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Targa

Red rally car

Targa was more fun than I expected. We started at 6AM sharp, which means that it’s too dark to see around you. We set up signs, posts & an overhead gondola/sheltery thing, then waited while the Touring class racers lined up, then sent those off en-bloc, then waited as nearly 200 standard racers went through.

Each car was checked for certain safety points, given an arrival time (written on their folder, too), then lined up to start.

The start went whizzing off through the Sterling River bridge, then whizzed up the hill towards Rosebery.

When I say “whizzing”, even the lighter, smaller cars disappeared in an amazing hurry. The expensive-looking Lambo made a lot of noise but took about as long to disappear as the Minis, Austin Healey, Shaker or old Monaro. Or any of the Mercedes, Porsches, BMWs, the Fiat 124SPORT, Lancers, Skylines & WRXes. Etcetera.

I got to spin people out by swigging some loverly Ginger Beer from a stubby bottle, then wore my hands out struggling to read & write down 200 car numbers & arrival times. This eventually got snowed under, so I wound up with two runners fetching folders from cars, & an assistant scrawling numbers on the folders while I watched cars arrive & allocated them real times, writing the whole lot on my own folder (thanks, Cliff Miller, for a clipboard which really works) as I went.

I got a new cap (“BLUEGUM www.bluegum.com.au MADE IN CHINA”) and a name-tag.

I went to an after-the-event munch-up at the Rosebery RSL Club & got to show off my Linux-based laptop burning CDs full of photos for other Targa participants. Oh, & a few copies of OpenOffice and stuff. (-:

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