CHAMPIONS!!!!!!

It's official, Team Rolla Racing, car #330, driver Floppy, co-driver Compass, service crew Luke & Stacey, has WON class 3 in the classic section of the Targa Rally 2008 with a race time of 6.54.12!!!!!!

FANTASTIC result!!!!

....few sore heads this morning from the celebrating last night!

FINISH IS IN SIGHT!!

Well it's 4.30pm on the final day and we've been screaming along today!!! Pushing it all the way in a tight competition for a place ....

Great start with 2nd fastest in class first stage and FASTEST in class second stage!!! Four more good stages with two 2nds in class, one 3rd in class and one 4th in class!

Two stages to go and then Targa 2008 is done and dusted!!!!

Few picks from the last couple of days for you to enjoy ....

Luke with proof the service team did have to get their hands dirty once of twice!!!

Service time!

Next two shots are the boys getting ready to attract the Tui girls attention ....

Finally --- i'm sure it's all about the racing .... yeah right!!

WOW!!!!!

HUGE start to day 4..... FIRST in class stage 1 today (Windmill Alley) - man you guys are flying!!!!!!!!!!!

Day 3 Successfully Completed!!!

Wow the week is flying by!!!

Reached the end of day 3 with car and team intact! A great afternoon's racing with the Rolla team maintaining their position of 3rd in class although margins are still very tight .... talk about a great competition!!!

Bit more wear and tear showing on the little Rolla now, with new brake disc (thanks Dion!!) fitted at lunchtime to get rid of some brake shudder, a mysterious oil leak (bit of a worry!), and a tyre change required end of day. Fingers crossed this is as bad as it gets!

Highlight today for Greg was the first stage of the day (really nailed it - second fastest in class!!), and highlight today for Craig was second run thru the Marton stage.

All the team (well, the boys anyway!) are really looking forward to tomorrow .... think that may be something to do with the Mangatainoka stage and lunch at the Tui brewery (hopefully with a few of the Tui girls!!!!)

Well that's it for tonight!
Cheers the Rolla Racing Team

Having a blast - photos to prove it!

Passing them when they are stopped SOOO doesn't count!


Boys having a ball!!


How old???

.... or at least we wish they were here to wash it!!

Racing 'round the mountain!

Day 3 is going well!!!

More great results from the Rolla Racing team to start day 3!

A great first stage this morning; Ratapiko where we managed second fastest in class!! This was followed by consistently strong performances in the next 2 stages, with a 3rd and 4th fastest in class.

Another day down!!!

Another successful day completed for the Rolla Racing team!!

Still holding onto 3rd place in our class, with a very marginal lead on the 4th car of 19 seconds (pretty close when you consider we have completed almost 3 hours of closed road stages!!). Maybe it's the birthday cake the team consumed at the lunch stop slowing them down too much - ha ha!!

Seriously, racing really well and an awesome result to date against some bigger, faster machines! There has been some panel damange on the rally today (cars kissing fences etc) - very pleased to report none of it was us!!!

Highlight of the day for the boys today was the Whangamomona [try saying that after a few drinks!!] stages (in and out) ..... an absolutely fantastic road to let loose on!

Thats it for today -- more news tomorrow!!

Good Start 2 the Day!

Quick update to let you know how the team is progresssing ...

Good start to the day with the team holding 3rd in class position ge through stages 1 & 2 today (Inglewood and Mangorei Plus stages).
Now it's into the Whangamomona stage, a late lunch stop, then back out of Whangamomona (same stage in reverse .... not literally!).

More news soon!

Cheers
The Rolla Racing team

41 Today !!!!

HAPPY DRIVING MR FLOPPY!

Time for a beer!!!

End of the first full day of racing and the Rolla Racing team are enjoying a well earned beer in New Plymouth!!

A fantastic first day was had -- the car is running like a dream! Great driving by Floppy & navigation skills by Compass sees the little Corolla currently running third in class (pretty good eh!!)

Highlight of the day today for the boys was stage 6 where their supreme efforts saw them overtake a Porsche 944 and a Ferrari (yes you read that right!!). Luke has come up with the bumper sticker of the day "my other car is a Porsche but today I wanted to go fast!" -- appropriate given we are beating every Porsches in our class......did you get that Mr Vincerooni!?

Luke and Stacey, our Service Crew are doing a fantastic job; there only complaint is there is not enough to do!! One oil top up, checking tyre pressures and the servicing for the day is completetd!! Fingers crossed this luck stays with us all week!

No photos today i'm afraid - the team has been too busy focusing on the task at hand! Will ensure we drag the camera out tomorrow and post a photo or two of the birthday boy and team(yes ---- rumour has it the driver turns 41 tomorrow!! Let's hope being an old bugger doesn't slow him down at all!!)

A big thankyou to everyone who is supporting us. That includes a huge "hi" to Matey & Steve, Dave & Zoe, Pa & Ben who came out to cheer us on at Manukau yesterday..... sorry we didn't mention you in last nights entry.

Finally a special 'Hi' to Ben & Bianca from Dad

Check out more installments tomorrow!

Cheers
The Rolla Racing team

Prologue successfully completed!

Hi all

8pm Monday night and we've had a great start! The gods were smiling on us with wonderful weather to start the Targa today.

Cars were on show at the Telstra Events Centre from mid-morning and the event kicked off with the Prologue at the back of Manukau City Centre at 2pm. A new team member Luke (Luke & his partner Stacey are service crew for us this year) joined us for a while, and a lot of people checked out the car. A big thankyou to John, Lou Luca, Beryl & Derek for popping out to say hi!

First run through the Prologue was a learning experience - quite different to normal rallying through closed road stages, however all went well and Floppy and Compass were very pleased.

Second run saw a change in the co-driver seat with the main sponsor (Jen) getting a ride! Great fun and we knocked 8 seconds off our time. Have since found out that apparently our second run was fastest in the classic category and our first run 5th fastest in the classic category!! (serious pity that these times don't count!!!).

Compass reckons Jen needs to sit her National Rally License overnight and come away for the week if she can get that sort of result out of Floppy!!!

Overall a great day. Will post a couple of photos later tonight (or later in the week!!) if the sponsor can sort the technology out (she's not quite so hot with that!!!).

Promise to keep you updated during the week! Wish us luck!!

The Rolla Racing Team

The Rolla Racing Team is counting down!!

Well it's less than 24 hours until we start Targa 2008!! Car and team are ready and raring to go!! The event kicks off tomorrow (Labour weekend Monday) out at Manukau City.

The cars will be at Telstra Events Centre, Manukau City from 9.30 --- definitely worth a wander to check out the cars!.

The event kicks off at 2.00pm with the cars completing the first of two prologue street circuits around the carpark behind Manukau City (the pitstop between the two stages is at the Telstra Events Centre). It is a tight circuit and should provide for some great spectator viewing!!

We're a small team this year (you know what they say; quality not quantity!!), however that may have an impact on how regular our blog updates are. Will do our best, and Jen (one of our key blog writers) will chase us up by remote to ensure news (and hopefully photos) are posted on a semi regular basis!

Well had better go and finishing polishing the beast!!! Here's to another great Targa, finishing all the stages with four straight corners, and a fun filled week!!!