RIP Targa Newfoundland?

I’m not sure if I would ever have made it, but TN is literally written on my bucket list.   I’m sad to see it going away. 

What keeps the Irish motorcycle road races going and what, if anything, can be implemented from their model to keep TN afloat?

I attended Targa 5 years running (would have been 6 this year).  There was a mix of grass root and reasonably wealthy chaps.  I remember the first year we did it, a couple of kids had driven their Miata from Ontario, camped at night and did all their own fixes.  They probably did it for the cost of entry plus a tank of gas :)

At the beginning we used to shoe string it (2nd year we were up there in a Mk4 Golf with 250k+ that cost us $1600), crew ourselves etc.  The money we saved on booze for the week alone was a huge offset.  More latterly we went more upmarket, but still complete the event for around $7k each.  Definitely not cheap, but huge bang for your buck.

I REALLY want Targa NF back.

Keith Tanner said:

I was away for nearly a month to do it, and your budget is about right for 2008.  

This is would have been around 2004 or so. I was living in Montreal at the time, so NL was far but not so far that we couldn’t have made the drive in a couple of (long) days. I think it was something like 30 hours to St. John’s, but some of that was on a ferry. It’s been a while, so I might be misremembering 

Hey Keith,   Maxime from SimplyFast Inc. -> The CRX Bro's  and then with Burton Snowboards Webb/Vadeboncoeur M3.

Loved racing Targa Newfoundland.  That's how we met, well we met competing on the stages, duking it, great fun!!

In 08' me and my bro had a very good year as a rookies and brought a ton of hardware home, including the 3rd place in Modern, just behind Subaru and Mitsubishi factory backed efforts..in our 91' CRX lol, the MightyMouse striked again hehe  So I was pretty stoked, wanted more, wanted to win it.  Such a glorious epic the event was.

The stuff of legends and lifelong friendships, rivalries and fireside stories to pass on to next generations.

Targa racers, they would have made the Musketeer rank back in the king's timeframe.  They were, for the most part, ethical, helpful, somewhat eclectic, build-n-fix-n-race-your-own-racecar, grassroots racers, from all over North America and beyond.  'Best kind' they say in Newfoundland. 

The challenge is immense when you look back.  The training, the car buid/test/prep, the outlandish logistics (GoogleMap Newfoundland...) to and during the event, the sheer numbers of hours in the racecar (huge smile), the week long event, the rough roads, the constant 'on deck', the 'one mistake away from total disaster of grave proportions' aspect, it takes everything from you, and often a bit more for some.  The event, like all road based rally event, is hungry for metal and chews cars then spits them out, twisted wrecks.  Serious stuff indeed, no doubt about it.

09 I Co-Drove as hired gun for a local hero

10 I Crew Chief for the bad boy Open Road Motorsports Pro Support Team

2011 was 'my run for the office': in 09' and 10' I had gone all in with Gravel Performance Rally training and events, Group 2, Group 5, Open Class, Gravel, Dirt, Ice, Snow, Sleet, Rivers you name it it was awesome.  Lance Webb from the Burton Snowboards team and I (met at Targa 08') ended up doing decently well in whatever cars we sat in together, so we said it was time to go back to Targa and finish that business.  The weapon of choice: Targa Spec E36 M3 / S50 Euro, Manual. Tried, tested & true.

We set our aim on an overall podium, and said it would be podium (win) or bust.  We'd both had previous success in lower Classes so 'also ran' wasn't really on the cards for us, but this was it: big bad boiiz whatcha you gonna do when we come for you type of mindset :)

Things went great, we kicked ass and kept ourselves in the break away Top 5 peleton and amped up. Life was good., the M3 was even better lol.  We were jammin' hard and feelin' good - hard to describe - consuming the SS Stages with total joy of commitment of going decently fast and nailing' it.

In the Top 5, were in good company: Factory Special Viper driven by its Chief Designer Ralph Gilles, the Hartling/Proudfoot E85 Lotus Exige S that I built for them, Judd Buchanan in something loud and fast as usual, Bob Yullie going at it again, amongst others usual suspects at the pointy end of things.

In the process of this, I had discovered an 'anomaly' with another competitors' registration.  Basically, one cannot be registered to run two classes at same time, show times for the one class only, then drop off whichever class in-event, when convenient, if not performing well or mathematically higher in the other...I went to clarify the matter with the event organizers, told me to go away.

Eventually that registration 'anomaly' of the competitor was corrected (Day 4 out of 5 I believe) and you guess it right: the one class now showing as registered into wasn't the one being time reported in the standings all week and a new 'Dark Horse' suddenly appeared in my class, without announcement, in the Top 5. LOL 

Effectively, the person ran under a separate rule set (and timed / scored accordingly) for the majority of the event then those results transferred  under a new ruleset as-is. LOL  TV Cameras were often around that team. 

The class we were in (Targa) had strict rules on specifications and modifications (basically its a 'limited mod' class).  Hence one of reason for the selection of the M3 as a weapon, and why the exact method we prepared it.  Targa-Specific -  limited mods, perfectly in-line with the class specs.  Just like the Lotus Exige S I built for another competitor and that was also ahead in Top 5.

This 'Dark Horse' competitor's car, was clearly outfitted with parts that did not comply to the (Targa) rules but were inline with (Open) class rules where you can 'run what u brung' so the field is not as competitive within-class as the Targa Class, but absolute great entertainment and fun for the fans and teams alike to drive the 'wilder' beasts, such was your V8 Miata hehehe!!!!! Props for that!

To the event organizers I go again, explain the re-classification / timing / scoring problem, and now the illegal statute of his car as just another reason why the re-classification should not have happened.  You start in a class, you finish in that class.  The organisers told me to go away, but now I was more convincing and got them to validate my claim of the illegal statute of the now-in-my-class after multiple days of not being in my class competitor.  Obviously after verification the car was declared of illegal statute.  As such, event disqualification is the normal shame, even if you allow the team to finish the event to enjoy and rack up the miles of fun, no longer timed and scored.

Somehow, the illegal statute items were removed from the car, and the competitor was allowed to continue the event, scored in the newly assigned class. TV Cameras were often seen with that team.

Lance and I racked up a few mistakes that cost us being right at the very front, but we still had an outside shot at podium and a hell marry to 1st.  True to our goals, we threw a hell marry in the heavy Friday rains (M3's are a beautiful thing), and were on target for podium but we had an off and damaged the car in the process.  In the end, we did finish, we didn't lose a spot, but we didn't climb either.  I was proud of our efforts and the 'Press On Regardless' theme we had given ourselves.  Its a rallye thing...

Post event I also identified a 'very, very, very unlikely' timing situation on some of the rain drenched Friday stages.  Many questions from many teams later on this 'extreme timing anomaly' later, the event organizers decided in favor of the team under inquiry.  That team had a next-of-kin type of connection to the event ownership. 

Post event I realized we had been effectively demoted by the competitor who switched class in-event, that had the validated as illegal status car that was then made legal for the last day of the event. (AKA: For the day the cars goes to post event Tech inspection...).  Others were demoted the same way, by the new crowned class winner and by the other team that switched class in-event.  Explicit words were exchanged between the affected teams and organizers.  They told us to go away.  Bonds were created at that moment, the 'reals' and the 'not reals'.  These fellow competitors / racers were the reason why I came back to 'The Rock' for another go at it, they were the ones I enjoyed racing against, hard pure racing all day, enjoying a beer together at night. Best Kind.  The strength of your opponents determines the value of the win.

A successful post event protest, a non reversible decision as per the event's own rules, was completed, effectively disqualifying the team in question with the illegal status car, and returning order to chaos.  At the gala the next day (TV Cameras), the awards for our class were retained, except the class winners if I remember, until ongoing 'discussions' were completed.  Bob Yullie was in tears, seeing what was his first ever class win (after many, many years attempting) taken away, just like that.  At that moment, that was 'it' for Bob, and Judd, and others in the know.  They had seen enough.  The injection of a class winner that somehow found an 'extremely hard to believe' amount of time in the wet stages to swing in for the win, and event organizers not willing to release the Event Time Controls Logs for that team.

It was announced the final results would be posted online and in the main Hotel's hall.

On Sunday (day after the Gala), I checked the website and the result sheets in the hotel were showing as correct (5th) if I remember correctly.  That was that, we tried our best, we didn't win, but we had a hulluva' fun week.

A couple of weeks later, someone emailed me to check the results online.  I checked, we were now showing 7th, effectively demoted by the somehow reversed, non-reversible protest we had won, for a competitor who had switched classes in-event, declared disqualified based on a validated and blatant infringement of their car's legal status.  Apparently, a post event 'special counsel' was held, and decided to consider the non-revocable protest decision, revocable after all, without notification to the affected parties (everyone in the Targa class).  Suddenly, one could find professional media coverage, including much TV coverage airtime, trophy hand out, of the team that now podium instead of being disqualified.  It was learned afterward that the team in question had 'vested interests' in the TV media team.

That's when I decided Targa was no longer for me, and like clockwork, the 2009 edition was the beginning of the rapid descent in entries and the beginning of the end for the event.

I am not a circus act, I am a racer and always will be.

This is my best recollection of the story, you are free to believe or not, it won't change a thing, net result of 11' is that Targa's dead and its really too bad.  Its really too bad, I feel privileged to have tasted it in its full glory along with you Keith.

You and your brother switched back and forth between driving and navigating in 2008, didn't you? That was unbelievable.

There was a whole lot of post-race drama in 2011. Luckily, most of it missed us. I know there were a lot of bad feelings but we didn't know any details. Nobody was classed in Open unless they raced the whole event in Open. Turns out Open isn't given TV coverage so we missed out on that anyhow ;)

I almost got to go back in 2015 with an ND Miata - it would have been the worldwide competition debut for the car. Mazda's lawyers freaked with 3 weeks to go and didn't ask me even the most basic questions and that fell apart. Pity, it would be been fun. Although the car had no top and it rained for the first few days, so maybe not THAT fun...

Naturally, Targa 2020 was cancelled like everything else. That's not going to help a potential renaissance.

Early on the TV coverage of the Targa was great. Even spawned "what If" conversations of doing the event in a MINI however even a cursory review of the costs put it out of our league. Great event from the amateur perspective but logistics seem too costly to overcome.

In reply to SimplyFastInc :

Lance and I grew up in the same small town,I'm still here and he cottages here.

 Great guy.