Daily Archives: Oct 29, 2010

Racing Day 5 Wrap Up!

I am in my hotel room writing this before Steve and Phillip get into the wharf for the final destination.  They have both done an amazing job and the entire team is very proud of the effort and hard work put in by all!  Steve pulled out some pretty miraculous skills this week and showed that he hasn’t lost his edge.  Steve competes in very few of these rallies and really doesn’t get much time to get back into the racing lifestyle anymore, so it took a day or two for him to feel fully comfortable with the car, but I’ll tell you once he was in the zone he was a machine!  The in-car video footage and the photos tell the story better than I ever could!

The car has performed flawlessly all week and Mark and Joe have done a great job maintaining the car and making sure Steve and Phillip have exactly what they needed all week.  Jodi and Vivian (Phillip’s wife) have been great team moms and looked after the service crew and the drivers better than anyone could have asked for.  We are all very happy to come home with the drivers and car all together in one piece and with a very strong finish!  I am pretty sure this is Steve’s best finish in a Targa Rally and the competition is fierce!  Tony Quinn is a great driver and has a lot of Targa experience with his GT-R having competed in three New Zealand Targa’s as well as others in Australia.  Glenn Inkster is a very talented driver and will surely make a name for himself in the Rally scene.  Watching him flick his Evo through turns is a thing of beauty!

Finally, what is with this weather?  It was sunny and dry pretty much all week.  It’s been chilly but I have never even heard of a Targa rally being pretty much dry for the entire week!  Heck, last year it was hailing and snowing in Wellington!!!  In 2008 they had to cancel a stage because the waves from the ocean were coming up over the stage road!

Well, I’m off to meet Steve and Phillip and join the festivities!  Thanks for following along this week!  We’ll definitely have a ton of photos and in-car video footage and a final recap!

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Wellington is a lot like it normally is…Cold…Windy…and a high probability of rain!  Not a huge surprise yet very welcomed!  We are holding strong in third place and Steve drove hard today and won a couple stages chipping away time at Quinn and Inkster.  Inkster fought hard and also had a great showing and we are expecting tomorrow to bring an awesome battle!  All three vehicles are running strong and working hard!

Steve Millen STILLEN R35 GT-R Targa NZ 2010 Day 5
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Last night I was walking through the parking lot and noticed a car on a trailer covered by a tarp.  Usually this can only mean one thing so we went up and checked it out.  Sure enough, the car had a big off and won’t be returning to the rally.


It was kind of funny because the driver and co-driver initially asked if they could work on the car and possibly get it back in the race…looking at these pictures, you can see they were pretty optimistic at first and then realized shortly there after that their rally was done!

Clark Proctor has decided to hang around on the Targa rally and is following around on a borrowed Harley.  His automotive luck isn’t shining this week as I walked through one stage and saw the Harley…along with a trail of oil coming from the oil tank leading to the chain guard, frame, and other areas of the bike.

Dodson had a pretty impressive turn around today.  Coming up surprisingly and winning a stage!  This was especially impressive considering he celebrated his 50th birthday last night!

Some of the two day Wellington cars have joined the rally and are pushing hard!  We’re looking forward to seeing what they can do!  Some of the cars that have shown up are VERY impressive and well sorted out.

Speaking of which, Mark, Joe, and I had dinner tonight and drew up a few ideas of what we can improve on for next year.  It should be very exciting and I think some of our ideas will be pretty surprising!

1 more day of racing!

Modern Class Results after Day 4 – October 29, 2010

# Driver/Co Driver Vehicle Class Total Event
997 Tony Quinn/Naomi Tillett Nissan R35 GT-R 9 04:39:14
945 Glenn Inkster/Spencer Winn Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 6 9 04:42:48
975 Steve Millen/Philip Adamson Nissan Stillen GT-R 9 04:43:27
926 Jason Gill/Jody Somervell Mitsubishi EVO9 GT 9 04:44:59
998 Harry Dodson/Glenn Cupit Nissan GT-R35 9 04:46:26
917 Glenn Smith/Andy Lowe Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X 9 04:56:21
947 Brian Green/Fleur Pedersen Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS 9 04:59:13
944 Rick Giddy/Joel Giddy Subaru WRX STI 9 05:02:35
670 Gary Murphy/Terry Rouse BMW M3 6 05:03:05
820 Richard  Mehrtens/Stephen Howard MercedesBenz CLK63 AMG Black 8 05:03:18

 

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