit clever from time to time. We got into Strahan and Darren dropped me and our stuff off at the cabin to go and find the Mazda Service Crew to confirm what we thought it could be. Strahan is a gorgeous seaside town and was very picturesque and I envied the entrants that were staying in the elegant hotel on top of the cliff they had the best view of the ocean and main street of the little fishing town. I decided to use this time to catch up with friends have a few beers and hear some tall stories of the battles they had on the stages while checking out the cars in the service park. After a few hours had passed and I was full of all the wild stories I set off to find Darren and get the final verdict of what was going to happen to the poor Mazda. The crew had come to the conclusion that the actuator on the fins on the front wheel of the turbo was faulty and not letting the fins move correctly hence the lack of power if the fins where stuck in the wrong position. So that was the end of the mighty Diesel Mazda being the Zero Car. They was a lengthy discussion on who was going to take the place as zero car and crew it now. After another few hours it was decided that Darren would stay with the Mazda and take it to Hobart for the final day. The Public Relations Car and Crew would take over the role as Zero Car for the final day as they had lights, sirens and radio already installed in the Ford Falcon. Burgess & Bourke and Crew made it into Strahan late that evening with the GTR fixed once again and hoping that it would last the final day of competition.

Day5:
I jumped in with Burgess & Bourke’s Crew to help out for the final day of competition as was useless to stay with the Zero Car as Darren was going with the Mazda Service Crew for the day. The last day is tricky for the service crews with a very early start needed to get through the stages before the road closures. There is only one road into Strahan and one road out it seems. If we didn’t make it to the right stage at the right time we would be stuck until all the competition cars had been through. We started working out were it would be best to stop so Craig could refuel if needed. We worked out the best way was to get past the longest stage in Targa “Mt Arrowsmith” with it being 50kms long! We didn’t get to see the “Strahan” stage but Craig found this to be his favourite in the whole competition and the GTR was feeling good at that point with putting the 2nd fastest time down in his class. The next stage was “Queenstown” and it took my breath away it was like the great ocean road. Curling its way around the mountain and the view was outstanding it’s a very tight stage with no room for errors as having cliff on one side and guardrail on the other and Burgess and Bourke were passing slower cars to make up lost ground. Then it was time for “Mt Arrowsmith”. I was wondering how Patrick would go with this stage as I have found over my time being a nav that the longer stages you suffer from fatigue. Mt Arrowsmith stage has long straights and high speed sweeping corners and then tightens up as you go through the different Tasmania terrain. They made it to the end and we were waiting for them. Craig said he could smell gearbox oil at the last part of the stage. Tom looked under the car and told him the bad news” A gear has broken and the teeth have spat out the side of the gearbox and has put a hole in the side of the casing and is leaking oil”. So with that bad news Craig finally gave up and said “That’s it, Were OUT! I can’t do the rest of the stages to Hobart. Would rather save what’s left of the gearbox “All of us were a bit sad at the outcome but at least had gotten to the last day. Targa is definitely an achievement to finish and the rivals in the Porsche that Burgess and Bourke had been battling against in nearly every stage had problems on the last day too with an engine failure. We headed to Hobart with the GTR on the trailer to drop it off so we could attend the after party and see the champions on the podium. We reached it in time to see the winners up on the podium getting there plates and medals and the champagne flowing into the crowd and whoever else was beside them. Was a great sight and I have set myself a goal to at least get up on a podium in my navigating career and get a Targa Medal.
Spada & Condon left the event early in the week after Day 3 but came 2nd in the Rookie Rally!
Burgess’s team learned a lot from the experience and what is need next time they decide to conquer Targa. I found Targa absolutely extraordinary and it really is the thrills and spills in motorsport. I hope they never take this excellent event away from us! I can’t wait to do it all over again and fingers crossed I will be in a competition car next time and I get to experience that side of the event. Stay tuned for more epic adventures from the Tarmac Crew!!
Targa Tasmania Highlights Video 2010

Once upon a time there was a R32 GTR that wanted to conquer a mountain. Seems this GTR was getting a taste for the Mountain Sprints, The fresh clean cold air, the twisting road up through the lush green rainforests. The GTR had locked himself in for yet another journey up a magic mountain with his friends. So with his bags packed and tightly settled on the trailer we set off to begin the journey.

The GTR was the leader of the pack and trailing behind him was his friends Mr & Mrs Crowe in the Black HSV. Chris likes to think of himself as a bit of a pirate and has nicknamed the HSV “Black Pearl” I think it’s quite catchy but the cute RX7 driven by Patrick thought it was hilarious and had started picking on him already and we weren’t even there yet! So with the 3 musketeers ready we set off to pick up another car on the way. We had a “Darkside” join us half way through the journey the very well set up Mitsubishi EVO 9 driven by Rob and Josh Lindner.

The Lake Mountain district had been touched by fire and wasn’t looking the best at all a year on. The community was glad to have us there and welcomed us with opened arms. I hadn’t seen such devastation in such a long time. But enough of the dreaded stuff lets get back to the “little GTR that could!”
We all sign on and got scrutineered with out a problem. Was a shame to see that the competition was down from Mt Buller in December with only 41 entered for the Lake Mountain Sprint. The GTR wanted to check out the course so we took him for a lap up the mountain to check notes and see how the road felt under his brand new shoes! The view from the road was so blacken and mysterious all the tress were like skeletons standing in the breeze due to half of the forest not having grown back yet from the fires.. This road wasn’t as long as Mt Buller being only 9km’s but was still going to be an adventure in itself. The sky was very dark and we had done the run up the hill when we decided to turn around and go back down when the heavens decided to open up and the rain came bucketing down. There was a flood on the road in the matter of a minute and was hard to see. That’s when the GTR decided it didn’t want to go down the road anymore and just completely stopped. We had lost all power and he didn’t want to turn back on. Craig got out in the pouring rain and found that the fuse had blown and there was an electrical problem somewhere. We loaded the GTR back onto the trailer and took him to his cabin. All the boys gathered around to see if they could figure out what had happened to the GTR and make him work again. They discussed and looked and couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The GTR was playing games!

We started to worry that we would be out of the competition before we even got to start!
Chris advised that it was best to take the GTR to a mechanic in Melbourne to see if they could fix him. Craig set off to get the GTR fixed and we missed all the morning runs up the mountain. The mechanics couldn’t find the problem either but took the thermo fans off the main electrical circuit and the GTR came back to life. Craig got back at lunch time and we were ready to conquer the mountain. The officials lined us up and we were going to be the 2nd car out to go up the mountain. The way the sprint is run is the slowest cars go up the mountain first and the fastest cars last in 30 second intervals apart from each other. I didn’t think of it at the time but it wasn’t the best idea to go behind that car! As the GTR is in the 9 second club and usually one of the last cars to go up the hill with all the big kids at the back of the line! The blue GT falcon lined up at the start line got his count down and he was off in a tyre blazing way. We stepped up next, Craig brought the revs up and I counted down 5,4,3,2,1…..GO! We launched off the start line to go into our first corner the 4 Left, followed by 9Right into 3 Left and 6 Right. We were flying up the road, I was calling the notes right, Craig was driving the doors off the GTR and he was having a ball until we got ¾ the way up the stage when I saw the blue GT Falcon up ahead “Oh no we had caught him!!”. Well silly me panicked and could see Craig wanted to overtake. I wasn’t sure if I should keep calling the notes, so I went silent to let Craig concentrate and get around the car without someone nagging in his ear. It all happened so fast and you don’t realise that you have gone through 4 corners and 5 calls. We got past the Blue GT Falcon but I had left it too late to call the serious note!

We were coming around a 7 Right way to fast to slow down for the 5 Right into the car park. I called the note but it was too late! Craig made the quick decision to stay straight and I couldn’t believe my eyes there before me was a Road Barrier!! It was getting closer and the GTR just wasn’t stopping in time…We went through the barrier!!! All I saw was the yellow and black beam come up over the bonnet and fly up and away into the air. We stopped just past the barrier I was so angry with myself that I had let Craig down and hurt the little GTR. Craig asked if I was ok and I said “Yep” we had lost about 15 seconds with that fiasco and set off up the road to finish the stage. We got through the finish line and I didn’t want to get out of the car to see what damage I had caused. I kept apologising to the little GTR. Craig kept telling me that there was hardly any damage and it will all buff out. It was only minor scrapes and a little dent on the top of the front right guard that I apparently have to sign! haha
The rest of the runs up the mountain where a lot better for us and we didn’t have any issues with the car except for the last run when the GTR decided he wanted to have some fun and went into 2WD mode so all the power was going to the rear tyres and…WHAT A RIDE! It was getting so sidewayz through some corners and I loved every minute of it. Couldn’t believe when we had finished the stage that it was our quickest time up the track with a 4:47. The fastest time up the mountain was put down by the White’s Lamborghini with a 4:20 and that was in the wet/damp mind you! They were closely followed by Jones & Searcy R35 GTR with a 4:21.

The competition was fierce within our own crowd too with the Crowes doing a 4:49 and the HSV was hot stuff to contend with as it’s an absolute weapon of a car and bit of a handful! Bourke & Woods in the Red RX7 did a 4:52 and it was going so well until they experience a problem and couldn’t continue for the rest of the afternoon. Spada & Condon did a 4:59 and I was very happy to see the EVO in full flight after the ordeal they have experienced in the month leading up to the sprint. We all came 3rd in our respected class too.
So with another tarmac sprint done and dusted….stay tuned for more epic adventures from the Awesome Tarmac Crew!

With losing my ride in the Tasmanian Rally Championship I needed to find a new Navigating seat for my bum to sit in! I sent an email off to the AMSAG guys telling them I was looking for a ride. I got a response from Zyg Ryter who owns a Datsun 180B and this is the start of my epic story!!!!
I met up with Zyg at the bottom of Town Hall steps on Friday at lunchtime and glad we could recognise one another. We had added each other on face book the week before (Thank god for face book ha-ha). So with having a quick chat the plan was to jump in a taxi and head to where the car is waiting on the trailer. I was getting excited to see Zyg’s rally car as I am more use to the modern cars. This was going to be an experience rallying in a “classic”! We pulled up to the house and there it was the mighty “Datto” sitting loud and proud on the trailer. I quickly skipped up for a closer look and was introduced to our one and only service crewman “Colin”. I was so delighted to see my surname “Nicholson” on both side windows of the Rally car. I get so excited when I see my name on the side of race cars it just looks professional and I feel a bit important haha. I went to open up the passenger side of the rally car to have a look inside and there was a surprise waiting for me. Zyg had got my favourite quote “Harden the F#@k Up!” stickered and had put it on the glove box under all the devices for me as a welcoming present, little did I know that this quote was going to be a big help to me in the Rally. So with my welcoming over and the Rally car strapped down to the trailer and checked we were off for the 5 hour trip to Cowra!

We got into Cowra at around 5:30pm and unloaded. I was going to be sleeping in a different cabin to Zyg and Colin. I was so happy to find out that I actually knew other people that were going to be rallying on the weekend. Peter Batt that helps us with MRA is a Rally guy as well!! He was navigating for his son Michael in there VH commodore and I was going to be sleeping in there cabin with the family as there were girls in that one so I could feel more comfortable. The great thing about AMSAG is they are more laid back with there rules and regulations and its all about having fun. I was impressed to see registration get held the night before the rally. It’s not such a mad rush in the morning to add all your notes to the Road Book I had time to highlight and add my touches. This Rally was going to be a different experience for me, for one it wasn’t going to be raining so no slippery roads this time and two it was a One and half day rally so the road book was massively thick. I was a little scared flicking through the book there were so many cautions in each stage. I was about to find out this is the roughest rally I have experience yet! So with a bourbon and chicken schnitzel in my tummy my road book highlighted and checked I was ready for a good night sleep and the adventure to begin.

We woke up at 6am and I threw on my SSCC long sleeve shirt and old pair of jeans. Went to the drivers briefing and had to make a few extra corrections throughout the road book which is pretty normal at these types of events. We were car number 32 and had a bit of a wait till it was time for us to depart so I checked out the competition and it seems the Evo’s and Datsun 1600 are the favourites at this event. It was finally our time to leave and I navigated our way to the first stage. Zyg has an older style Terratrip in the Datto which goes well with the rest of the car. I was trying out a foot pedal for the first time to RESET the terratrip which I found it worked really well for me over the weekend. No more “RESET” being yelled at me!!! We reached Control at the first stage and this was going to be a quick little stage with 5kms to cover and a only few calls. It was fast and smooth and it cleared out the cobwebs. The next couple of stages were a lot rougher than the first stage as we were moving more into the forest roads and I was amazed that we hadn’t broken anything so far. I have learnt one thing about myself I am a lot better in the quicker stages. I tend to stress and feel the pressure on the long stages and I was about to find out how much pressure I really felt. With having a quick schedule 10 minute service in between stages I was starving and went to go visit the girls in the food van. I chomped my way through a bacon and egg sandwich and felt a lot better after I had something in my stomach. Here comes the good part – I really feel that Zyg had jinxed me. He has an omen with navigators. They have all throw up or felt very sick after doing a stage with Zyg driving and on the way down to Cowra he was telling me all the stories. The best story of all was he had gone through 5 navigators in one rally as they all got sick and couldn’t continue on for him. This was a fate I was about to find out for myself! We headed out to start the mid morning stages which were the same ones we had just completed in the early morning. We went through 2 stages and then it was time for the longest one in the rally the 27km stage. I was feeling ok for the first part of it but about ¾ the way through. The dreaded pins and needles feeling started to wash over me, my body started feeling numb and then the burps. I was feeling nausea and then I stopped calling the notes as I couldn’t hold it down any longer. Yep you guess it I THREW UP ALL OVER MYSELF I had put my hand over my mouth as I didn’t want it to projectile onto the windscreen. I couldn’t reach the window winder to put the window down but probably would of been useless anyway as I was in the seat so tight. I even tried to swallow the first lot that came up but there was no use (Eeeewww). My stomach contents wanted to come out and there was nothing I could do about it. I had made such a mess of myself, the harness, the seat, the mic on my helmet and the road book. All I could do was apologise and Zyg asked me if I could still call the notes again so I pulled myself together and started to call again as we hadn’t finished the stage yet! I was so embarrassed at the end of the stage I told the control guys not to look at me while I was getting my time. Zyg thought it was pretty funny how he had made another navigator sick and I was so unimpressed with myself that it had happened!!!! There is a first for everything I guess and I am finding out this Rally business is not very glamorous at all ha-ha. We drove into the service park and I had to tell Colin that Zygs omen had got me and there was a mess to clean up…YUCK!

I was somewhat relieved to hear that I wasn’t the only navigator to be sick on that particular stage and the rally guys are such gossipers it was around the service park in 2 minutes flat that Zyg had made another nav sick; everyone was sympathetic to a point as it is pretty funny. It seems to be part of the navigator’s code your not good until you throw up! My SSCC shirt was wreaked and I had been soaked with water to try and clean myself up. I felt I took the wet t-shirt competition to a whole nother level. I hadn’t brought any clean clothes with me to Service so I had to throw on one of Zyg shirts which were at least dry for now! Colin was cleaning up the car best he could and what a champ. He is a plumber and reckons he is use to that sort of thing but it didn’t help as I felt so bad for messing up the car. I had a rest and got given some ginger ale as it’s suppose to help “sea sickness” and Zyg was stressing that I wasn’t going to continue but I actually felt fine once I had thrown up. So with wet pant’s , wet seat and the car smelling a bit funky we jumped in to the datto to finish of the rally. I was felling good for the first 3 stages and then it was time for the dreaded 27km stage again…YES AGAIN! We lined up and we got to have a few minutes break before it was our turn. I was starting to worry that I might throw up again so I took myself into the bushes to see if I could get anything more to come out….nothing! I must of gotten it all out of me the first time plus Colin had given me a “sick bag” so I was prepared for the worst. We started the stage and it was going well till ¾ the way through and yep you guess it. I had the pins and needles feeling again, the burps and “OMG NO……… hear it comes”!!!! I told Zyg I was going to be sick again. Got the plastic sick bag out and you wouldn’t bloody believe it…A HOLE IN THE PLASTIC BAG!!!! It goes all over me again, my lap, the seat, the roadbook, the floor and I had tried to move my mic this time so it didn’t cop a load of chunks but it was no use. I was in disbelief that there was anything left in my stomach from the first time. I looked at my quote on the dash “harden the f**k up” and I started calling my notes again. There is one thing I am proud of about myself I don’t give up! I had the sinking feeling come over me as me came into control and having to facing the timing guys again. They just laughed at me when we rocked in for our time and coming into the service park where they all gasped ”Not again”!!! I told Colin the good news and he got the water bucket out again. Yep wet pants competition was raring that day!! I had definitely made my mark on AMSAG and have picked up a new nickname from my fellow rally competitors …oh wait for it…it’s so original…”CHUCKY”.

The next day went a lot better as I didn’t eat until we had finished the rally stages and the roads were a lot smoother as the stages weren’t in the forest on Sunday. I felt achieved finishing the Rally and I have made my own legend in throwing up with Zygs driving and still managed to finish the event. We came 20th outright which is pretty cool for an old guy and his first time nav. I also received an encouragement award for my efforts – a nice AMSAG Jacket. I had a great time and the AMSAG guys are fantastic even with all my drama I had the best fun and learnt a lot. This is “Chucky” signing out until next time.
Happy Reading!!
P.s I have only ever thrown up in the car with Zyg. It has never happened to me again!!

The Epic “adventures of Jess” are on full flight this year and I got to experience another fantastic event called Bathurst 12Hr! I went up for the 4 days to help out one of the supporting categories – Improved Production with the Awesome Street Brothers, Peter & John!! I also had friends running Teams in the 12hr and John Walker was competing in the HQ category. The line up of races was going to be sensational with a bit of everything on display. Categories running on the mountain were Group N, HQ’s, Improved Production, Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge (Dam!! They were nice), Saloon Cars and of course the 12hr Teams!!!

I drove up to Bathurst on the Thursday morning to help Peter Street sign all the IPRA entrants in and collect there paperwork. This was my first time experiencing an event at Mt Panorama and I was excited! I arrived on the mountain and started to take in the “wonder”. This place truly is magical and the facilities are second to none.
The IPRA had set up marquee garages in the paddock behind the main pits. Which came in much need with the incredible weather we were about to face for the 4 days! We had 37 Improved Production cars entered in the race and was so good to see all the different types of cars going head to head against each other. I was jealous that they got to try and conquer the mountain. But I got to cut many laps of the carpark going backwards and forwards from the Control Tower and Paddock. I got a workout that’s for sure but it’s the best way to bump into everyone and see it all. It was amazing to hear and see and smell the race cars going around the track from the infield. To me it felt like something out of “Days of Thunder” haha. The guys had practice and qualifying on Friday and races on Saturday and got one dry run. The HQ’s seems to be the best category to get the dry laps every time there went out. The IPRA guys did extremely well with the conditions and a lot of the entrants it was there first time on the mountain. There were a few thrills and spills with Evos coming off the track but mostly was some clean racing and great battles between the packs.

John Walker in the HQ was having some thrills and spills on the track and exchanged paint with a certain tyre wall and had a great story to tell when he came into the pits. John stayed mid packed through his races as the HQ was better downhill than up but he held his place through out the race and did very well fighting off a few of the HQs trying to claim is spot. His best time was a 3:11!
I was “wowed” by the level of professionalism this event had. The teams were all kitted out as if it was the V8 Supercars and I got to be part of the 12hr Walden, Walden & Auld Team as a data entry assistant for the event on the Sunday. This is to keep track of lap times and fuel consumption through out the race. I woke up at 4am to get ready and prepped for the 6:30am start. I have never seen a more glorified sight than that level of race cars gridding up at the crack of dawn on the start line. The Walden Team had to start from rear due to a discrepancy in Qualifying but Garth just carved up the field the minute the light went out to try and gain the places back. By 3rd lap he was back where he qualified in 12th position and fighting strong. There were unbelievable conditions out on the track going from wet to dry then steamy back to torrential rain. On the 68 lap the car was overheating and came in to the pits. To my devastation the car had blown a head gasket. I was quite upset as the Walden team was going so well and had a real chance to finish in the top 5. The 12hr is a battle of wills and the tables can turn so quickly with driver error and different styles with a team of 3 drivers in the cars. A lot of teams fell out of the competition due to mechanical malfunctions and the weather was so fierce the safety car was out on the track for at least 6 hours of the race and even took chequered flag at the end but before that at about 1pm a tree fell down on to the circuit at forest elbow and took about an hour to clear the cars where stuck up the top on skyline. I tell you what it all happens at Bathurst!

Alan East is a SSCC member and also had a 12hr team with his Mitsubishi Evo 9 GSR the team did very well with Wall, Wall & Symonds driving it. They did a total of 202 laps and best time of 2:31 which is seriously moving. They came 2nd behind Holt, Morris & Bowe and very impressive with Crompton, Seton & King coming in 3rd in there Evo 10.
Bathurst 12hr is definitely worth the trip up to experience I had the best time and couldn’t believe how much you got to see. You don’t get that close at the V8’s and it feels just the same. I learnt a lot with helping out the IPRA category and doing data entry and have been invited back to do it all again for 2011. I just hope I get to compete at the mighty mountain one day and see what its like from the other side of the fence.

Mt Buller Sprint is a Hill Climb that takes part over 3 days in the Victoria snow fields and is 16km of pure awesome road!!

I have waited for this moment ever since I started out as a navigator. I love Tarmac Rallies and was so happy to finally experience it. I received a phone call late Wednesday night at 10:30pm asking if I could navigate in a Porsche 964 at Mt Buller. Of course I leapt at the chance and got myself down to Victoria. This was the first time I was doing a pace noted event and was a bit nervous. I was happy that I had done the previous “road book rallies” with the dreaded “Terratrip” and that style is defiantly a lot harder to learn than pace notes. I was adding and adjusting notes to the notes (haha) and was giving Richard Fricker some tips on what to do to help him when he was on the road. It was his first time navigating for Craig Burgess in the Awesome Nissan Skyline R32 GTR.

I met up with Greg Muller my driver in the Porsche and I had the 1-10 pace note system. (To explain 1-10 notes the number represents the grades of the corners. So 1 being a hairpin and 10 being nearly a straight) Greg and I wanted to get some practice in before they closed the road Friday morning. We set off from the start line and I was way off the notes by the third corner and we were only doing 60km per hour…I started doing my usual self doubting, started thinking “What the hell am I doing, I cant do this!!” But I shook those thoughts out of my head and pressed on with going back to the start line and trying again. By the 4th time I started getting the hang of it and was getting used to what a “10 corner” looks like. So with practice in we headed up to the top of the mountain which is 16km of gorgeous tarmac twisting up through the lush forest!!
The view up the top was breath taking and couldn’t believe what I was taking in. We were at a ski lodge surrounded by trees and mountains and it was fantastic!

I was so happy to see that there were more Southern Sporting Car Club Members out to conquer the mountain. Patrick Bourke and John Woods in their 1992 Mazda RX7,
Chris and Anne-Maree Crowe in there 2004 Holden HSV GTS Coupe and Steve Spada and Christina Condon in there 1999 Mitsubishi Evo 6, David Murphy & Con Constantino in the 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth and of course Craig Burgess and Richard Fricker in the 1989 Nissan Skyline R32 GTR.
Once we got the “hellos” out of the way we all attended driver briefing and was glad to find out that the organizers “Mountain Motorsport” were going to give us a taste of what we were in store for a prologue on the last part of the hill climb. This turned out to be my favorite part of the mountain and the part I remembered the most.
We all suited up and travelled down the hill to the service park which was situated ¾ the way up the mountain to get ready for our turn at the taste of tarmac. With 80 entrants in the sprint the array of cars was sensational. You had everything from the old classic mustang to a brand new Nissan Skyline R35 GTR. I had personal favorites which were the double trouble team of Corvette Z06’s and a Skelta which I had never seen before and looked like something out of a batman movie but it sure did haul arse up the hill (haha).

It was finally our turn in the Porsche and I got into my groove was ready for 5 lights to come on and go out. 5,4,3,2,1 GO!
We head out with a 3R followed by a 9L into 7L into 1L that went uphill followed by a 8R into a steep 1R into a 7L that tightens and opens into a 7R opens and tightens into 8L into a hard 4R and then Flying Finish. Was all over in a flash which felt like forever and was happy with the way I went. Greg thought I did ok and was good to get it out of the way. I like to know what to expect as funny as it sounds. It helps to calm my nerves and work out how I am going to tactical it from there on. I regrouped with the others to find out how they went. A lot of the SSCC members where after the Porsche as had faster car.

Richard Fricker went well for his first time navigating in the GTR and was such an eye opener for him sitting on the other side of the car for a change. So was Anne-Maree Crowe navigating Chris and the HSV up the twisty road and was lovely to see another female getting in the passenger seat. She thoroughly enjoyed herself and did an excellent job for her first time!! Their best time was a 9:07.63 on their 8th session up the hill.
The RX7 was having issues most of the weekend which was unfortunate as it’s a sight to see the “fast & furious” looking Mazda carving up the bitumen. Their best time was a 9:59.68 on their 5th session up the hill but the RX7 wasn’t at its full potential.

The mighty “TEXICO” Sierra put in a massive effort and scored a 9:27.53 on their 7th Session up the mountain. The boys were struggling for grip on most corners as the Sierra just kept lighting up the tyres!!!
Steve Spada & Christina Condon in the sensational Evo 6 did a 9:20.30 on their 8th Session and were having a great time after their experiences on the mountain in 2008. Fricker & Burgess did a 9:01.15 on their 3rd session in the GTR.

But there is a twist to this story!! Saturday morning Richard Fricker wasn’t feeling the best and with Burgess & Fricker being in the Top 10 line up they asked me to jump in. It was also a bit of an audition for me to see if I could handle navigating the Awesome GTR!! I jump in with Craig and due to having Friday’s runs up the hill I was on the ball! We managed a 8:53.79 for our first attempt together and I was having the best time navigating in my most favourite model of car. We were on a high from going 10th place down to 9th. Craig and I were on a mission to get better. We lined up again at the bottom of the hill…I love to countdown as sykes you up for the moment and better for the driver as only has to concentrate on the launch and the road in front..5,4,3,2,1….GO!! We were off and the GTR is an absolute bullet launching off the line it seriously puts you back in your seat. I was on my notes and so focused I didn’t stuff up once! The GTR sticks like nothing else and Craig’s driving is so smooth he really knows and understands his car well. We reached the top with an outstanding time of 8:51.67!!! We got 8th outright and first in class. The Mt Buller Hill climb is a fantastic event and is a real eye opener. I am so glad I made the dash down to Victoria to do it! I got to know the SSCC members a lot better over the weekend and was really nice to share the experience with them. If you ever want to try a hill climb this is one that shouldn’t be missed!

With the last round of MRA fast approaching I want to tell you about the current leader in the championship in combined sedans. I am very excited to see a female at the top of the point score. Melissa has a long background of motorsport and countless track days and super sprints under her belt but wanted MRA to be her first race series and is doing exceptionally well. With passing her CAMS course in her hot little hands and with buying and prepping a Mitsubishi Evo 7 to race. Melissa and Husband Shane looked at a few series on offer and chose MRA for it’s easy to enter formalities and variety of cars and times in the respectful categories on offer and ability to sign off her CAMS Provisional Licence.
Melissa has had her fair share of problems with the Mitsubishi Evo 7 as we all do. With her first round she had a problem with her clutch, which decided to die and Melissa had to retire early missing her last race at her dismay. She returned for round 2 of the series and had another problem go wrong with the car, Clutch master cylinder this time, so she limp it around the track as best she could to finish all her races. Round 3 was a lot more exciting for her and with all the problems ironed out this time got to finish all her races and came 3rd in her last race which she was ecstatic about. “Its not about being the fastest car out there it’s showing up to every meeting and doing your best and finishing your races and being consistent” Mellissa told me.
Melissa is a bit different to me where she does better times with another car behind her, trying to pass her on the track. She goes into persistent mode and will block and drive faster when being pushed from behind by another driver. In saying that she told me the funniest thing, she suffers from motion sickness and I commended her for still doing the sport with such an annoying problem to face every time you race. Melissa will take motion sickness tablets at certain tracks that affect her in the morning before her races start. I have also learned that she isn’t the only one with another girl that does rally suffers from this and a friend of mine gets it also but funny how it’s only when I drive him around!!.
Mellissa has found MRA entrants and personnel to be really supportive and helpful and she is excited to be apart of the MRA family. She would like to thank all organizers, volunteers and entrants that help make this series possible. With it being her first series to compete in she feels it is giving her great confidence and skills to tackle her future goals which is to one day race around Mt Panorama being a Bathurst girl at heart.
So if you see Melissa at the next round of MRA do go up and say Hi. Melissa is very down to earth and loves cars as much as the next bloke and I am very happy that I got to chat and find out about her as it is fantastic to see a girl doing so well and would be great to have more girls join this series!
Happy Racing and see you all on 25th of October for Round 4!
Jessica Nicholson