Forza Amelia 2001

Forza Amelia 2001
Day One

We started the day with a first stage leaving Amelia Island south towards St Augustine, about 65 miles. As usual, the first check point opens at 8am and a few cars are on line waiting. Russell leaves a couple of minute before me and after about an hour or so we reach St Augustine, a nice old scenic town, actually it is the oldest city in the country.

We spent some time driving along a new Ferrari F355, an interesting contrast with my E-type and even more with Russell's XK 140 MC. Only problem was coming in St Augustine when the Ferrari misses a street. Of course we followed and had to backtrack a bit. I had time to spare but Russell was a bit closer since it took him longer to turn around and find the check point set up in a parking lot near the visitor center. Coming in late, they rushed thru the gate not giving the attendant his coupon... In the heat of the action, they went thru the check point early by 9" ... that's 9 points... On the other hand, I do pretty good since I manage to nail that first check point right on the mark.

After a short visit of the old St Augustine and the Fort, and a bunch of pictures in the parking lot, we headed south to Daytona beach on a transit stage. We ran most of the stage in great company such as a Ferrari Tour de France, Mercedes 300 SL roadster, and many more. It included some nice sections of road but also some congested street downtown Daytona. Thankfully the car ran cool, and the A/C worked well... Destination was the Daytona Speedway where lunch was served in an private room and we toured the museum. Meanwhile, Russell's XK 140 needs some attention as the starter wouldn't crank. The generator was not charging and it seems that the battery is defective. He had a spare which goes in and things seem fine.

A couple of miles from the speedway, we stopped at a Classic car museum for a quick look at the collection before leaving for a last transit stage leading us to beautiful Mt Dora, just north of Orlando. Roads were pretty nice, rolling hills with a few turns but I kept it rather slow staying with the XK which was again experiencing charging problems and some rough running. I lost touch with them near the end, in an attempt to run ahead to stop and catch some pictures... That would have been nice but I missed a turn and ended up a few miles of course... Since I am running the rally solo, navigating and driving at the same time is not that easy and it's easy to make a mistake when reading the road instructions clipped on my steering wheel... Along the way I pass a group of 3 Ferraris which had pulled over since one of them was experiencing some fuel pump trouble, they repaired and finish the stage. Russel's XK 140 made it to, and the Rally mechanic found a clogged fuel filter which was causing the problems. Apparently, the new coating in the fuel tank was breaking up and clogging the filter.

Our destination was a very scenic small town and the overnight accomodations are the Lakeside Inn, a old historical Inn right on the Lake. One of the great things about Vintage Rallies is their selection of the best hotels each stop has to offer, usually old historical Inns. Nice place, unfortunately they seemed to have some weird phone system and I can't get the modem to dial out to upload the page and pictures...

Standings at the end of the day, I'm tied for first with 9 others... Russel is in the midle of the field due to his 9" error...