Targa High Country 2016 - Day 1
Setting up for Targa High Country has been real fun. With Kate in the navigation seat we managed to compile our own rally notes tailored to how we want them. Day one saw us head out from the mountain in anticipation to giving THC a good crack. All 'G' up Mirimbah stage, we went well with Kate in the moment. A car off the side of the road threw a curve ball, and we copped a 30 second penalty for going too fast on the shake down (so we gave every one a head start).
The next stage is Merton, a flowing fast run on my favourite bit of road, and then it takes a turn into the roughest challenging section. Kate and I work real hard, blending perfectly as a team, and got through with a 0 second penalty. Next up was Harrys Creek, another rough, fast challenging stage and we managed to get through with 0 penalty again. W met up at the lunch break with my niece Alana Grace and her beautiful children - great to be welcomed by them in Euroa.
After lunch was the Violet Town stage - Harrys Creek in reverse. We changed the car setup and it took a kilometre or two to be confident and, although its handling had improved, we got 8 seconds penalty on this stage - my fault as the flying finish was on a corner and I backed off at the warning sign, not the flying finish, oops My Bad!!
Galls Gap, my reverse favourite, and the Shelby GT was handling perfectly for the rough stuff. We caught two competitor cars on this stage and cleaned the run by 8 seconds, so 0 sec penalty. Mt Buller, the last stage for the day, is the reverse of Mirimbah stage with an extra 10km of racing right to the top of the mountain. Before we head up Kate throws on the song "Aint No Mountain Higher". We caught a few competitors on the way up, and it was sad to see my previous navigator Jenny's car off the road. We made it to the top with a 58 second penalty, finishing 5th outright for the day. If I didn't stuff up the finish to Galls Gap we could have been 4th!! Our final result for the day is 54 seconds behind first place in the year-old 911 Porsche driven by Matt Close - last year's THC outright winners - followed by ACR Viper of Mike Prichard, and Steven Johnson in the ZR1 Corvette. We are only 11 seconds off third place.
A big 'Thank You' to Angryman Photography and Otherside Promotions for the great action shots!
