The schedule for our third day consisted of 8 special stages which covered the communities of Davisville, Frederickton, Musgrave Harbour, Greenspond Port Blandford and completed in Clarenville. We drove through many other beautiful towns and villages.
Along the way were were greeted by many people standing at the ends of their driveways and in groups along the route. We stopped to give out our "hero cards" and t-shirts and to say hello and thank you for welcoming us into their communities. We were also greeted by gale force winds, driving rain and slick conditions in the morning. Rain quickly separates the field with some teams taking large time penalties as a result of driving too cautiously. The stages for the day ranged in length from 2.29KM to 12.44KM with required average speeds for our class of up to 124.1 km/h. This may not sound fast for those commuting to Toronto to work, but try it in a 100 year old fishing village beside the ocean!
The results of the day have us moving to 1st overall in our class and 18th overall. The times are very close and there still remains two days of competition.
There were two particular highlights of the day for us. We stopped in a small fishing community called Barbour Village which was a beautiful community perched on a barren rock peninsula in the ocean. The women of the community put together a fantastic lunch consisting of cod chowder, sandwiches and a vast selection of desserts. The second highlight was from our last stage of the day in Clarenville. On this stage we beat our class time by 32 seconds as a result of a fantastic run and a great show for he community. A gentleman came up to us after the day to comment that he could hear us roaring up the street before he could see us and the crowd simply loved the speed and sound of the car.
The car is running great and now that we have our rear brakes back, our confidence has increased and allowed us to drive at a higher level. As a result of our actual times on the stages we will be starting the day tomorrow as the fastest car in our class. We look to gain more ground tomorrow of the overall competition as the times get tougher to meet and our car settles into a very comfortable rhythm.
Days are still long and nights longer, so we have put up a picture from one of the stages taken by the official photograper of the event Darlington Mediaworks. More to follow tomorrow.
