|
Targa Tasmania
|
|
1998 Targa Tasmania The thought of venturing into territory where only two others had ventured before, really didn =t phase me. But it did Des. Frazer Gascoigne in his Ferrari 308 GTB and Bruce Jessup in his Ferrari Dino 308GT4 had lined up at the Start of the 1997 Targa Tasmania expecting to go the full distance and make their times, only to be disappointed by mechanical failure. Those failures cost them both the privilege of being the first to accept a Platinum Plate for Targa Tasmania.It =s not an easy task to go for six consecutive years or for 3+3 with a one year break in-between averting the mechanical gremlins that seem to creep into machinery on the fourth or fifth day of a gruelling competitive event like Targa. Something, usually something simple, can too often go wrong! But this year there were eleven hopefuls lined up at the Start, each hoping they would make it through to New Norfolk with their plate intact and therefore a Platinum presentation at the Monday night Presentation Dinner.Our preparation for the 1998 Targa started with the Lactos Heritage Rally. Des thought it would be a good idea to give the car a bit of a run to head off any potentially terminal problems prior to Targa. AYou never know what=s going to fail next on these old cars@ Des reminded me. He should know. After all getting his Gold Targa Plate driving a rigid 1920 Hispano Suiza Guynemr Special with a lightweight 11800 cc aircraft engine, took heaps of ingenuity and knowhow just to keep the old girl going. As it transpired, Des was correct. The clutch died halfway through the Lactos event and we were lucky to get it onto the boat and back to Melbourne.Participation in Lactos also brought other dividends. Des had navigated for me in the 1996 Targa, the first year of his platinum sequence and his first year as a navigator in the event. That event introduced him to the joys of the hi-tech Terratrip 404 an experience from which he is yet to fully recover. Nonetheless Lactos gave him the opportunity to study up on the vagaries of this box and his preparation for the main event was more or less complete. Forever nervous about the capacity of older cars to last the distance Des insisted I put the car through a solid preparation. So Sandro Terzini the custodian of Dino 308 GT4 promptly replaced just about everything prior to the event including, clutch, tyres, pads, fluids, belts, plugs, windscreen and whatever else seemed reasonable. We even, at Des =s specific request, provided a special velcro mount for the remote control of the Terratrip 404, so it could be easily accessible for Des during the course of a Targa stage. The car was cleaned and polished, wheels were aligned and finally the night before the boat trip it was put on the dyno. Such preparation! All of this was obviously too much for an old car and the fuel pump expired at 8,000 rpm. Undaunted Des saw this as a great omen, on the basis that everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong, been improved or had been replaced. Just to make sure, Des decided it would be a good idea to supplement the range of spares Sandro Terzini felt we should take with us, with the ultimate spare part ... an identical Ferrari Dino 308GT4. AFor the cost of an extra $50 to take the car with us@ he argued A we have the ultimate in support, right down to the right colour and complete with all the necessary sponsor signage. Besides, it=s the ideal support car ... nothing attracts the women like a Ferrari.@ Now who could argue with that!Eventually we made the boat following a pleasant interlude at John Fitzpatrick =s Swallows Hotel where much swallowing was indeed done by all assembled so as to get into the right mood for the sea crossing to follow. It must have been a great night because Des and I arrived a trifle late to drive the cars off the boat only to be met by an enthusiastic but irascible band of fellow competitors, who in concert with the ships company had been waiting 20 minutes or so for us to arrive. It seemed we had been holding up the wheels of progress ... and we were told by the waiting chorus, in no uncertain terms, where the two Ferrari=s should go. Unperturbed we shepherded the cars off the Spirit of Tasmania to the waiting throngs at Devonport. The breakfast put on by the Devonport Rotary Club was always a great way to recover from the Huon Room and kick-start the Saturday. As part of the economy drive or for some other reason, breakfast dockside had been cancelled this year. AI really missed that breakfast@ Des remarked. Looking at him, I understood immediately.Saturday, we did the usual things. Waited. Sunday we did much the same. Waited. We did it again on Monday. But by then we were used to it. In between Des socialised and slept. Slept and socialised. Good preparation I thought. By Monday however we recognised we had a major problem. We had the portable spare part, but no-one to drive it. Fortunately, between refreshments, we realised that what we needed was an expatriate Tasmanian, who had experience with the event, who knew something about Ferrari =s, liked driving and above-all enjoyed fine wines, great cuisine and the occasional cigar. Just like Superman, Chris Stephen came to the rescue. Mind you it didn=t take too much convincing!Within five minutes of arriving on Tuesday morning Chris assumed the self-appointed role of Crew Chief for our Ferrari Dino 308GT4 and the Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 of Bruce Jessup, the Jaguar of Reg Kenny, the Ferrari 308 GTB of Jack ALightweight@ Klaver and the Ferrari 365 GT 2+2 of Andrew Ogg and Mike Mier ... much to the delight and amazement of all concerned, I might add!After the Prologue at Georgetown the regular appearance of two identical red Ferrari Dino 308 GT4's was causing much discussion and consternation amongst our fellow competitors. It was suggested that this was all part of a ruse to clean each stage ... one car would start the stage and the other would finish ... ensuring our times and Des = Platinum Plate.The event got underway in earnest on Wednesday. Those who had been to the event before missed Adrian Mason and his Sergeant-Major like approach to the orderly movement of vehicles from the Silverdome. I certainly would have welcomed his presence, because Des, who was socialising somewhere at the time, missed our call, so I was forced leave the Silverdome without him and head off toward Launceston. The prospect of commencing the first day of competition without my platinum seeking navigator did have its upsides, but in deference to his importance in the whole scheme of things, I pulled over into the car park outside the Silverdome and waited. Ten minutes or so later, Des materialised. Following a hectic trip into the town centre we arrived at the Start area for the day. In his haste to organise our rightful place in the starting order, Des alighted from the car, dropping the remote from the Terratrip ( with its custom-fitted navigator-friendly velcro-backing) as he did so, letting it fall into the door well. Forgetting to close the door, he then turned and did so with uncommon gusto and speed, leaving me wide mouthed unable to utter a syllable in warning. Too late. The remote with its newly acquired velcro backing was squashed beyond repair. Not that it mattered, but it just goes to show how important tempo is in these events. As they say in golf: think slow, walk slow and swing slow! Reflecting his seven years experience in the event, following our official start Des immediately adjusted his tempo for the event. Unconcerned about the absence of the remote, he promptly figured out which buttons to press on the unit itself, told me to follow the car in front and did what all veteran navigators do ... he went to sleep. What a tempo! And so it went for the next five days. Des slept for the transport stages, but woke up when it really mattered. Usually during the more difficult Targa Stages. As Des explained to me I was only there to do a specific job, ALook Jim, you=re the chauffeur ... just drive me around@. It was like ADriving Miss Daisy@.Overall it was a relatively uneventful Targa. Day One was dry and had the usual number of Aoffs@. The most spectacular was Jack ALightweight@ Klaver who scared a few cows whilst flying over the top of them into a paddock. Ferrari=s would make good agricultural machines because he promptly drove it out like any good tractor and got on with the event. Apparently he made the television news that night. Everyone it seems likes to see a Ferrari in mid-air!Day Two varied between dry, damp, wet and really wet. Depends on where you were on the day, but by and large not too bad. Day Three was fine. Many drivers however began to complain about the sunshine. Having driven Targa so often in the wet or at best overcast conditions, driving stages in bright sunlight was often difficult on some stages, perilous on others. Quite a few drivers were unprepared for the sudden brilliance of sunlight and occasional white-out. Sunlight was not a problem for Bruce Jessup at Ridgway Park however. A slight driver error had his Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 accelerate off a rock and hit a tree 8 feet up, then roll back rather neatly onto the roadway on its roof. Remarkably, thank God, both Bruce and Geoff Smedley walked away unscathed, or as Bruce put it, AShaken but not stirred@. All of this was captured for posterity on video and no doubt we will see this spectacular footage for many years to come.Day Four saw some major Aoffs@. The first was the Elfin Streamliner at Ross again captured on video, but the gravest was at Rianna at the end of the day. At last report only the driver of the car was hospitalized, but the prospects were good. Let=s hope that is still the case. Day Four is the hardest of the four days and as most experienced Targarites would confess it is Saturday afternoon when the rally really gets serious. Conditions this year couldn=t have been better.On Day Five we all woke to a sunny Burnie. Having sunshine in the morning at Burnie must have been a record! Even Hellyer Gourge, characteristically mossy and wet, was dry. In fact the biggest problem at Hellyer was the sunlight suddenly and unexpectedly creeping through the mantle of overgrowth through the Gourge to blind you unexpectedly on the odd corner. Just before lunch on Day 5 we sprang a water leak via a tired seal in the water pump. By now awake and suitably impressed, Des promptly bought a huge plastic container of water in Queenstown which helped us through the rest of the day. It was the largest amount of water we saw on Day Five! So in the end we arrived safely in New Norfolk. Des along with nine others had achieved his Platinum plate. The Platinum winners for the record were: Peter Buckingham; Michael Catchpole; Des Dillon; Michael Hogarth; Reg Kenny; Mike Mier; John Moore; Andrew Ogg; Barry Oliver and Jim Richards. Whilst it is meritorious enough to win a Platinum plate, it is more so to be amongst the first. Moreover it is more meritorious again for the same Driver AND the same Navigator AND the same car ... that =s what Andrew Ogg and Mike Mier achieved in their Ferrari 365 GT 2+2. Congratulations!Like previous Targa =s there were many Club members and friends of the Club in this years event. Andrew Gregory performed more than creditably in his first event in his new Maserati Ghibli Cup Car and was one of only two Maserati=s in the event: the other, a BiTurbo driven by Ray Gulson with Geoff Petherbridge (who incidentally is President of the Australian Ferrari Register). Other Club members in the event included Robert Shannon and Craig Brown in the Invicta S type, Geoff Taylor and Lane O=Donoghue in the Kodak yellow Porsche 911 Carerra, Phillip Caldwell in the 1976 Jaguar XJS, Glenn Read in a Holden Torana A9X, Rodney Edwards and Robert Kolodziej in their Porsche 911, Winston Kim in his Porsche 911 Carrera S4, Steve Phillips in his Nissan 200SX and Simon Froude in his Porsche 911 Carrera RS. There were of course many friends of the Club who regularly attend Club track days, including: Gary Tierney in his Ford Mustang, Michael Roddy in his Jaguar XJS V12, Mathew Bryson in his Ford Escort RS 1800, Peter Milliken in his Jaguar XJ6, Max Warwick in his Porsche 911 RSCS and Warwick Freemantle in his Nissan GTR. There of course were many others. Some members and former competitors had difficulty staying away. Geoff and Nerida Beable came down for a look, Dee Stephen was seen on many stages and elsewhere supporting Chris in his new found role. But the most spectacular Aarrival@ was that of Ian Begley, Bruce Rawlings and the Otway Racers Crew who turned up in Hobart in their 65 ft ocean liner. Moored it adjacent to the Targa cars at Princes Wharf and proceeded to entertain themselves and many competitors. No matter which way your look at it Targa Tasmania, despite its problems on occasion, remains a great event. It provides a special sort of bonding between all who participate. It provides the vehicle to create new friendships and strengthen old ones.So it has all come to an end for another year. Despite all the sleep Des reckons he is Arallied out@. No doubt. Realistically the verdict is still out on that one, at least until he does a bit more socialising, to even up the balance!My thanks to Des for a great Targa. I had a terrific time! No doubt a major advantage in chauffeuring Des around scenic Tasmania without pace notes was the extra time we found for some old fashioned humour and the time to appreciate the sheer joy of being alive! |
||
 |
||
