Friday 15th Feb Day 1

We are under way in Rally Tasmania 2008.
After a bit of a sleep in all crew were up and at 'em ready to join the "black stuff" fraternity. The morning was spent doing some final prep to the car which involved fitting the new Yokohama boots, bleeding brakes and changing the diff oil to dial out some chatter from the KAAZ LSD by adding friction modifier to the oil. The diff chatter is usually not much of a problem on the dirt but has been a bit annoying on the tarmac. A final polish of the car and she was as ready as it was going to get.
11:15am saw us leave our northern residence for the Ceremonial start location in the city of Burnie. A section of the main strip was closed off and it was great to see all competiton vehicles in the same place at the same time, quite a spectacle.
1:30pm and off to drivers briefing. After the usual introductions it was onto business with the organising crew detailing various factors to do with the running of the rally. On a serious note we were briefed by members of the Tasmanian Police on what impact this event has on the region, especially poignant considering the numerous road fatalities in the area in the last 18 months. It was quite an awakening for all crews and it certainly left me with a greater understanding of our responsibilty to send the right messages to the general public in regards to road safety and to show that under the right circumstances and in a controlled environment we can safely participate in motorsport and also that we are very privileged to be able to compete in these events.
With briefing all sorted it was back to the start location for some banter with fellow competitors and a bit of a stir up aswell. David and Zara disappeared to suit up and at 3:45pm the first car was away. The field is lead by the Classic section with fastest first followed by the Modern's in reverse order. Our departure time was 4:26 and with the Subie disappearing to SS1 us crew gathered our stuff and headed on to the days refuel location at Fingerpost approximately 60k's South of Burnie. The Trannie crew of Rob and Adam headed straight there whilst I duct down the Highclaire hillclimb route to catch D & Z between stages 1 and 2. The big thumbs up was all I saw, PHEW!!! I was then on my way to Fingerpost to catch the boys ready for Martini juice to be added to the Subie. Before we new it she was there and it was great to see D & Z after 3 stages. Not all was rosy however with David reporting that the gearbox had a small gremlin namely jumping out of 4th gear on lift off which had created some uneasyness in the cabin. Not much we could do at this stage so they were sent on their way and the boys and myself packed up to return to Burnie for the major service before parc ferme. This gave me a good chance to think about all possibilties as to why the gearbox was playing up. After much thought I decided that rather than remove the box and spread it all over service park that it would be better to attempt an adjustment on the 3rd, 4th gear detent. A detent is a device which consists of a ball and spring which allows positive engagement of the shift rod. It also has some effect on retaining the shifted gear in its location. With a bit of a retension of the spring by adding a shim the engagement felt a lot more positive, bit of a Clayton's fix but we will see tomorrow if it was a success.
With the rest of the crew taking care of the other service requirements we were all done with 20mins to spare of service time. Onto the final refuel for the day before tomorrow's early start.
After a quick pack up Adam and Rob were sent on food duties and David, Zara and I went around to event HQ to await the next days start time. With the time in hand we left Burnie to head back south to ou wonderful retreat for the evening.
Our allocated start time had us in 26th outright (provisional), not bad but we are all looking forward to tomorrow stages including the legendary Savage River sections. On analysis of the days times it was discovered that D & Z had not had a stella run in Hellyer short dropping some extra time. This was put down to just needing a bit more time to really get a feel for the car and to dial out some dirt habits. From my perspective it ain't to bad considering how difficult it must be spend all day waiting for the event to start in the afternoon when you are used to being ready to go early in the morning as is the case with our gravel rallies. Tomorrow is a new day and should feel more normal to David and hopefully he and Zara can gel really well and find a good sustainable rhythm for the rest of the event.
One more thing sorry for the delay in this post but I am currently roaming the yard to find the best internet service to make this happen, very difficult to type and walk!!
Cheers all
Head SOURCE