Targa High County 2017, We Won!

[Colin Byrne]

So It finally happened, the little 105 alfa made it on top of the podium in Shannon's classic for Targa High Country 2017.

The 3 day event started on Friday morning, we came out strong with and with a second on the first competitive stage, but dropped down to forth during the day with a cracked exhaust header.  We made it back to service that night and discovered the header had cracked due to a completely failed engine mount (looks to be head affected).  A quick call to a mate that was on his way up and and a small detour to my house was arranged to pick up another mount.  He got up on the mountain at about 10 and we were back in business with the extractors already removed and welded up earlier. 
But this wasn't our only issues, on the transport to the last stage the car began to cough and splutter due to some unusally high fuel pressure.  Turned out to be a failure of the internal reg inside the carter fuel pump, luckily we have too pumps on board so It was just a matter of switching over to the other pump to get us back up the mountain.
Unfortunately the reg is non-serviceable, so we couldn't resurrect the pump.  We could get through Saturday on one tank and pump, but no way could we finish Sunday.  But after talking to our mates in the Volvo on Saturday morning we had secured one that they carry as a spare and would get it to us that night at service, sorted
So we had a pretty good day Saturday, trading places between 2nd 3rd and 4th on various stages and winning the Mansfield town stage.  So by the end of the day we were in 4th position with only 22 seconds to 2nd place (Holden Monaro) with a BMW sitting between us.  In front was an RX7 turbo, way in front.
So we fitted the new pump that night and were 100% for day 3, a huge day with a both a 40km and 30km stage on the Eildon-Jameson road plus a run up and down buller and another 2 stages out the back of Eildon.  We went out strong with had a good run down the mounting, went has hard as we dared without completely destroying our soft Dunlop's on the 40km Jameson stage.  Had a good crack on the shorter stage before lunch and as we rolled in discovered we had beaten the Monaro in second by over a minute and that RX7 had had a preety decent crash and was out.  We were on top by about 45 seconds!. 
So we pretty much just did the same thing on the way home, kept the boot in and managed to get up on top of the mountain across the finish line, In first place by over 1 and a half minutes.  The old man didn't do too bad either with a Top Ten finish.  Great event once again, weather was nice, probably a little hotter than you'd like in a rally car though!, bring on Tassie!!

Couple of videos on my You tube channel of some of the stages  from the last day and a compilation of packing the service car,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdXH_L9aLlU&t=195s  Devils River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXIsWVAgjY&t=5s 30km Eildon stage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLdXHohwmIA Fairly Stressful Last Drive up Buller to Victory!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIup6fnJ7BM Me packing the service car

[Neil Choi]

Well done big fellas.  Congratulations.

[Brad M]

Well done champ!

[Evan Bottcher]

Sensational.  You should be very proud of a huge effort over the years to deliver the goods - keep it up!  We've all been barracking for you from afar, checking the website for stage times.

[Colin Edwards]

Congratulations - and a great account of the event. 

A fitting reward for outstanding preparation and persistence!

[Colin Byrne]

Thanks very much guys, yea nice to know all that prep has finally paid off!
I'll try and get down to the December club night with the family to say hi to everyone
Cheers

[Neil Choi]

Bring silverware.

[Colin Edwards]

AND bring $100 to throw on the bar!

Very nice little segment in the just released CAMS November State (Vic) Update.