Targa Nelson

Hi again.

Well that's a wrap - another quick note tonight.

Once more we fulfilled all our commitments. David and his team 3 stages yesterday and another today Jesy and his 1 stage yesterday and another three today.

My team 3 stages yesterday and another 3 today.

Details in a more fulsome writeup follows

Hi all,

Prepare yourself for another of my 10,000 word missives as Pieter calls them !!

The event this year was held in Sunny Nelson (so true to its name too) on Sat 15th Oct and Sunday 16th October Nelson to Motueka on Sat and back to Nelson on the Sunday.

Described by the organisers as a 'nice compact event' most of the stages were used at least twice - some in the reverse direction.

It was originally planned not to take timing crews from 'Auckland', and environs so I was planning on just being a 'senior advisor' or general dogsbody - Yeah Right

About a week beforehand though it was found necessary to provide 3 finish post chiefs. So David (Chief), Jesy (the leader of the Pack) and myself (Boss) were roped in to fulfill these roles.

Most of this will, of necessity, be about 'our' team,as

obviously I was not privy to much of the others drama.

On Wed 12 Oct I took my car to Auck Airport and then flew Air NZ to Nelson - boy its a long walk from the terminal to the gate, to be met at Nelson by Vicky and Jonathon (thanks guys) who delivered me 'safe and sound' to Symon and Julies' place which was to be my abode for the next week.

I really do want to thank them both for the marvelous hospitality.

As an aside you may perhaps recall that when I was in Chal #1 I had difficulty getting an Internet speed exceeding 1 (mbps) - Chorus were/are hopeless - now in Chal #12 I get a 'solid' 20. But at Symon and Julie's it is 196, yes 196 - I know it doesn't compare with Pieter but to me it is lightening fast.

But back to the story.

Peter collected me and we all went to the 'Timing Marshals meeting at Annesbrook Event centre on Wed night.

Each team was to be crewed by locals (mainly inexperienced) and this was an opportunity to explain what was involved to everyone.

After doing my usual 'rant' about how important it was to have 'start orders' entered on the drivers cards - I told 'our' start crew that their Stage Commander would hold their hand and all would be fine - Yeah Right again.

I then turned my attention to my finish crew and what a joy that turned out to be. Graeme put his hand up as Flying Finish 'guru' (despite never having done it before) and Ian was happy to fit in 'anywhere' I could tell that this was really going to be a 'piece of cake' and such it turned

out. (Ian even managed to bring a mate -Phil - on the actual event so I had a full team of 4 oh joy what rapture)

Knowing what a busy place the event centre would be on Friday, with scrutineering documentation and Rally safe fitting for nearly 100 cars I suggested we meet there on Thursday (after work) to collect all our gear, fit the fleetlink radio to Ian's car etc so we could keep well away from the place on Friday.

This we did - but for some reason could not get the Fleetlink to work - more of this later) but never mind 'it will be OK on the night' - Yeah Right AGAIN.

Graeme took me home and during the night Ian texted me that Fleetlink was apparently working - great !

On Friday both David ,who had driven up from Christchurch, and Jesy who had trekked from Ashburton braved the crowds at the event centre, collected their gear and came up to see me.

Jesy felt a liitle rusty as post chief and commented that he had forgotten his inverter - no matter with the current Rallysafe tablets it should not be needed. Yeah right AGAIN. Naturally I had mine.

Saturday morning our 'out the gate time' was 7 AM so it was out of bed for me at 6 AM (I am really getting too old for this lark - but it was better than 4 AM for WRC!!)

We headed for 88 Vally for SS1 and eventually found our spot(s) but still had no Fleetlink - but wait there's more.

It transpired that neither did anyone else - this proved to be the case for the rest of the weekend.

We and everyone else) had to rely on cell phones with patchy coverage at best.

Anyway we did the job, timed the Targa Competitor cars, the Nelson one day event cars, counted the Tour cars and then timed the VCC cars.

Graeme did our flying finish - set up beam, got the necessary green light then 'baby sat' the setup during the stage.

This is a vital job in case something happens, wind, car crashing or something as the beam sends the time back to Targa Base and without it there are no results.

He also kept a record of the cars that passed him some approaching 200kmph

Meanwhile Ian did cards in his vehicle, Phil wrote up the logs did the criss cross sheet etc.

There were, of course, NO start orders provided until I had spoken to Rita, after which it improved dramatically. But I understand that this remained a substantial problem for the other crews though.

I did 'road' taking the competitor cards, handing them to Ian to process and then hand them back.

In point of fact I 'did my dance' (some of you will know it) for some 4 hours !!

Can you see where this is going ?

Yep our Rallysafe tablet was rapidly running out of grunt.

But fortunately I had my inverter (of course) so whilst driving to our next stage we brought the charge up to about 70%.

I was conscious though that David also had 3 stages and

he confirmed that his unit would probably not last either.

So having charged ours up we gave my inverter to Richard in Safety 1 to take it to David - problem solved.

At our next stage we had some difficulty finding the FF (flying finish) the competitors road book said it would be outside house no 266.- yeah right. We found 276, 256 etc but no sign of 266 and eventually found it was supposed to be 226 - lo and behold FF on the road.

Once cleared we headed back to Nelson, Symon and Julie really looked after me !!

Our out the gate time on Sunday was a much more leisurely 8.15. So back up to SS 9 then a re run at 88 Valley.(Twice) Sunday had a smaller field - no one day event, and some dropouts, so although we did charge up our tablet Jesy who also had 3 stages that day did manage to last.

For these last 2 stages I did a board showing the stage times for all the competitors ahead of them.

The three timing teams all met for a beer that night and some went for a meal after!

On Monday Graeme was away on his bus driving duties so Ian collected me and we returned the gear to Targa.

After which my hosts treated me including a visit to the Nelson Car Museum and Rimu's bar at Mapua until putting me on a plane on Wed 19th (yesterday), I collected my car and arrived home before dark - tired but happy.

My team was Myself

Ian Graeme Phil

Jesy's team Jesy Mike Andrew

David's team David Taylor James

Now we turn our attention to Silver Fern less than a month away. Hands up please !!!