I haven’t updated since the last decade! I should do something about that! (This isn’t it!)

Interesting month, October, but hard to summarize.

Late last month I took a western-jaunt to Toronto for a few days to visit a friend. It doesn’t seem like that long since I’d been there but we did the math and I think its actually been 6 or 7 years. I’m getting to that point in life where I’m acutely aware at how quickly time goes by. I can see why people start to have breakdowns.

Visiting my friend was the primary goal of the trip but we had a bit of an agenda planned… the first night we threw on our darkest metal-blacks and headed to The Sound Academy to see my current band of the moment, DethKlok! Dethklok is an odd deathmetal band spawned from the Adult Swim show ‘Metalocalypse’. Its a violent, offensive, over the top and entertaining show about the most brutally popular band on earth. The music turns out to be excellent melodic metal and the show was great. Its been a long time since I’ve been to a metal show and, this being my year of concerts, I really enjoyed myself. I even sort of missed my long hair for a minute.

The next day was the launch event of Forza Motorsport 3 at the Canadian National Exhibition grounds. A simple 30 (down to <20!) second slalom course was setup and folks brought out their cars to do ride-alongs and even some public drives. I had the chance to drive my friend’s Honda Fit but I’m very rusty when it comes to Slalom and decided I’d rather shoot the event instead. It was fun but a long day overall.

The following Tuesday night it was time for the ears to bleed again, this time to see Metallica at the Air Canada Centre. Another great show but for different reasons. It was really interesting to compare and contrast the smaller club metal show with the giant arena one back to back. Metallica are essentially the ‘U2 of Metal’ at this point. Their music is very polished and they have the spectacle down to a science. The old guys can still rock a show though, even if they’ve reached the point where they drop beach balls on the audience for the finale. Seriously… Metallica is dropping BEACH BALLS on their audience!

While I was away the BAC RallyCross season got started, judging from the brown AMP-clay coloured car-blob in the driveway it looks like it was a fun and muddy day. Daphne did very well coming in with a 4th overall time for the day. Next event is November 22nd and I look forward to shaking the cobwebs off. There just hasn’t been a lot of driving in anger for me this year.

You may have guessed from my last post that I started running (hopefully) regularly a couple of months ago. Its something I’ve been putting off for ages but it was time to start. Prior to September I can pretty much count on one hand the number of times I’ve ever run when it didn’t involve getting to something or away from something. So far it’s been an interesting experience. I haven’t quite reached that plateau where I truly enjoy it but I haven’t minded it nearly as much as I expected. I’ve at least gotten to the point where I crave doing it and miss when I don’t. Having the Nike+ pedometer for my iPod gives me the geeky feedback I need to keep myself motivated too. Of course now that I’ve finally build up momentum the weather turned and the time shifted so its more and more inconvenient to go running, but I’m trying my best to lot lose momentum! You can see the Nike+ widget at the bottom right of this page, if it looks like I’m slacking please send me snarky comments!

Have I mentioned I hate winter? (Possibly with the exception of RallyCross, but I prefer doing that in the dry and warm too!)

Putting this out there for all to see hopefully makes sure I don’t slack off.

Daph and Brian in Gander doing a quasi Touring-but-not-touring run.

I told myself it wouldn’t be November before I did my Targa update this year, so here it is.

Targa 2009 is on the books and it was a good one. The car numbers were down a bit but the entertainment level was as high as ever. The weather could have been better but the competition was tight and everyone had a good time. Daphne and Brian rolled their Mini into a 3rd place finish in Touring/Equipped, 4th place overall which is an exceptional result considering they’ve never rallied together, they were using a brand new (and complicated) rally computer and their competition zeroed the entire event! Other local teams also did very well with the Halifax Autosport team actually beating the Factory Mini entry!

I was back doing the shooting again this year. I felt a bit more comfortable in the role and was generally happier with my results, particularly at the Awards Gala. I’m not quite ready to take up photography full time but I’m starting to feel like I have some idea of what I’m doing.

Daily galleries of the 2009 event can be found here.

Steve Millen piloted his fire-breathing Nissan GT-R around with very little drama. It was a pleasure to see him do his stuff.

As usual the Newfoundland scenery is stunning in all weather

Frank Sprongl putting on a show at Brigus. The wet weather meant most teams were fairly reserved over the classic jump.

End of week festivities

51 weeks to go until Targa 2010. Wonder which side of the lens I’ll be on…

Great weather, tight competition and top notch organization. ASCC hosted the 2009 Canadian National SoloSprint Championship at Atlantic Motorsport Park on the weekend. Unfortunately I didn’t have much opportunity to be involved in this one since things have been so bust, but I was very impressed to see the show that our club put on. Big name sponsors, great prizes and a well organized event shows what we can do when we all row in the same direction. Hopefully we can apply that momentum to more events in the future!

Photo gallery here.

Testing a new watermark too…

Off to Targa in 3 days… phew!

9 days until the 2009 Targa Newfoundland tarmac rally. We’re headed back for the 6th consecutive year so this is really the usual fall milestone for us. Its a hectic week but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. The social aspect, the scenery, the people of Newfoundland… oh yeah, and the cars!

I did a little Hero Card shoot the other night for the Barbarian Mutter Werks team, of which my wife is now a member. She’ll be taking up the right seat for the event having an entirely new Targa Experience! It’ll definitely be different shooting her from the sidelines.

Seems like I’m settling in to about one update a Month. I’d like to do more but you know, maybe it just takes a month to build up something worth saying.

Big news this month is that we finally only have one Mortgage! Our previous house closed on Friday and we received a big ‘ol cheque. Though we were never stretching things to any sort of limit, its still a relief to not have to worry about it selling. Seeing it go was a little bit melancholy, really. You only get one first house and it was ours for 8 years. It was a good place to live and we had a lot of good times there. I hope it makes the new folks as happy as it did us.

I’ve been asked once again to be the official photographer for the Targa Newfoundland rally so preparations are under way. As a big change this year I’ll be doing the job without my co-driver as Daphne will be spending the week in someone else’s car. Its a great opportunity for her, it’ll definitely be interesting shooting her from the sidelines.

The last few weeks have been pretty busy, even not counting the process of selling the old house. Two weekends ago was the 15th annual Slalom at Slemon in Summerside, PEI. After a few crazy weeks I just wanted to go and relax so I decided to forgo driving and jut shoot for the weekend. While I enjoyed myself, I really should have got in a car. By Sunday I was really regretting my decision. Oh well, c’est la vie. No Slalom for me this year. Daphne drove ‘Leon the Neon’ with very respectable times for the weekend.

Pretty much as soon as we got back from PEI was back on the road, this time to Indianapolis for business. A quick trip involving 3 hours on the tarmac in Toronto because of lightning, getting a VW Bug Convertible for rental with no headlights when the Avis girl saw my reaction at being offered a Grand Marquis and a trip to a great little Camera store to buy some goodies.

I’m getting used to Indianapolis, I get sent there a fair bit, but I’m really ready for a proper vacation. Too bad there isn’t one on the schedule.

This is bad, very very bad. We may have only finished two stages but I can definitely say I’m hooked!

After better than a year of planning and preparation the inaugural Bluenose Autsport RallySprint series has arrived! Its been a long time since the hills of Nova Scotia roared (legally) with the sounds of rally cars at full tilt. It was good to hear and it won’t be the last time!

(Excuse the picture quality, all shots were taken with my Blackberry since I left the camera gear at home)

Two cars, 5 drivers, 6 stages, a whole lot of arrows and even more volunteers. The weather was okay, spitting rain occasionally but mostly dry. The 3km stages were a combination of dirt, gravel and rocks. Proper rally surfaces!

Going into this event I had never driven roads like this at speed, sure there’s RallyCross but in those events you’re in an open lot at slower speeds where the worst thing you’re going to hit is a snow bank. With RallySprint you’re handed a route book at the beginning of the event with major road details marked (hard turns, bridges, cautions) and expected to drive as quickly as possible having never seen them before. It was a bit nerve wracking and I went into the event intending to basically putter around the course. Yeah… right. Starting off with a bit of hesitation I started getting used to driving according to my navigator who was calling out the instructions based on distance. As that comfort level grew so did the speeds and soon we were 4 wheel drifting and yumping over crests feeling like Walter Rohl or Petter Solberg! I can easily say those two hesitant stages are the most fun I’ve ever had in a car. I want more!

Using a rotating driver format we each completed our first two stages
but, unfortunately on the final few feet of the second stage Daphne caught a rock with the front end of the car that punched through the skidplate and, worse, through the oil pan. Luckily no further damage was caused since it was so close to the finish but our day was done.

The car is fixable and we have the parts to do it, we’ll be back for the August 16th event. I can’t wait! Everyone needs to try this if they can!

Blogging from the Blackberry. What will they think of next??