Targa Rally Day 2 – How to Speak Rally

Sep 11 2014

This is a page from a rally route book. It’s all about those symbols.

A Tulip – depicts the upcoming section of road, and how to drive on it. Start at the dot, finish at the arrow head.

The navigator’s job is to turn the tulips into words, and paint a picture inside the driver’s mind. A good navigator will increase the stage time by 7%, or about 6 places in the standings.

Minimal language must be used, including the least amount of syllables. Right up my alley, since I don’t really like talking.

There’s all types, on the right are bridges, gravel roads, more. The red arrow are the ones to pay most attention to, especially !!! which could kill you.

The words are carefully chosen for the sounds they’re composed of, clever eh.

1 – harsh-sounding words, for extreme actions
2 – soft-sounding words, for easy movements

This afternoon, we were sent to practice. 1.5 km in and I’d already got us going in the exact wrong direction.

But after that, I executed it excellently. Found the trick to this game is to be laser-beam focused for short bursts of time. Even found a mistake in the route book ha.

Our team in action.

I appear confident, Michel appears opposite… which is it?

Maybe we are actually terrible, but probably not, or maybe this is all nonsense, because strategy. Just kidding. Just ignore us.

Targa Rally Day 2 – Attending Racing School

Sep 11 2014

All day. Which is a long time to sit still. Team Nissan was seated in a row at the back.

When the presentation talked about to how to protest something you didn’t like (a score, or a penalty), Michael Vaughn leans over and whispers, “I’m going to protest your car Sunday night”, and I lost it. Good one.

Race Details:

The goal of the game is to have the least amount of points.

The course is about 2,200 km long, peppered with 42 stages, each of which is between 0.7 – 24 km long.

There are 3 classes, and I’m in the middle one, “Grand Touring”. There’s about 40 cars competing in total, and 12 in my class.

Apparently the roads are nuts: no guard rails around hairpin turns hovering above mega rocks and the ocean. The whole province gets into this race, neat eh; everyone ropes off their front yard, and we race through suburbs and town centres. I could knock on that door while passing by.

It’s a Time-Speed-Distance game, it’s not only about going fast. It’s brisk, but not like the top class which travels 200+ km/h. Max I’m allowed to go is 130 km/h -ish.

And you can’t just speed through the course, stop and wait, then glide across the finish line right on time, because there’s interim time control people hiding the bushes, watching for this. Really.

There I am in the official brochure!

Michel and I sharing the driving though, to be clear (wasn’t for my lack of pitching.)

Told you I was going to wear the same thing every day.

Day 2 of class tomorrow.

Hope we learn more navigational math, I’m still unclear about those formulas.

My Racing Uniform was Delivered

Sep 10 2014

They look sharp eh.

Helmets are hot huh.

This was the easiest packing job ever, because I get to be in my natural state: wearing the same thing every day.

Leaving for Targa NWFLD Rally in 36 hrs, Freaking

Sep 8 2014

In 36 hours, I’m going to compete in Canada’s biggest rally race, for which Nissan has outfitted me with a car, kit AND support staff for both logistics and mechanics, I know nothing about this sport.

My only rally experience was a few months ago, when I got to do the Mazda Adventure Rally. Where I won the Daniel Boone Award, for being last to return to base every. single. day.

But then I think, it’s okay, there is really only one thing to know:

Don’t crash the car Keri, do not crash this car.

Plus my life’s still unsettled from the move.

There’s more to this owning-a-house thing than you think going in, eh. Still don’t have furniture, think my washing machine is broken, and I’m nervous to leave my house alone for the first time.

Then my mind just seized up, and for the last 45 minutes I’ve been pacing between the laptop, and an open suitcase… GUYS.

That’s all I have packed, but the decals came out amazing, good and thick. The Decal Zone made them.

First time I’ve held my URL IRL

And my hair is looking great, thanks Kaila! Brennen Demelo Studio. Go too: 416-301-1072

My Itinerary

Tuesday – day off blogging, deadline at newspaper, finish ‘Auto About’ page, forgot to buy things and other errands

Wednesday – fly 12 pm, team dinner

Thursday – Day 1 of Rally Racing School

Friday – Day 2 of Rally Racing School

Saturday – don’t know

Sunday – official practice day, thankful this day exists

Monday – Friday – RACE 7am – 5pm, 6pm auditorium meet & greet, dinner, study next days route book

Took time off from the newspaper, blog will be updated daily, will try for lots of video.

My helmet arrived Friday.

It’s been modified -a microphone and ear-plugs, to a plug out the back that I connect to a radio, to talk to my driving partner.

kk I feel more normal-brained now, blogging it helped. Blog. Because of this blog, here we go on a once-in-a-lifetime $30k race car extravaganza. Got goosebumps typing that.

Starting Wednesday afternoon,
I’ll be living in another world for 10 days.
TTY from there, then!

Where this post came from.

And the good luck gift I got myself: Targa shoes.

Twitter – @KeriBlog

Facebook – Keri CDN

Blog tag – #NissanMicraTarga

I’m car # 1998.

How I Came to be Competing in Targa for Nissan

Aug 27 2014

It Started at the Micra Launch

When Nissan introduced their all-new Micra in May, they invited my blog to the national launch in Montreal.

During the launch there was a game – all journalists were given 4 shots on NHL goalie Jose Theodore, and I scored the most.

Jose would like to thank the Academy.

I was called to centre stage and informed the prize was … I’d be driving for Nissan in the upcoming Targa Rally. Basically, I won a dream.

What is the Targa Rally

The Targa Newfoundland Rally is an annual 2,200 km, 5-day road rally across all of Newfoundland. Like, the whole province agrees to this, ropes off their front yards and cheers from the road side.

To be honest, I still didn’t believe it was going to happen. And that’s why I never said anything here, because the golden-rule of blogging: until you can link to it, don’t type a word.

Some time passed, and I had to sign a few forms.

I was still not totally believing; I’ve signed lots of stuff that never happened.

But that was followed shortly by a lunch with Nissan…

… and that’s when it started to become real. Holy crap this is actually happening to me? It wasn’t processing, I don’t get lucky like this.

Because this is as good as a rally experience gets… a whole team (logistics person, a dedicated mechanic and tech, photographer, more) and I just show up and get behind the wheel. Someone will even make sure I get fed. Phft.

Plus Jenn is going. She’ll be behind the hashtag #TeamNissanTarga, say hi, she’s very quite @NissanCanada

Then the Unveiling Made it Real

On Friday, in the lobby of Nissan HQ Canada, I pulled off a silk cover to find my official race car, my name pasted on the side.

It wasn’t until that moment that I realized this is really happening to me. My hands got shaky, my words turned into babbling (oh Wendy it just hit me I ah gah mmm ermahgerd), then I got pretty awkward, and ran away soon as the silk was off.

Here’s a time-lapse video by fellow competitor Danny Bailey.

Hi my name is ON THE CAR?!

About the Micra

This car is right up my alley – manual transmissions available in all trims, so minimal, no screen, designed specifically for Canada, and it’s a new-car and a used car price. Along the lines of – the Keri Eco Car.

Here’s the blog tag – Micra.

It’s a car-car.

That’s a term I coined to describe my favourite kind of vehicle: minimal, only the essentials, not a computer-on-wheels, a car-car.

Here’s 30-seconds about it.

I also tested it for a week, here’s the newspaper review.

And here’s an old ‘Keri on Driving’ column, where I interviewed the gentleman who decides what features go into a car, including the Mircra.

So find me in Newfoundland

From September 10 – 20, the first 2-days of which are racing school. Which is good because I’m ignorant about this rally racing stuff, and I really want to win.