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!