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the event.
The planning for the event probably
started some eighteen months prior to
the actual start in April this year.
There was a major logistics exercise in
arranging transport for car and crew,
accommodation for all, service and
fuel requirements, pace notes, car
preparation and the list goes on.
Paul Helm, my navigator, and I
started our journey to Tassie at
6:00am on Thursday March 31, when
we pulled out of Perth with car in tow
heading for our first stop at
Balladonia. The first day ran pretty well to plan except for a small hiccup just out of
Coolgardie where the fuel gauge lied about the number of kilometres left in the tank.
Thankfully a passing motorist helped us out with a few litres of diesel and we were soon on
our way again.
Day 2 across the Nullarbor was plain sailing and we got to Ceduna late that evening to an
amazing sunset. Day 3 took us to Murray Bridge and day 4 was an easy run into Melbourne
and on to the Spirit of Tasmania for the overnight crossing to Devonport. With 3500 km of
travel completed we were eager to get to Tasmania. We were off the ferry early the next
morning and then drove into Launceston to catch up with local mates Chris and Martin
Bulk who had agreed to be service crew throughout the event. These guys, as it turns out,
were invaluable in their local
knowledge, contacts and experience
on previous Targa Tassie events. We
also met up with Larry Coyle and
Glen Badger who had come across
from Perth to act as service crew.
The next four days were spent doing
reconnaissance of the Targa Tasmania
stages using the pace notes we had
purchased. We travelled over 3000 km
in the 4 days and got to see some
pretty awesome and somewhat
daunting sections of road. It would be
fair to say that straight stretches of
road over 500 metres long were pretty
rare. A bit different to the Nullarbor!
The next day we took the car to
scrutineering which was held at Symmons Plains race circuit just outside of Launceston, it
was blowing a gale but apparently it always blows out there. The car passed with no
problems, so just onto the drivers briefing and we were ready to go.
The big day arrives!! We were sitting on the start line at the Silverdome with a few
butterflies looking forward to the next 6 days of competition. We were off! Stage 1 - Legana
was a sighter run which helped settle the nerves and we ran with a clean time. Second stage
Holwell completed with no problems, except we passed a BMW 2002 that had crested a hill
The Escort working hard on Legana
Look familiar? The Escort at Sheffield-Adam