Race Report Targa Rotorua 2007
Discussion
George & Ang – Porsche 968 22nd OA, 4th in class 39 Sec behind Maserati Trofeo 4 1/2" ahead of GT3
Reflecting on a successful conclusion to Targa Rotorua, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have a partner who enjoys competing with me in the left hand seat and a couple of really good people who are prepared to service for us and look after the car and also how many great people we’ve met through competition.
Success for us has is a mix of preparation, skill, attitude, teamwork and good luck. This time we would have an opportunity to share some of this with Terry and Robyn Riding who had chosen the Rotorua event to resurrect an old 924 Bridgestone car and as well as their rally careers.
As Terry and Robyn plied us with fine food and excellent company, we did our best to provide them with as much insight and guidance from our experiences. Their undertaking was by means small, having to build and comply a car, get licensed, jump through medical hoops as well as all the regular stuff.
In contrast, our preparation was straight forward – replace Bridgestone livery with Targa livery, fit left-hand seat and Brantz meter, fit skid plate, replace all the fluids and we should be good to go – well, not quite. Having done a hot lap day at Puke’ with Dean and his boys from Conti’s some 4 weeks earlier, all the noises you don’t hear at road speeds were given close scrutiny by the combined skills of Conti’s workshop and they identified a number of components due for replacement so with that all done, we were looking good.
In contrast, Terry and Robyn were being given grief by the LTSA but by the weekend before Targa Rotorua both cars had all the important boxes ticked. We convinced Terry and Robyn to come out to Puke’ on Saturday for the test day as they had not driven the car yet. We wanted to make sure nothing obvious had been overlooked and that if anything was found to be amiss then there were a couple of days to get it sorted.
It was rather wet at the track - but since we race in the wet, so we also practise in the wet. Terry and Robyn were both a little apprehensive but soon appeared more confident with a few laps under their belts. Johnny and Howard (our service crew) did a few adjustments to their seating positions and harnesses and they began to look more comfortable. We packed it in just after lunch and headed home to dry out.
We made our way to Rotorua on Thursday evening and caught up with our good friends Dale Daniels and Peter Tobin who were running their 944S again.
Cars started filling the domain opposite the Novotel from midday Friday as everyone completed documentation and prepared themselves for the prologue stage up Mt Ngongataha. 3pm rolled around and on cue, it started drizzling as we headed off. We were seeded 56th away in a field of 102 starters.
The hill climb was much tighter than we had anticipated and we didn’t really feel we’d got into it. Our time appeared to bear this out with Dale and Pete 27sec faster up the hill. Terry and Robyn were parked at the finish line in their 924 suffering oiled plugs. At the drivers briefing later that night, the organisers announced they’d had some timing issues up the hill and there would be no changes to the start order for the next day.
We thought we may have been seeded a little low and this was borne out the next day as we caught a lot of cars in stages. The first couple of stages were relatively short, less than 10k’s but we still managed to catch and pass at least the car in front. The 3rd stage was much longer at 32km which demands more concentration but magnifies any speed differential – we caught and passed 3 cars on this stage, not counting the ones that fell off. The V8 Triumph Vitesse proved a little difficult to get around as we were unsure if he’d seen us – later the driver apologised blaming British electrics – he thought his indicators were working but found they were not, (hand signals worked in the next few stages!). This stage also proved to be the undoing of the 944S as Dale and Pete hit a concrete culvert in 4th gear before looping end over end into a paddock, landing upside down on their roof with a strainer post through the rear hatch - pretty sobering stuff. They had both purchased Hans Devices before the event and were singing their praises; while a bit shaken, they were OK.
The last stage before lunch was 27km – we didn’t have to pass the Vitesse this time as they backed it off the road into a paddock. The HS2300 Chevette however was a different story. After he made no effort to keep left (per drivers briefing) so it was clear that we needed to be a bit more insistent – a bit like Bridgestone, behind TYR
– the Chevette was yellow too. We closed right up on him and moved from mirror to mirror flashing our lights and after about a half a km of this he finally yielded and we cleared out.
After lunch, we had two runs at the 34km Manawahae stage. Again this was punctuated with passing manoeuvres – Ang commented that one of them was just like the hairpin at Puke when we passed the 944 of Dave McCrae on the way in to a ‘double caution right hand hairpin tightening’. An 18km sprint around the Whirinaki Loop road brought us home for the day in 28th. The weather had been damp to start with and dried out throughout the day. We felt pretty good about our performance although we’d earned ourselves a 20sec time penalty for a jump start in stage 5 – Uncle Paul (Halford) chastised us for this transgression, at least we didn’t get the starters finger!
We parked up for the street show and the crew gave the car a going over, readying it for tomorrow. With the 968 sorted, our boys turned their attention to the 924. Howard diagnosed the starting problem as a missing earth strap from the motor to the body, a jury rig using the jumper cable sorted that, and all done, and it was time for some food.
The forecast for Sunday was decidedly wet.
Having shifted up the field aways, we were now running at 1 minute intervals rather than the previous 30 sec. Being amongst faster cars, we also expected we would not to be catching cars in stages – a definite positive. Halfway through the first stage, I felt the steering wheel move from side to side. I backed off while trying to rationalise what it was, the car still steered positively, may be it was the quick release or the nut on the end of the column? We pressed on at a reduced pace to finish the stage and sent a text ahead to our service crew.
On arrival in Matamata, they dived into the footwell and quickly diagnosed it as the bush that locates the shaft through the firewall had moved up the shaft allowing the bottom end of the steering column to flop around. Terry and Robyn were out; the alternator bracket had finally broken leaving them without alternator or waterpump. Meanwhile, our boys managed to hammer the bush back in and got us out in time for the next stage.
We had just entered the start control zone when we got a text – “phone in footwell”. The boys had counted out all the tools, but hadn’t spotted the phone that fell out after hanging up side down. We located the phone, stowed it and got down to business. At the next service, we had to hammer the bush back in and worked out that we could probably get a hose clip around the steering column to hold the bush in. We didn’t have time to do it now so we would do it at the lunch time service.
With the steering sorted, the rest of the event was pretty uneventful. The 968 was relishing the wet conditions so we pushed on, eating up the km’s.
We finished 18th in Modern, 22nd Overall and 4th in Class and we’re pretty happy with that. We’d thought a class placing was a “bit of an ask” given that the class had hotted up from last year with the change to the classification rules and a number of drivers going for hardware upgrades. We had had set ourselves the goal of a top 30 finish. Looking through the stage results, it was clear that we had definitely made progress through the field in the wet and not just through attrition. For the main Targa in October, we’ll need to work on our dry weather pace and hope for some wet as well.
Thanks to our service crew Johnny and Howie and to the boys at Conti’s for preparing and maintaining our car. To Terry and Robyn, thank you for your company and we’ll see you back out there (or over a meal) and to Dale and Pete, our condolences on the demise of the ‘44, but at least you’re OK.
George & Ang!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUmNJcxmlU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9xPfkZam4
Reflecting on a successful conclusion to Targa Rotorua, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have a partner who enjoys competing with me in the left hand seat and a couple of really good people who are prepared to service for us and look after the car and also how many great people we’ve met through competition.
Success for us has is a mix of preparation, skill, attitude, teamwork and good luck. This time we would have an opportunity to share some of this with Terry and Robyn Riding who had chosen the Rotorua event to resurrect an old 924 Bridgestone car and as well as their rally careers.
As Terry and Robyn plied us with fine food and excellent company, we did our best to provide them with as much insight and guidance from our experiences. Their undertaking was by means small, having to build and comply a car, get licensed, jump through medical hoops as well as all the regular stuff.
In contrast, our preparation was straight forward – replace Bridgestone livery with Targa livery, fit left-hand seat and Brantz meter, fit skid plate, replace all the fluids and we should be good to go – well, not quite. Having done a hot lap day at Puke’ with Dean and his boys from Conti’s some 4 weeks earlier, all the noises you don’t hear at road speeds were given close scrutiny by the combined skills of Conti’s workshop and they identified a number of components due for replacement so with that all done, we were looking good.
In contrast, Terry and Robyn were being given grief by the LTSA but by the weekend before Targa Rotorua both cars had all the important boxes ticked. We convinced Terry and Robyn to come out to Puke’ on Saturday for the test day as they had not driven the car yet. We wanted to make sure nothing obvious had been overlooked and that if anything was found to be amiss then there were a couple of days to get it sorted.
It was rather wet at the track - but since we race in the wet, so we also practise in the wet. Terry and Robyn were both a little apprehensive but soon appeared more confident with a few laps under their belts. Johnny and Howard (our service crew) did a few adjustments to their seating positions and harnesses and they began to look more comfortable. We packed it in just after lunch and headed home to dry out.
We made our way to Rotorua on Thursday evening and caught up with our good friends Dale Daniels and Peter Tobin who were running their 944S again.
Cars started filling the domain opposite the Novotel from midday Friday as everyone completed documentation and prepared themselves for the prologue stage up Mt Ngongataha. 3pm rolled around and on cue, it started drizzling as we headed off. We were seeded 56th away in a field of 102 starters.
The hill climb was much tighter than we had anticipated and we didn’t really feel we’d got into it. Our time appeared to bear this out with Dale and Pete 27sec faster up the hill. Terry and Robyn were parked at the finish line in their 924 suffering oiled plugs. At the drivers briefing later that night, the organisers announced they’d had some timing issues up the hill and there would be no changes to the start order for the next day.
We thought we may have been seeded a little low and this was borne out the next day as we caught a lot of cars in stages. The first couple of stages were relatively short, less than 10k’s but we still managed to catch and pass at least the car in front. The 3rd stage was much longer at 32km which demands more concentration but magnifies any speed differential – we caught and passed 3 cars on this stage, not counting the ones that fell off. The V8 Triumph Vitesse proved a little difficult to get around as we were unsure if he’d seen us – later the driver apologised blaming British electrics – he thought his indicators were working but found they were not, (hand signals worked in the next few stages!). This stage also proved to be the undoing of the 944S as Dale and Pete hit a concrete culvert in 4th gear before looping end over end into a paddock, landing upside down on their roof with a strainer post through the rear hatch - pretty sobering stuff. They had both purchased Hans Devices before the event and were singing their praises; while a bit shaken, they were OK.
The last stage before lunch was 27km – we didn’t have to pass the Vitesse this time as they backed it off the road into a paddock. The HS2300 Chevette however was a different story. After he made no effort to keep left (per drivers briefing) so it was clear that we needed to be a bit more insistent – a bit like Bridgestone, behind TYR
– the Chevette was yellow too. We closed right up on him and moved from mirror to mirror flashing our lights and after about a half a km of this he finally yielded and we cleared out.After lunch, we had two runs at the 34km Manawahae stage. Again this was punctuated with passing manoeuvres – Ang commented that one of them was just like the hairpin at Puke when we passed the 944 of Dave McCrae on the way in to a ‘double caution right hand hairpin tightening’. An 18km sprint around the Whirinaki Loop road brought us home for the day in 28th. The weather had been damp to start with and dried out throughout the day. We felt pretty good about our performance although we’d earned ourselves a 20sec time penalty for a jump start in stage 5 – Uncle Paul (Halford) chastised us for this transgression, at least we didn’t get the starters finger!
We parked up for the street show and the crew gave the car a going over, readying it for tomorrow. With the 968 sorted, our boys turned their attention to the 924. Howard diagnosed the starting problem as a missing earth strap from the motor to the body, a jury rig using the jumper cable sorted that, and all done, and it was time for some food.
The forecast for Sunday was decidedly wet.
Having shifted up the field aways, we were now running at 1 minute intervals rather than the previous 30 sec. Being amongst faster cars, we also expected we would not to be catching cars in stages – a definite positive. Halfway through the first stage, I felt the steering wheel move from side to side. I backed off while trying to rationalise what it was, the car still steered positively, may be it was the quick release or the nut on the end of the column? We pressed on at a reduced pace to finish the stage and sent a text ahead to our service crew.
On arrival in Matamata, they dived into the footwell and quickly diagnosed it as the bush that locates the shaft through the firewall had moved up the shaft allowing the bottom end of the steering column to flop around. Terry and Robyn were out; the alternator bracket had finally broken leaving them without alternator or waterpump. Meanwhile, our boys managed to hammer the bush back in and got us out in time for the next stage.
We had just entered the start control zone when we got a text – “phone in footwell”. The boys had counted out all the tools, but hadn’t spotted the phone that fell out after hanging up side down. We located the phone, stowed it and got down to business. At the next service, we had to hammer the bush back in and worked out that we could probably get a hose clip around the steering column to hold the bush in. We didn’t have time to do it now so we would do it at the lunch time service.
With the steering sorted, the rest of the event was pretty uneventful. The 968 was relishing the wet conditions so we pushed on, eating up the km’s.
We finished 18th in Modern, 22nd Overall and 4th in Class and we’re pretty happy with that. We’d thought a class placing was a “bit of an ask” given that the class had hotted up from last year with the change to the classification rules and a number of drivers going for hardware upgrades. We had had set ourselves the goal of a top 30 finish. Looking through the stage results, it was clear that we had definitely made progress through the field in the wet and not just through attrition. For the main Targa in October, we’ll need to work on our dry weather pace and hope for some wet as well.
Thanks to our service crew Johnny and Howie and to the boys at Conti’s for preparing and maintaining our car. To Terry and Robyn, thank you for your company and we’ll see you back out there (or over a meal) and to Dale and Pete, our condolences on the demise of the ‘44, but at least you’re OK.
George & Ang!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZUmNJcxmlU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w9xPfkZam4
Top Stuff, sounds like awesome fun. Gotta try it myself some day 
RENN68 said:
Spoke to him at lunch time - he'd seen us coming but said it was too windy to let us past!!! He was a lot more considerate next time
I really like the idea of the LH indicator being flicked on by the lead car to give you certainty that they know you're there and will not cut across the centre-line.
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