Having had the car scrutineered on Saturday, made for an immensely pleasant Sunday in Launceston.
Jason finally made it into town, despite Jetstar’s best efforts to stop him, with some time to spare before the afternoon’s driver’s briefings. Tim further prepped his Impreza for the days ahead, while Anthony and I wrote rude things on his windows while he wasn’t looking.
The Commodore needed a couple of finishing touches, so another trip to Supercheap was in order – new windscreen wipers and some hose clamps to relocate one of the extinguishers.
Launceston has a great motoring museum with a small collection of amazing cars, so we headed down for a look. We failed to realise that this was the location of this year’s Targa charity rides and arrived to a bit of fanfare, where Tim’s Subaru was given priority parking rights, in the incorrect belief that he would be giving special kids a ride. I helpfully pointed out that he brought a carload of his own.
Tim and Jason had to be at the Tour briefing at 3pm, so Anthony and I thought it best to support them by drinking in the bar underneath where they were being programmed by race officials. We helped a lot. At some stage I had a bright idea that the pokies would be a great idea. Turned out to be a great idea, with Anthony winning over $150 and my winnings totalling enough to pay for a few drinks.
The competitor’s briefing at 3pm went well, with all safety issues being dealt with quickly and effectively before moving on to some encouraging information about the future of the race. Sounds like there is a new Targa event on the horizon, making 4 each year.
Sadly, we were also told a story about a ‘wannabe’ Targa tryhard that was driving well above the speed limit a few months back on one of the typical stages (not in a race) when he crested a hill too quickly and lost control of his vehicle. Sadly he killed a lady who was unloading her kids from the family car. The family asked Targa to avoid that stage this year while they grieve for their lost family member. The Targa family quickly agreed to bypass that stage, out of respect for the family. There is also going to be a collection from all competitors, which I am sure will assist in some small way.
So: Hundreds of appreciative racers (or ‘rich wankers’ as we were called yesterday 🙁 ) are now ready to roll. Looking forward to the race.

And here we are:

Car 689 is doing well. According to Scott there was a moment where both driver and navigator looked like change of underwear was going to be needed. However they made it to the end of Day 1.