Craig Taranaki Tarmac Rally 2010

After changing my mind a few times the decision was made on the last day of entries to go and try a rally again,with the main aim being to finish and have fun.

It was to be Mikes first time as a codriver after 20 or so years of driving,needless to say he was just a bit quietly worried i think,but he helped fund and organised the team so i was commited to making sure it went well.

After fittng a Tripmeter and intercom and jack and spare ETC ETC over the previous week,we took the car for a run on wednesday night then back onto the hoist for a check and what do you know the gearbox and the rear brake calipers were leaking so we pulled them all apart and found a broken snout in the gearbox that had been machined for the hydraulic clutch,found another one which we machined up the next morning and got the box back in.

The brakes were another issue,Mike fixed them with some spare seals he had but in the end we got some new seals sent which we got on Friday morning so fitted them up before we left and they worked perfectly.

Even tho we checked our helmets intercom system on Wednesday, when we tried them again just before we parked the car on friday night Mike couldnt hear me which may have been a good thing.
Then the water temp guage stopped working on the way to the first stage,great timing.

Never mind all minor stuff and not enough to stop racing.

We got off to a good run in the first stage and i just drove what i could see,it sure takes a bit of getting used to the fact that the whole road is yours to use and i probably didnt even use it to the best of my advantage all day.

The setup was not quite spot on so after playing with the shocks we raised the rear at lunchtime and the car handled alot better in the afternoon,i borrowed some springs(thanks Adam and Bernard)and altho the ratio front to rear wasnt quite right it was okay for what we wanted to do which was to finish.

We were on a new set of Achilles Tyres(thanks Mike) and alltho i dont have anything to compare them with when it comes to road racing i thought they were great so if you can get Miles to stop listening to his Chickens get down to budget Tyres and get a set,bang for your buck i dont think you could do better.
I am looking forward to trying them at the track to see how they handle there.

Very happy with 49th and Mike suggested entering the TopHalf series so we got 3rd in class!! yeha
Thanks again to Mike,i couldnt have done it without his help and his bro Barry who came down to service.

Should have some photos soon and am uploading video to Youtube, not that exciting to watch as we didnt have any "moments"but we had fun.

 


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