First, I did not make up that name, that’s what they’re called, eye roll I know.
kk look, front:
Back.
Got them at dinner tonight. I just stared and stared, seeing my face on this is weird and neat and omg, all together now.
Everyday next week after we race, we go to a car show, stand beside our cars, and these are to hand out.
This is a page from a rally route book. It’s all about those symbols.
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.
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.
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.
Hope we learn more navigational math, I’m still unclear about those formulas.
Hi hi from St. John’s, Newfoundland.
Here’s my home for the next 10 days.
We all arrived late afternoon, got ourselves installed into our hotel rooms.
It’s so true what they say about the people here, eh.
Then we went to pick up our cars.
That’s the hashtag – #TeamNissanTarga
L-R: Danny Bailey, Michael Vaughn, me, Michel Crépault.
He’s a fellow auto journalist out of Quebec, and it’s a good pairing, him and I. A well-balanced duo.
Day 1 of Racing School starts tomorrow at 8am.
There is a lot to learn, because I know nothing about rallies. But like okay… I can drive, I’ll learn some navigational-math, a new language (rally speak! Ex: you never say “right”, instead say “check”), and tada.
TTYT
All Targa posts are filed under this blog tag: #NissanMicraTarga
Oh!
I’m ranking #1 in Google for ‘Nissan Targa Rally’ ha.
Now the trick is to maintain that.
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.