From hero to zero in an instant.
The rest of the afternoon was to be spent running stages along the Burin peninsula, including some very tight seaside town stages. The run through Garnish is similar to Harbor Mille, with a fast section leading into very narrow roads through town and then back out to the coast for another high-speed blast.
We were running the stage very well, having banked a ton of time on the fast run in. The town stage is tough, but we were managing to run hard and clean. There's an infamous section of town where 4 or 5 roads combine, and it's very easy to get lost. My co-driver called a hairpin right, which we both recognized from previous Targas; up one street to a T-junction, 90-right, and another 90-right down to a parallel street that then curves away from the road you come up on. I was turning in for the second 90-right when my co-driver got confused and said, "No, it's the next one", meaning the next right hand road a little further down. I didn't think he was right, but you always trust your co-driver, no matter what. I unwound the wheel and started to speed forward when he called out, "I'm wrong, it was that road."
On to the brakes, bang reverse, speed backwards, on the brakes again, bang first and turn down the road. Only when I went for the gas pedal to go down the road, all I got was a leap in the revs and not much forward progress.
The clutch was toast.
At some point in the bad junction melee the clutch, which was already unhappy from the past few days of hard running, decided to quit the job of transmitting power from the motor to the transmission. Having enough grip to roll forward if we were light on the throttle and kept our revs down, we limped through the stage at a pace to make our Targa plate time. We made it thanks to banking so much time running fast before the clutch let out, but it was not looking good for the rest of the event.
I have had instances where a clutch had overheated and was able to work again after a cool-down, so I was grateful for a lunch stop in the town of Fortune. We rested the car, cooled our heads and planned
to run the next stage.
The run through Fortune is one of the tightest of the event. With streets not much wider than the cars and rough, broken up pavement that is more gravel than tarmac, Fortune is designed to pile on the penalties.
We got in line and hoped for the best, but it was not to be. As soon as we went for power off the line, the clutch immediately slipped and we had no forward drive. In order to not be a hazard on the road we ran as fast as we could in 3rd gear and watched our mirrors, but by the end of the stage we were even too slow for the Targa plate time, which is 35% slower than our base time. There was no way we were walking away from this event with any silverware.
Unfortunately we were not the only ones who were victims of the afternoon. More mechanical troubles befell other cars, and a pair of fellow BMW Club Racers – Nick Papayanis and Will Atkinson – went from leading modern and running in the top 5 overall to hitting a house and being knocked out of competition as well. That unfortunately is the nature of Targa.
We participated in the last stage of the day as spectators. It was great to see a stage from the outside of the car, as it also showed us who was truly fast and who was simply in a fast car. We won't share who fit into what category… Tomorrow we'll volunteer to be marshals on the last stage of the day, helping to police the roads and run the stage, before limping our car through the ceremonial finish in St John's to get our finishers medallions. There will always be next year to try to win again.
The event is over for us, but there is one more day of competition. We'll report on the results in tomorrow's blog.
READ THE INTRO HERE
READ THE ABOUT THE MAZDA TEAM HERE
READ LEG 1 STORY HERE
READ LEG 2 STORY HERE
READ LEG 3 STORY HERE
