The MultiVital Clubman takes on Targa Tasmania 2000
Day 5
We were greeted on day five by pouring rain. Good for making up time, bad for driving a clubman with no roof. As the day advanced, the weather became more and more diabolical. The rain became heavier, the wind got stronger.
Driving with no roof in
pouring rain and freezing temperatures tends to reduce the fun factor.
To make matters worse, first the intercom started squealing in my ears and then my windscreen wiper arm flew off. It sat on the bonnet for a moment then disappeared somewhere in North West Tasmania on one of the stages outside Burnie. But we made 6 minutes 23 seconds on the clubman leader bringing us 15 seconds inside our requirement averaged over the three days. We arrived in Burnie totally soaked, chilled to the bone and not especially looking forward to doing it all again tomorrow; the longest and hardest day of the event. The one thing that really lifted our spirits was hearing that the large time penalty we received on day two on the Sheffield stage had been neutralised as the stage had been cancelled due to grossly unequal conditions. This had nothing to do with our problem and was just sheer good luck that we happened to have the majority of our fuel problem on this stage. The effect of this was that we now led the clubman category by 11 minutes.
This once again changed our priorities. The chase was over, all we had to do was get to the finish in one piece and not lose too much time to the others. That night the rain teemed down and I thought the wind blowing off Bass Straight would blow the motel windows in.
Next morning the rain had stopped but there was an icy wind blowing. The service crew who also had to handle the uncomfortable conditions and managed to send us out on time every time, attempted to dry out the seating in the clubman which had acted as a huge sponge and was storing about 20 litres of water below our backside. Fortunately we had plastic pants.