Targa Bambina

Hi All Our Bambina is all go. Having had an almost full team having to pull out it was looking difficult to say the least.

Also I had arranged for David (Chief) to fly up from Christchurch a few days before arriving mid afternoon which was going to suit us all fine, his flight was then changed to early evening, also not TOO bad just a late arrival home here. BUT then it was changed to 6 AM !!! Chasing around the website was pretty useless but a phone call to Jetstar managed to get his flight changed to the day before (late morning arrival).

We collected the gear from Targa before coming home.

It was that morning that I learned that we had lost an almost entire start crew

There were LOTS of ph calls required that night and (thanks largelyto Euan Burke) Jo Kapua said she would not let us down. This has let my blood pressure to remain under control !!

Anyway, David and I went and collected the rest of our finish crew, Ethan and Jazz and we all came back here to DuckCreek.

Today we fitted our Fleetlink radio, got ourselves sorted out in various ways and are all set for our 'out the gate' time of 7.45 a.m. tomorrow morning.

We have our main regroup at Mercer tomorrow morning,

proceed to the SS3 start, leaving our Start crew there then driving through the stage to our finish. When cleared we proceed to the SS6 finish. Once cleared from there we proceed to Hamilton where we all stay the night.

Sunday morning we go to SS9 pretty much close to Arapunui, when cleared we go to SS12 which is just south of Matamata.

As I have said so many times before we then head home tired but happy.!!!!

Another writeup tomorrow night!!

Hi again.

Here we are at backpackers central Hamilton after a fairly eventful day.

Dave, Jaz, Ethan and myself well made our 'out the gate time' of 7.15. am and headed to our timing team regroup.

We had already learned that our second stage SS6 had been canceled because of the number of marshals that have had to pull out..

Nevertheless we reconnoitered with Poko's start crew and we all headed off to t SS3.

Sure there was a nice FF on the road but no FC or disk - but we coped. Dave set up FF using Jaz'z car and after making

contact with our block marshals (and providing them with a handheld) we could not get our Tablet (read laptop) to work !!

At least it was a full size device not a silly little three line display !! So back to writing NRT (no rallysafe time) on all the cards. It transpired that we did not have the aerial dongle despite Buck being quite sure it had been in the carry case last night.

With SS6 canceled we looked forward to a cruizy afternoon, no doubt arriving nice and early. YEAH RIGHT - how many times have I said that! With us 4 now being surplus to requirements we were now needed to blockmarshal for the finish of SS5.

We relieved the Targa official and Dave and I parked both our cars quite effectively blocking the road but (obviously) having to leave sufficient lane for Rally cars to exit. Yep we had another rogue vehicle who charged (and that is the word) past the oldies Dave and Myself, and charged straight toward Jaz, our 18 yr old girl - who had the presence of mind to JUMP out of his way to avoid being run over (or worse). Several people at FC jumped into his path also without success! There was, as you can imagine a lot of yelling and shouting much from this idiot with words like 'FUCK OFF, I LIVE HERE ITS MY ROAD NOT YOURS'.

I reported to base forthwith, so they could stop the stage and advise

by Rallysafe cars already in the stage. Yes Jaz is fine - even though I was somewhat worried about delayed shock. Two police cars arrived and good news is that someone has managed to photograph his vehicle and rego, and an actual competitor has video footage of him driving WD through the stage. The police have been given all this evidence and taken statements from all involved. I suspect he may well have been drunk or stoned, But we have his rego number, a police event no and the whole nine yards. The policeman did make a very sensible comment that he probably didn't aim at we 80 somethings, thinking the an agile 18 year old would easily scarper.

One this drama was over we headed for Hamilton have had Fish and Chips for tea, now Dave and I are going to watch our beloved Crusaders.

Hi again.

Well we did it (again).

Fulfilled our obligations, entirely. Day2 (Sunday) we well met out out the gate time of 9 a.m. to SS3 out the back of Putaruru. Dave and Jaz set up flying finish then Jaz had to walk back the 660m so she could fulfill her log writing duties.

Needless to say the Rallysafe tablet (actually a laptop) didn't work - mind you eventually it decided to give results every 4th or 5th car. !! Not very good really.

Pies for for 4 please at Tirau then on to our final stage SS12.

Oh rapture, oh joy, Rallysafe decided to come to the party after all. Some of the teams had a problem taping, ( this is something I can well relate to!!!!)

Overall quite a successful day.

We returned Jaz and Ethan home to their parents and then Dave and I were back here at Duck Creek by 8 p.m. Sure I have managed a couple of beers!!

Epilogue in a couple of days

Hi again all.

I'll keep this short and sweet (like me) - yep I can hear the sighs of relief from here.

Yes once more we fulfilled all our commitments

Tues 8th March I collected Dave (Chief) from Auck Airport then the gear for both our Start and Finish crews

Thurs 10th March Collected Jaz (with car) and Ethan - the teens- and came back to Duck Creek

Fri 11th The teens fitted the Fleetlink Radio, charged the 6 handheld radios and generally got organised.

Sat 12th March Out of the gate at 7.15, a timing crew regroup at Mercer, on to the

start of SS3 then both of us drove through the stage to our Finish.

Needless to say Rallysafe didn't work and despite our best efforts neither did Fleetlink (although it had been fine up until then.)

Jaz helped Chief to set up the beam, put out signs the walked back to Finish Control to do her log writing duties.

This then became our people deployment for the whole event Chief at Flying Finish Ethan doing cards at Finish Control Jaz doing Log writing at Finish control I did Road each time. Our SS6 had, had to be canceled because of marshal groups having to pull out so we were allocated block Marshalling duties on SS5. A foul mouthed driver of a rogue vehicle. rather spoiled that one for us.

On to Hamilton for the night, Fish and Chips tor tea in the kitchen/lounge of Central Backpackers. All devices being recharged . Thanks Ethan.

Sunday 13th March Out the gate by 9 a.m., SS9 (Arapuni), this time Rallysafe gave us about 1 in every 5 cars, although the results did get to Rally Base every time a coconut. Fleetlink worked perfectly of course. We then proceeded post haste via Tirau (pies for 4 please) to SS12 our final stage of the event. By this time not only was all the equipment (including Rallysafe, Fleetlink, and personnel) working perfectly, but the weather continued to play ball too.

I think I might have even got a bit sunburnt or windburnt!! We dropped the teens back home then David and I were back here before dark too. Looks like we did just under 600 kms, Jaz drove her car the entireway and I drove mine.

Wed 16 March We returned both sets of gear (including the fully charged handheld radios) to Peter at Targa, then dropped Chief at Auckland Airport for his trip back to Christchurch then I came back here later in the day.