September 11th 12th Legs 2 & 3 - from the Crews perspective...

Tuesday we were off on Leg 2. The route took us through many small communities. Whole villages would come out to watch by the roadside. Kids were given the day off school. Everyone involved in the race, including the service crews were greeted by the spectators with enthusiasm.

The most memorable race stage of the day was the run into Leading Tickles. Geoff and Scott were moving very well on a 30 km twisty into the town. They crested a hill at 160 km/hr and found themselves airborne. Suddenly very quiet in the car, until an eternity later, after completely passing over a slight “S” bend on the downhill, they touched down with a whoosh. Geoff looked at Scott, Scott looked at Geoff, and said something to the effect of “What the ‘he**’, shouldn’t there have been a caution on that?” The in-car video camera tape was full at that point and no longer recording. We were approached by a fellow who was setup filming the corner and wanted to find us as he caught it all on tape. We will post a clip as soon as we can access a fast connection to get the video. He said it was the coolest line taken by the whole group. The story, in the meantime is already getting better with the re-telling.

Lunch at Leading Tickles’ Oceanview Park was hosted by 4 different groups offering 4 different menus. One of our favorites was brewis with scrunchions, which is mashed cod mixed with bread and onions, and fried pork back.

The view from the lookout at the park was worth the 10 minute ascent.

Since some of the spots designated for servicing the cars en-route were tight on space, there was no way to get the truck and trailer with the tools, and race fuel close to the car. Fortunately Gary was able to borrow his grandson Jackson’s little wood wagon before we left Ontario so we were saved the effort of schlepping the stuff by hand.

Soon after lunch on Tuesday, we heard from Angela at TDI that the master brake cylinders had arrived at the hotel we were staying at in Gander. John Dimoff at Raven had liberated these for us from Steve Gailits’ car. (We had called him Sunday night. The cylinders were on their way Monday morning.) When Geoff and Scott finished the day’s driving around 8:00 PM, we went to work on the car and in short order the brakes were fully operational again. This was a true team effort. Thanks to John, Steve G, Steve B and Angela. You guys made it happen.

Wednesday dawned cold, windy, and rainy. Someone noted that the Targa tradition of Hurricane Wednesday’s was being continued. However, the weather did not daunt Geoff and Scott. The car was now right on and they moved up through the pack in standings making up for lost time. At the end of Wednesday, they now stand in 1st place in their class and 16th overall. Having brakes really makes a difference!

The car is sorted out very well now. The trailer is compensating for the car’s good behaviour. Yesterday we had another trailer tire problem and a change beside the Trans-Canada highway. However, the trailer’s bad behaviour is no match for the good people of Newfoundland’s helpfulness. Shortly after calling a Goodyear Service Area manager, we had 3 people open up their shop for us in Clarenville 2 hours after closing time, find and mount a matching tire for us, and do so with such a good