Having got ourselves sorted in the hotel, David Ogg came back and we went out on the roads to calibrate the Trip meter, that's a additional mileometer in the car that reads down to 100ths, and will then enable us to match distances accurately with the Roadbook and PaceNotes, which is critically important... Having done this against a measured 10km marked on a local road, we then we into Rally Country, to go and take a look at the roads ...
Houston, we have a problem ... I had spoken to several people familiar with the event about car preparation, and had been told that on tarmac roads my standard suspension set-up would be fine; with Lamborghini Gallardos and 911 GT2s running at the front of the field that made perfect sense ... However, these roads are less than billiard table flat. Coupled with that we are heavier than race-weight, by the addition of spare wheel, some tools, nav kit, and Jason - the Targa type roads we were cruising were causing us to bottom out regularly, which is a huge cause for concern, and likely to hamper performance, but unfortunately that cannot be sorted now... We were in the area that Day One Stages will be run in, and I have been told that they are likely the bumpiest of the entire event, here's hoping.
We ran through a couple of stages at very slow pace, just to get a feel for the roads, and the way the pace notes are written, and how we use them. A very worthwhile exercise.
Met up with a few guys on the Saturday evening, including Charlie Hughes, a local who's crew is carrying my spares package with them.
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