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It was wet and wild at the start and the finish, but the eighth annual Targa Newfoundland lived up to expectations of excitement for competitors and spectators alike as it made its way up the East Coast of the island Sept. 12-18. The eventual winners toiled away behind a couple of heavy-hitting leaders through the week, but once the boots had dried Friday Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes moved up to their third overall win in a row. Prep work and anticipation came to a head for the competitors Saturday, Sept. 12, in St. John’s with a day for tech to ensure all cars meet their safety requirements and are competing in the correct class.
On Sunday, the 55 competitors rolled away from the St. John’s waterfront and into a week of hard driving over more than 2,000 kilometres of sometimes perfect, sometimes punishing roads. The two Prologue stages are designed to give the teams a chance to familiarize themselves with the rules and procedures without fear of penalty. At least one team found it harder than they would have liked. The Subaru Impreza WRX STi of Marc Lachapelle and Keith Townsend found a wall in Flatrock during the first prologue, damaging bodywork and suspension components. Lachapelle was cleared to return to the race, but navigator Townsend was sidelined with cracked ribs and replaced by Subaru crew chief Stewart Hoo. After the two laps of Flatrock, the group gathered at Confederation Building for the Capital Automotive Group/Goodyear Superstage. Event organizer Robert Giannou was excited about the event’s return to the City of St. John’s. “This is the first time since 2005 we’ve run a stage in the city and we are delighted to be back,” he said Sept. 11. Crowds were a little lighter than the organizers might have liked, but the stage was well-received by all who attended, spectator and competitor alike. The competition got underway in ernest in Argentia on Monday, the first of 45 planned closed-road, high-speed stages, some making their debut for 2009. “The Targa family of communities has remained consistent over the last few years but we are thrilled to have Boat Harbour, Petite Forte and Harbour Grace joining with us this year,” Giannou noted. Several other stages, although in the same communities, were reworked to provide competitors with more challenge and excitement.
Targa Newfoundland may have started wet and wild in Argentia/Placentia, but it ended sunny and sweet in Eastport. One car was damaged before leaving the home of Castle Hill, but most people ended the day raving about the lunch put on by the Eastport Legion. Rain greeted competitors as they gathered at the Remax Centre in St. John’s Monday morning, and it dogged the group all the way to Placentia Bay. The leg opened with a run through the decommissioned U.S. base at Argentia, and although wet roads slowed the times, reports were quite positive for the open road course. Same can be said for Placentia, as the cars were cheered on by hundreds of townspeople. There was one incident, when the Audi Quattro of Andrew Wickline and Grant Segall struck the sea wall. Segall was taken to hospital for an injured hand, but he had been released as the Gander crowds filed into the arena for the first of two Targa car shows. With their Targa-prepped car too damaged to repair, the team moved over to Grand Touring to collect their finishing medal at the end of the week. As the trained pulled out of the Placentia area and headed to the Osprey Trail, the clouds began breaking up, and competitors got to see the beauty of the Eastport Peninsula — and run the the twin stages — under brilliant sun. When the teams settled into Gander, there was little movement on the leaderboard, and a string of zero-penalty holders promised a close run to the finish. The rain threatened to bless Targa Newfoundland competitors for Leg 2 Tuesday, but the skies cleared and left drivers and spectators cheering by the end of the day.
The sun even peeked out for the jewel of the stage — lunch at Leading Tickles. Although, the drivers would likely argue the day’s final run through the streets of Gander was the real treasure. With the second day in the books, the overall lead had solidified with Glen Clarke and stage homeboy Andy Proudfoot logging the soul zero for the day on that final stage. Division leaders also emerged at the end of the long day, with Clarke’s Porsche 911 Carrera holding the Classic lead. Steve Millen and navigator Mike Montiello had the best time in Modern, accumulating six seconds of penalty. The Touring class proved a challenge as well, although there were still eight teams showing no penalty points. Five cars didn’t make it back to the Gander Community Centre, mostly succumbing to the rigours of the Newfoundland roads. However, the Subaru Impreza of Roger Tillotson and Steve Robertson did roll off the course in Pleasentview. Navigator Robertson was injured, but he was sharing his new war story, with a laugh, beside a very injured car carrying its latest sign. It said Yard Sale. The weather co-operated Wednesday for the start of Leg 3, but the backroads of Newfoundland were presenting their usual challenges. Forty-nine competitors started at Gander, down from the 52 that left St. John’s just two days earlier. By lunch, it looked like two more teams were out, but only one of the teams didn’t log a finish at Gooseberry Cove before heading to Vernon Smith’s spectacular Toy Shop at Swift Current.
And while the stages from the airport town took a bit less of a mechanical toll on the Targa parade, the timing clocks told another story. According to unofficial results, only four teams managed to finish the without collecting penalty seconds, including overall and Classic leaders Clarke and Proudfoot. Modern leader Millen took another six seconds of penalty but held on to a 21-second gap over the next modern car, the Porsche GT3 RS of Tom Collingwood and navigator Chris Collingwood. Thursday meant Marystown — and Garnish and Fortune and the sweeping stages of Harbour Mille.
Competitors rose to frosty windshields in the morning, but it was a bright day of long straights and tight town stages that started with a competitor favourite, a bracing run through Little Bay East to a hearty breakfast at Harbour Mille, then back out for the first of the town stages. The long beach of Frenchman’s Cove gave lots of people a chance the make up time lost in the tighter bits, but in the end, only three Targa teams finished the day without adding penalty points, and although adjustments in Leg 3 scoring gave Clarke and Proudfoot a four-second penalty, they held on to the overall lead. “We’ve been on the Burin for seven years,” said Giannou, who is president and CEO of Newfoundland International Motorsports Ltd., “and this has been one of the best years ever recorded from Targa both from a safety and a competition point of view.” That held true for the Grand Touring competition as well, where the BMW 325i-driving team of Ferdinand and Chrisoph Trauttmansdorff claimed the only clean slate by Thursday evening. Targa Newfoundland 2009 ended the way it began — with a splash. The rally covered its 2,200 kilometres with minimal incident. Mechanical failure removed more competitors from the course than driving incidents, and although some switched catagory from Targa to Grand Touring, almost all who started the event drove across the finish line at the Keg Friday evening. Friday was a rough-and-tumble rush away from Marystown, including the debut of the new Boat Harbour to Petite Forte stage — which impressed even in Friday’s rain-soaked state — and the final run along the traditional Marine Drive course. When the skies cleared, provisional results showed Hopkins and Hughes had come from behind Thursday’s leaders to grab their third overall win in a row.
“He deserves to be where he is,” Ross Wood, clerk of the Targa Newfoundland course, said of the team. “We were very pleased with the level of competition this year. Rain on the final day certainly made changes, but the good ones always seem to find a way.” The team managed to clear all stages penalty-free over the final two days in their 1969 BMW 2002, while Thursday’s leaders Clarke and Proudfoot took on two minutes and 39 seconds in the wet to drop out of contention. Michael Stoschek of Coburg, Germany, and co-driver Philipp Spaeth of Lake Orion, Mich., held on to second place in their 1965 Porsche 911. Steve Millen and Mike Monticello were the cream of the Modern crop, sixth overall with 1:20 in penalties. The only Mustang in the mix, first-timers Ray Halleran and Justin Gibbons in Halleran's Racing for Autism GT, finished fifth in Class, 12th in the Modern division and 25th over all with 21 minutes and 47 second in penalties. In Grand Touring, the BMW 325i-driving team of Ferdinand and Chrisoph Trauttmansdorff stayed penalty-free for the whole event, clearing the only zero score of the event. As the scoring team finalized results for 2009, planning is already underway for Targa 2010, which is scheduled to begin Sept. 11. — Ken Simmons |
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