world rally championship new zealand
so we are in hamilton now where the new zealand rally took place over the weekend. the great thing about rally racing is that the "racetrack" is generally broken up into a series of stages that are actually made up of country roads throughout the region. for new zealand's rally there were 17 different stages. so in order to watch the stages you drive out into the country, get lost a couple of times before finding a line of cars in the same predicament as you, follow them around for a while until you stumble across one of the spectator points (by the way, at this point you're late and everyone is a racing fan so you're all driving pretty damn fast) and then tramp around in some farmer's fields looking for the track. Once you find the track you can walk along it or across it until you find a good viewing area - of course you have to make sure you get out of the way when you hear one of the cars coming down the gravel road at 160 k/hr. Once you find a good viewing area it is quite amazing to watch the cars fly along the small gravel road and slide around the turns.
our hostel was overcapacitated with mostly rally fans from around the world and it was fun to sit around at night and hear everyone's stories from the rally that day or from the previous night. a guy from ireland told us that as he was driving to one of the spectator viewing areas for stage eight, he took a look in his rear-view mirror and noticed that marcus gronholm was driving his racecar right behind him. marcus gronholm was the eventual winner of the new zealand rally (and a former two-time chapion who should finish second overall in the world championship this year) - it turns out the rally drivers don't always use trailers to get to the various stages. another couple of guys from finland told us about stumbling into a bar downtown and ending up buying drinks with some of the drivers and co-drivers/navigators.
my story is less glorious. as i was driving back into town after stage nine i found myself about 20 cars behind a tour bus that was having difficulty navigating the winding and hilly road. instead of pulling off and letting some of us pass the driver opted to just mosy on down the road while the line of cars piled up behind him. well after about 30 frustrating minutes we finally made it to a passing lane. a quick glance in my rearview mirror showed me that almost all of the 40 or so cars that had piled up behind me had a lot more horsepower than old T.O. but as i had just spent the day watching a number of people navigate much unsafer roads at three times the speed i was in no mood to stay trapped behind the tour bus. i was going for it.
so as soon as the passing lane opened up i gunned it up towards the summit of the winding overpass. i passed two or three cars through the first turn so I was feeling confident as i went into the second. and then i saw the sheen of water at the apex of the turn. i got off the gas but it was too late. at first i fought the slide but once i entered the oncoming lane i let it go - and ended up doing a 180 with a little help from the side of the mountain i crashed into.
luckily, when we came to a stop i felt OK and T.O. wasn't as banged up as i thought he would be. it's been a couple of days and i still feel fine; T.O. is currently at the body shop getting street-legal.
all's well that ends well i guess.
posted by tyson on
Monday, November 20, 2006
1 Comments:
YES! You went to a rally. ohhh man. Then you got inspired, tried to rally and crashed!!! Tried to take two cars on the outside in the "TO" and crashed into a mountain!! While the TO is in the shop you should go ahead and put the supercharger in. I remeber klem saying that lots people in NZ are aggressive drivers and are into amature rally racing. Sounds like your having a good time.
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Anonymous, at 11:48
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