Tuesday - Leg 2 and disaster strikes!

Day 2 finds us in the Exploits valley.  The sun is trying hard to shine, but at least the roads are dry this morning.  The first stage 2-1 Appleton is a simple fast 2.63km stage through a small village.  The road is a bit rough and we have an oil caution at 1.37km.  The stage goes well and we "zero it". 
       The next stage has been deleted so we transit through to 2-3 Bobby's Cove.  This is a longer, faster 8.01km stage that ends at a mussel farm.  The average speed for our base time is 130kph and the time is 3.42 min.  We are also reminded not to exceed the 200kph limit on this stage.  As we are sailing through the fast sweepers, the car starts to wander a bit over 160kph and I remind myself that we will have to fit a front sway bar for next time.  We couldn't fit our old swaybar because of the exhaust manifold and we didn't have the time to fabricate new mounts before coming to Targa.  As the turns tighten I can feel our Toyo R1R tires start to wiggle as they search for the limits of traction.  They were a great choice of tire as they are very predictable and telegraph any slip in traction.

We reach Bobby's Cove without incident or penalty points and our top speed for the stage is 171kph.  The mussel farm overlooks Bobby's Cove and it is a postcard moment...except for the 52 Targa cars that line the single narrow road into the cove.  Again there are more timing equipment issues and we transit out instead of racing.  Apparently it's a combination of the geography and the high ferrous content of the rock that plays havoc with radio signals. 
One of the Grand Touring teams is driving a 2010 Porsche Boxster Spyder.  The car is distinctive but what is even more distinctive is the daily driving apparel of the driver and co-driver.  Yesterday they were wearing silver reflective body suits ala "Mork and Mindy".  Today they are in "Star Trek" uniforms.  I can't wait to see what the rest of the week has in store.

      Stage 2-5 Glover's Harbour as a very long 20.57km very fast stage with an average speed of 130kph.  The car is running very well and our communications are starting to gel.  We actually end up catching and passing the car that started 30 seconds ahead of us.  On straight sections we hit the maximum (but never exceed) the 200kph maximum.  We finish the stage over a minute ahead of time!! 
       Stage 2-6 is a repeat of Bobby's Cove and we run the stage for the second time that day.  The times are a few seconds shorter, but we zero the stage.
      Stage 2-7 is a run back through the road we just did to Pleasantview.  During this stage, Desmond has a brain fart and completely loses his place in the routebook.  After miscalling 2 curves in a row, I decide to let him sort himself out and I drive using with hints from the GPS.  Luckily, this is the second time down the stage this direction and the fourth time this day on this stretch of road so we complete the stage and only pickup a 3 second penalty. 

      We now have a long 126km transit back to Gander for the perennial favourite Gander in-town stage.  This stage actually goes through a subdivision and is all 90 degree turns through residential crescents with many spectators lining the streets.   Imagine standing on your driveway and watching a racecar fly down your street at 140kph!  This is a very technically difficult stage and the times are difficult to meet.  Even Steve Millen in his factory backed 650hp Nissan GTR picked up 8 seconds in penalty points last year.
      We run the Gander stage and it is amazing!  It is an incredible experience and the most fun any gearhead can have with their clothes on!  We drift the back end around the majority of corners in order to preserve momentum, before accelerating hard to the next corner.  At the end of the stage the acrid smell of burning rubber, clutch, and brakes fills the car.   We exit the stage and make the loop around town to set up for our second pass through the stage.  That is where disaster strikes. 
         As we turn onto the road leading back to the start, suddenly all the gauges in the car go beserk and it's like there is an electrical poltergeist.  The lights flash and the gauge needles are bouncing left to right as the car stalls.  I try to restart the car and the starter is jammed on.  I hit and reset the master kill switch but to no avail, the starter is still jammed on and the starter is continuously cranking.  We shut the car off and tell the next competitor and team mate to let our service crew know we're in trouble.        
           We only have about 10 min to reach the start before we miss the next stage.  Glen Clarke, out service manager quickly arrives and tries to get us going.  We decide to quickly jack the car and cut the wires to the starter to get it to stop cranking.  After we try to bum start the car.  This involves pushing the car to get it rolling then "popping" the clutch to try and start the car.  Unfortunately the car still doesn't start and we see out hopes of getting to the next stage slipping away quickly. 
          At this point we get Glen to tow us to the start so we can least get a start time and a DNF (did not finish) which is a lesser penalty than a DNS (did not start).  We get to the start line just in front of the "sweeper" car which closes the stage.  Glen actually tows us through the entire stage and we wave to the amused spectators as we pass by.  At least we complete the stage, albeit with a significant time penalty.  Unfortunately now we need to figure out what is wrong with the car in order to fix it before morning and the start of the next stage.

Broken motor mount

After getting back to the community centre, we start going through the possible sources of our problem.  Unfortunately, electrical problems are the hardest problems to diagnose. As we examine the starter and solenoid, we learn we have also broken a motor mount!   It seems that 2 of the 4 bolts holding the mount to the engine block had vibrated loose and caused the remaining two bolts to bear the entire load and the mount to shear in half.  It's an aluminum mount, so our dilemma is where to get an experienced TIG welder in Gander at midnight who can weld aluminum!  We also realize our fuel pump is not getting any power and our starter solenoid is still shorting out.  Our crew chief amazingly reaches  a welder who is willing to drive in from the next town and weld our engine mount. 

We work feverishly to jack the car and remove the mount as well as bypass a new power wire to our fuel pump.  At 3:30am we have the car back together but after many attempts previously in the day to start the car, our battery doesn't have the juice to turn the engine over.  We put it on a charger and go back to the hotel, still not knowing if our car is fixed or whether it will start.  We get to our room at 4:30am and sleep for 2 hours as we have to be back at the arena for our 7:00am breathalyzer test and early transit out.