Registration day - anybody got a hacksaw?

tired...

and we haven't even done anything yet, or so it seems until we recap the day.

Registration – no problem, got our decals, our freebies, our route books. Head back out immediately to hunt for a coin-op car wash, cuz the antenna won't go down and would be broken in a drive-thru. Back into the ReMax centre and start prepping the car. Damn, there's a lot of decals! 10, plus the main number panel, plus the 3 that we have (JD Smith, Maple Leaf Rally Club, Team Chinook), plus our names and flags. And that's one side. We don't recognize the car when we're done. Then start getting the stuff ready for scrutineering. They check the fire extinguisher mount, the first aid kit, the helmets. The guy checking the tires says the spare isn't the same as the tires on the car. Turns out, it's ok as long as the four tires on the car are the same. Show them the tie downs in the trunk. They didn't ask about tie-downs for the stuff in the back seat. Little bit of a scare when they ask about tow points. I didn't think they were needed for GT, but... There are the two transport tie-downs on the front, but nothing on the back but the hitch. What's it rated for, they ask? Ummm, don't know. They (the scrutineers) go to ask about the hitch. And we have to figure how to make arrows pointing to the tow points. Grey duct tape on silver car – no. Someone suggests electrical tape. Aha! And they come back and say the hitch is ok. We're good. We get our sticker.

Anybody got a hacksaw? Tin snips? The camera mount is great (thanks Mike); fits like a glove onto the Timewise mount. The bracket for the Timewise fits to the mount no problem. Together? Oh Houston! A little unexpected interference between the two brackets. No hacksaw, no snips, but we do have brute force and ignorance and some vice-grips. No problem.

Some GT teams seem quite unprepared; could be that they're last minute entries, but no safety equipment at all? They had to make a trip out to buy all the stuff. The team that won the last two years comes around offering any assistance we might need.

We're done prepping by 12:30 or so, so there's no time to go out for the odo check, which is a total of 50 km. Driver-navigator meeting at 1:00. We thought it was compulsory, but it's more of a seminar put on by Mark Williams, professional co-driver, about reading notes and communicating with the driver. We stayed through it, and I picked up some stuff. When that was done, we headed out to pick up the tux and the dress at the cleaners, and to find some food. It's gonna be crappy food all week, no doubt. We also made a run back to the hotel to get rid of some stuff; Lucas Oil gave each team 12 litres of synthetic oil, 12 bottles of octane booster, 2 bottles of oil stabilizer, and 1 bottle of cleaner.

Back to the ReMax Centre for Jane's first aid course. The Remax centre is a curling rink, and the cars are inside for display. We leave ours out, because we may try to do the odo check. While Jane's at the course, I start going over the route books. The highest average we'll have to try for is 95 km/h over a 24 km stage on day 5. The time window on day five is 3 seconds. Should be fun. (the Open class cars have to do 130 on that stage).

Jane finishes the course without passing out, and we hang around for the official reception. Robert Giannou welcomes us, as does the mayor, and we're invited to the Martini Bar, on the infamous George St. for another reception (we pass). It's mentioned that some people may still be doing the odo check, so we figure we had better do it now. It's 7 pm and we head out. I need to check that my Palm is charged for the calculator, and I find that it has completely reset!!! No calendar entries, no contacts, NO RALLYCALC!! The battery must have completely discharged and Everything has been reset! I'll try to reload Rallycalc so that I have a backup to the Timewise.

It turned out that our 6 day trip out here was my turn to drive; Jane drove about 2 hours on the first day, and I had driven the rest. The odo check was her first time driving in 5 days. Off we went. Mileages were pretty close. We arrive at the start of the Prologue stage and try to do the calculations to set the new factor in the TW. Not even a calculator is left on the Palm! We tried to do long division (it's been a long time), until I remembered there's a calculator on the GPS. Saved! Then we got into a – discussion – about how and when to call the corners. What's said in the car, stays in the car. 

Back to the centre again, and parked the car inside. Spectators are getting sparse. We close up, call a taxi, and head for the hotel. It's almost 11,

Sunday – compulsory team meeting, group photo, then off to Prologue, maybe a couple of times around the Confederation building, then team dinner at the Keg at the docks.

I'll try to post pics tomorrow.

Bruce