Targa 2016 - Day 2 & 3

Days 2 and 3 began with disappointment and excitement. We have discovered that a big part of rally car racing is checking the standings at the end of the day. We seem to consistently get slapped with massive penalties that aren't ours. We then have to spend our evenings reviewing in car video to prove it and get the penalties reversed. The good part is most of the teams are under estimating where we are in the rankings since the sheets are off.

We have gone from 6th place to 4th over the last few days. Andrew's meticulous math and his ability to keep me updated throughout has made such a huge difference.

This morning I recieved high praise for my driving from our team leader. As a driver there is a lot of information to process from the navigator but so far everything has gone very well. Apparently most rookies have major problems and no rookie team has done as well as we have at this point the race.

Each day is a new day and anything can happen. This morning one of the drivers had a blowout from a pothole and will be out for 4 races which will really effect his standings.

Day 3 was a challenging day. One of the races ended in a town. Apparently a lot of crashes happen in that town. We have heard a lot of wild stories but for us the town was not the issue, the potholes were. I got too worried about the car (since it is not ours) and came across the finish line too late, racking up our first but huge penalty. This moved us from 3rd to 4th. I was quite upset.

We did end up loosing some body trim during that race which made me even more upset until I found out that the part had fallen off during a car wash and was glued back on...lol. Too funny!

So far today on day four we are hitting everything at 0 seconds, right on time. We have a window of 3 seconds today but it drops to 0 seconds tomorrow so we are practicing.

At the end of each day the cars go on display in an arena and families come around. We have met some really fabulous people as we sign autographs and give away 'hero' cards with a picture of us and our car.

Yesterday I took along some of our racing shirts to hand out to women who love racing. Some older ladies were so excited as I signed the shirts with gold marker. It turned out that one of the ladies was a former mayor so I thanked her for encouraging young women to do great things in the community. What fun!

Andrew and I are having great fun and, despite several warnings from team mates, have not yelled at each other or threatened divorce :) . We are loving the landscape and are enjoying the races.

In the evenings the team goes for dinner, ribbing each other and laughing at mistakes. During the races all the drivers hang out and chat no matter which category you are driving in. Loads of fun and comradery.

Will update you again soon. Only one and a half days to go.