Dunlop Targa: Day 2, Fuel Crisis!

A great start to the day, and full of optimism as we were ahead of quite a few contemporaries.

SS10 and SS11 were set amongst the spectacular backdrop of Mt Taranaki and made for some inspired driving! I've been having a bit of trouble downshifting into second gear, but I think I'm finally starting to get it right.

What I didn't get quite right was a tight hairpin bend into an intersection on SS11, Inglewood 1. I ran too wide and into gravel which threw the car sideways! Driving my way out of it managed to earn a spot on the TV3 news, which I guess, adds some notoriety!

We've met with a lot of enthusiasm regarding the car, due to it's rarity and the way it's being driven. It's a great feeling when people get excited about what we're into and I love fielding questions like "what the hell have you got in that thing?" It really surprises people to learn that it's a Volvo engine and that this unassuming marque had a quite a competition history.

So on to the big stage of the day, Whangamomona. This was a monster 39km stage climbing up and then back down into a valley. It ran one way for SS12 and then in reverse for 13, the final stage of the day. Also a logistical nightmare. One way in, one way out, no cellphone coverage. What it meant was that Allan and Hans had to get in before the road closure, to ensure we could get service once we completed the stage.

We started well and I was getting a great feel for the road. Suddenly we started losing power. It only got worse and soon enough we were parked. No power at all! Safety triangle and Ok sign out, we proceeded to watch everyone we'd made time over pass us by! Along with the rest of the field.

We had plenty of time to figure out what happened but found out quite soon. No petrol. None whatsoever! The tank had run bone dry! We're still not sure how this happened since we were sure the tank had been filled the night before. A non-functioning fuel gauge doesn't help, but we'd easily relied on knowing avg consumption previously.

We waited for a tow out of the stage to our service crew so we could fill up in time for the stage start in the opposite direction. But no dice. NO-ONE could tow us, much to our disbelief. We watched many 4x4s equipped for this purpose file past us and decline requests for help or fuel.

Further insulting was service crews following the sweeper cars through the stage. This was clearly not permitted in the service crew instructions, and had Allan and Hans known this was possible, they would probably not be stuck where they could not help us. Of course there was no cellphone coverage for us to ring for help.

This will get tedious if I go in to more detail, but the short story is, we got fuel, we drove out, couldn't do the stage in reverse but are getting an estimated time based on our performance till now. Very frustrating way to end a day's competition, and we've lost a stage, but maybe I should take heart in knowing that running out of fuel has happened to much better drivers than me with much richer teams than ours!