Targa Newfoundland 2012

It's that time of year again, the time when I use the GRM forum as my platform for blathering on and on and on about this funny race on some Canadian rock.

Previous reports:
2009
2010

First person reports from when I was racing.
2008
2011

So, let's start with the theory. Targa is split into five divisions.
Grand Touring is the easiest to understand. It's a TSD. But not the kind of TSD where the organizers are trying to get you lost or messing with your head. You are given a reasonably quick speed and the same set of navigation notes as the Targa classes. As the event goes on, the speeds go up and the times get tighter. The first day, you've got a big margin of error to finish without penalties - 30 seconds, I believe. By the end, you've got 3 seconds. This division is open to just about any street legal vehicle with minimal modifications. Maximum speed is 130 kmh (80 mph). It's relatively easy to drive but the navigator has a whole lot to do. A lot of Targa-class drivers think this is the easy baby class, but it's a different kind of hard.
Read a good first-person account.

Hot Tour is a fairly new addition. It's an opportunity for drivers of fast cars to drive the closed course without all the pesky rules or timing. Started to let cars like the Maserati MC-12 play, it's not a competition. In theory, the car's speed is controlled by a pilot car that leads them through the stage, but they reach higher speeds than the GT competitors do. I'm not sure how this one's going to evolve, it may not end well. We've already had an Enzo in the water...

Modern Division is the first of the Targa divisions. It's basically a very fast TSD with no penalties for arriving early. Competitors are given a base time (or average speed, as I tend to think of it) for each stage. They are given penalties for arriving later, but not earlier. As the week goes on, the base times get more and more aggressive and it's impossible to finish without penalties. For the first few days, you drive as fast as you have to in order to avoid penalties which is still awfully fast. By day three, you're basically going as quick as you can. There's an overall maximum speed of 200 kmh (125 mph) on this class for safety, although I don't think it's actually enforced. This class is open to cars built after 1984 (I think) with various levels of modification. All cars in the division are competing on a level playing field, with the same base times. Since this is a fast tarmac rally, safety gear is fairly intense, with full cages required. On a stage where the GT cars are given an target base speed of 80 kmh, the Targa cars will be given 130.

Open Division is the same as Modern, but for more heavily modified cars. Such as, oh, V8 Miatas. Basically, if your car is too heavily modified for Modern Class 3, you get put in Open. Otherwise, the rules and base times are identical.

Classic Division is very similar to modern, with the same modification classes. As you can guess from the name, it's for older cars. The big difference is the handicapping. The base time varies from class to class, adjusted for engine size, modification level and car age. The idea is to let every car be competitive, but this is a hard thing to pull off.

The race itself is five days long and covers something like 1400 miles, with approximately 25% of that being closed road competitive stages. At the end, the team with the least number of penalty points in each of the four competitive divisions is named the winner. There's no winner for Hot Tour, although there is a "spirt of the race" award for someone in that division.

Okay, there's the theory.

Looking forward to your posts. Targa Newfoundland is on my to-do list. We fly into Gander for fuel pretty regular and the ladies at the airport get excited when you talk about the Targa, the whole country seems to love it.

I'm going to do my best to report on the race by pulling information in from as many sources as I can find. It appears the event photographer has changed since last year, so this might be a bit spotty. I'll illustrate with some of my own photos from previous events when I don't have anything else.

Today is registration day. Scrutineering, an optional navigation school (highly recommended and sparsely attended), stickeration, odometer check and a chance to meet old and new friends.

Typical scrutineering picture from 2008. That 911 belongs to Scott Giannou, who took Classic division last year. In fact, we're looking at a Classic, Modern and a GT car right here.

The cool thing about Targa is that everyone gets along really well. You're racing against the road and the clock, not wheel to wheel. Nobody wants to see a competitor fail, especially for mechanical reasons. So it's typical to see teams helping each other out. It makes for a great atmosphere to race in, as you can imagine.

Another important thing to remember is that your fellow competitors are also your first responders. If you have a problem, the next car along will be your competition. If you're hurt, they're the ones who will take care of you.

The entire event is open to the public, so even maintenance takes on a different dimension when you're surrounded by kids who are about ready to pee themselves because of all the Race Cars. Evening stops are always in a local hockey arena or curling rink, and it's a big deal in every town.

A few pictures from today. Vivid Racing is running this over-the-top Porsche Turbo in Grand Touring. They're posting a lot of pictures on their Twitter feed, so you'll be seeing more from them.

Posted by Vivid, this car is identified as having a 3.8l 997 engine. I suspect that's Glenn Clarke, who just about won the Classic event in 2010. He's running in Classic again (he knows how to read a rulebook!).

Actually, it looks like a fairly small field this year overall. Classic has 7 cars: 5 911s, a proper Escort RS1600 from the UK and a 1965 Mustang. There are 9 in Open, with none of the top 3 from last year. Modern shows 17 cars, with at least 3 previous winners. GT has 10 cars, all much higher performance than usual and a lot of new cars - even a FRS and a Fiat 500 Abarth. However, the Vivid Racing 911 Turbo isn't listed, so it may not be a complete list at this point.

By comparison, 2011 saw 28 Modern cars, 12 Open, 9 Classic and 12 GT. 2008 had 80 cars entered, of which 66 rolled up to the start line.

Bucket list. Really want to do this someday. And then maybe the one in Australia after watching "the Beast"

Side notes for spectators: Spectating takes some work. Because of the road closures, it's just not possible for spectators to get from one stage to the next. So, you have to pick and choose, then leapfrog a few at a time.

Also, this event covers a lot of ground, and accommodations aren't always available without prior notice.

I got lucky, and had a good Newfoundlander friend navigating and showing me the sights. I saw enough of the race to be quite happy, but missed some great stages as well.

Get the spectator guide as soon as you can.

Check Youtube for videos from specific stages and choose those you like.

Get good paper maps (I got some from tourism websites).

Make sure your GPS has Newfoundland roads.

in your first post you define the different classes ... GT was listed as having a top speed of 80 MPH .... then when describing MD you referred to the GT class mentioning that their top speed was 80 KPH .. big difference .. just for the curious, which is it ? ( I'm way to lazy to go to the Targa rules and find out for myself

I didn't say the top speed was 80 kmh. That was the fastest base time they're ever given - the GT cars were supposed to maintain an average of 80 kmh (50 mph) on the fastest stages. You won't find that in the rules, it's an observation. I'll go back and convert all the measurements in the first post to avoid this confusion. But it's good that someone's paying attention

Today is the Prologue. It's a series of three timed stages that aren't scored. Think of it as qualifying - the organizers will use the Prologue times to seed the cars so you don't end up with Matt Oldford's rocketship Subaru launching right on the tail of some poor BMW 2002 driver. It's also a chance for everyone to get a feel for the cars and the stages for the first time. If they're the same ones as 2008 and 2011, the first stage is a relatively open one through the woods (Flatrock - click for video), followed by two runs through a fairly fast town stage (Torbay). The latter really opens your eyes as to what to expect. It's one thing to drive fast through the wilderness with good sight lines, something completely different to do it in someone's neighborhood while dealing with gravel on blind corners and the like. It's also a chance to calibrate yourself a bit as to how the route books correlate to the actual shapes of the corners.

We'll see what reports come out of the Rock later today. But for now, a few pics.

Bill Caswell's M3, running in Modern. These two came from Jason Low's Twitter feed.

Before the timed stages, there's a ceremonial start on the St. John's waterfront. Here's the Dodge entry for 2012 waiting to go across the line. It's a bit smaller than the SRT Viper driven by Ralph Gilles last year.

The ceremonial start is followed directly by the ceremonial "getting lost in downtown St. John's" event. Last year, it was ridiculous. If you've seen Racing the Rock, it's one of the funniest parts of the whole movie.

I'll be watching this thread, and we wish you and Janel the best on the Rock! Stace and I hope to run Grand Touring one day....

We have some times! Now, these are only for the Prologue so they don't count for a whole lot. The experienced guys won't bother trying to push too hard. The novices are mostly going "wow, so that's what it's like". There is precedent for crashing out of the race on the first Prologue stage. But still, it gives us a proper entry list.

In Classic, four teams went through the Prologue stages without penalties. Three of them are Targa veterans, including local Scott Giannou. No surprises here, these guys wouldn't even need notes for these stages! The UK-based Escort (one of the coolest cars in the event) seems to be the fourth. And here's a gratuitous oversteer shot of said car from targaphotography.ca. Perhaps not completely necessary at this point on the first stage, but there you go.

Gordon Choate caught it at the start.

In Modern, only the fast Matt Olson zeroed the day - ie, finished without penalties. But the number of experienced drivers in this division mean that a lot of them weren't taking any chances. There are a couple that appear to be either having mechanical problems or are completely out of their depth.

Seven of the Open class cars finished with 5 seconds of penalties or less. I don't know a lot of the names here, but Mike Davenport in his Subaru is likely to be a real challenger for the win. Four of the 12 Open cars show a DNF for the day, but based on the pattern of results I suspect they're mechanically related. Those who can count and do math might notice this is more cars than were previously listed in Open. Modern has shrunk too - I haven't checked the names, but I suspect a few people had to change their division based on their modification level

Dodge has always recognized the advertising potential of Targa, and Targa makes sure they get lots of airtime as you can see from the press releases and the 43-minute Dodge commercial that replaced the normal Targa TV show for 2011. This year, Dodge has scattered 500 Abarths in three divisions: Open, Modern and GT. Obviously, Classic wasn't really an option with a Dodge Fiat, only Fiat Fiats. The black car in Open is being driven by Samuel Hubinette, who's a Formula DRIFT champion and a stunt driver. His navigator is Jen Horsey, who has a whole bunch of Targa experience. Gordon Choate:

James Lewis:

The FRS is running GT - and zeroed the day with two other teams. I'll bet they're being mobbed.

Lots of BMWs this year to go along with the Inevitable Porsches. Another from James Lewis.

And at the end of the day, back in the curling arena for the car show.

Some might remember that we were hit with a full-on hurricane in 2011. Well, Hurricane Leslie is supposed to hit the province on Tuesday. Ahh, Targa...

There are nightly recaps at http://www.targanewfoundlandnews.com for those who like the video.

njansenv wrote: I'll be watching this thread, and we wish you and Janel the best on the Rock! Stace and I hope to run Grand Touring one day....

We're not racing this year. Although I did go to the track yesterday to celebrate

Why do I see all the cars with a front license plate? just curious...

Whoa! That BMW looks low for Targa!

This sounded awesome until I realized that part of the deal is having your wife squawk directions at you nonstop.

Kieth, I've heard there's a Europa running this year. Any details?

The cars have front plates because front plates are required in Newfoundland. Remember, they're all registered road cars so they can drive from one closed stage to another - and there's a special short-term plate created for the competition cars. It's actually pretty cool, it's a proper embossed and legal Newfoundland plate with your race number on it. If your car cannot physically carry a front plate (as mine can't, there's nothing under that front bumper anymore to support it) then you can get a sticker version for the front of your car. But it still has to be there.

No Europas. In fact, I realized when you asked that Stan Hartling's Elise didn't show up this year. That's a shame, he was looking to win Modern last year until he snapped an axle right near the end. That was after losing a motor and doing an overnight thrash to stuff the engine from a Pontiac Vibe into the Lotus, getting the job done in time to reach the start line but not in time to reattach the rear bodywork!

Even the Hot Tour group is a bit light. The Alberta exotics that created the group last year didn't show. Looks like the Saleen will make another go at running long enough to complete a stage, and it's in the company of a Jaguar XKR and a Cayenne Turbo. The GT division has the biggest collection of varied new fast cars this year - and was won by a VW Trek the last two years if memory serves.

I think the BMW is right in the middle of dealing with a dip. But yes, he's going to take some paint off that nose later I suspect.

Mid-day update.

They must have set the base times high this year. It used to be that you could finish the first day or two without any real penalties. But there's only one car that's clean in Modern, and that's Andre Comrie-Picard (aka ACP) in his rally-prepped Evo 9. Jim Kenzie, a multiple previous winner in his MINI, is now running a factory-sponsored Kia Optima turbo but is well off the pace with 33 seconds in penalties over 5 stages. More surprising, Matt Oldford (last year's winner) picked up 39 seconds of penalties on the fifth stage and is now sitting in 9th. That's going to be tough to overcome.

In Classic, it looks exactly like the Prologue results, with the experienced teams plus the UK Escort all penalty-free.

Open also has five penalty free teams as well. I don't know a lot of the names, but the heralded factory Fiat picked up 2 seconds on stage 5. I'm hoping to get a picture of one of the cars, as I suspect it will be GRM-approved.

One new rule for this year - if you get spotted cutting a corner, you get a 30 second penalty. I'm not completely impressed with how the organizers propose to implement this, and it has the potential to really mess with the race as there's very little consistency in how it will be applied.

Here's a rundown of the stages for today.
John Curran Memorial Stage 1-1
John Curran Memorial Stage 1-2
These two will be in the same area as these videos, I'm not sure how it will be arranged.
Conception Harbour
Bumpercam version
Conception-Colliers

Targa Marysvale 1-3 video

Sunnyside In 1-4
Sunnyside Out 1-5
New stages for this year.

North West Brook 1-6 video

Gooseberry Cove 1-7 video

A nice shot at the Fiat 500 Abarth on ACP's car.

An in-car shot from the only American car outside Classic, Wayne Lorenzen's Camaro. He reports some confusion on the Sunnyside stage, the start line was moved without telling the teams.

Waiting to run Gooseberry Cove.

Look forward to watching it... Whenever that will be. Good luck. No electrical problems this time.

No electrical problems for me, my car's happily parked in my garage. Although it did take out a coil on Saturday.

There isn't going to be an hour-long show this year. Instead, they're doing daily online broadcasts. http://www.targanewfoundlandnews.com

The race is a war of attrition. And we're seeing it already. At the end of the first day, we've lost one of the 911s in Classic. DNF on the last stage. In Modern, Matt Oldford is DNF for the last stage as well. An M3 that was running well in Modern also DNF'd the last three stages. Three Open cars are out. The GT cars, which take fewer risks and tend to be more reliable, are all still in the race.

In terms of points, we still have the four-way tie for first in Classic. Modern shows ACP alone without penalties, although two M3s (including Caswell) are within 5 seconds. Six seconds cover the top six in Open, including four penalty-free cars. The biggest surprise is GT. Only one car finished without penalties. Day 1 is by far the easiest day for GT, with big 30 second windows. Even the three-time Classic victors Hopkins and Hughes got caught out on the last stage.

Just to do justice to the two overwhelmingly popular cars in the event, here are a couple of gratuitous pictures. Shanahan and Smith have driven a couple of monstrous old beasts in the event, including a Falcon and an old Corvette that ran on something that would make your eyes water. This year? A 911. They're one of the cars tied for first in Classic.

This M3 is sitting in second place in Modern.

Thanks for the updates, Keith! Sorry to see you aren't racing this year, but it must be nice to enjoy the event as a spectator...

Probably is. I'm in Colorado. I'm piecing this together from a number of different online sources.

Keith Tanner wrote: Probably is. I'm in Colorado. I'm piecing this together from a number of different online sources.

I'm sorry, but this thread is one of the most hilarious things I've seen in a while.

Congrats to everyone who hasn't learned how to thoroughly read a whole post!

In other news, thanks Keith for the help. I'm much too lazy to dig this stuff up myself. Targa seems very sedate and not very "in your face" this year.

It might seem sedate from here because almost all the pictures I've found have been posted by competitors. That means no action shots. Still, we've got some major stuff going on. Oldford in a ditch? That's big. It's a shame, I was looking forward to seeing him and ACP go head to head. And I'm pretty sure yet another hurricane (three years in a row!) will add some excitement.

There's a video update from Monday online now. Not great action footage and some canned human interest, but you do get to see a bit of what's going on: http://www.targanewfoundlandnews.com/#s10

Stages for today. These are some of my favorites of the whole race. Appleton - never one that has stuck out in my mind as being particularly notable. video
Another, more exciting video comparing Grand Touring to Targa class. But really, it's just fun because oversteer. Taken on the Appleton stage.

Bobby's Cove video
Pleasantview video
These two stages are the same piece of road raced in different directions. It's fast, smooth and flowing. You can really haul ass on this one. Last year, I passed a 30 kmh sign doing 179 kmh. They're not difficult to zero, but they sure are fun. And they have taken a few scalps.

Point Leamington video. Bonus - in the rain and passing a vintage Corvette! Glover's Harbour - no video of this one, but it's the same stage going the other way.
A couple more classics. Rougher than Bobby's, these are probably my overall favorites. Your car has to be fast, well sorted and able to deal with weird cambers and pavement imperfections. In 2011, we were something like 30 seconds ahead of our base time by the time we were halfway through. So much fun.

Bobby's Cove
Pleasantview
A second shot at these, nice.

Gander bumpercam with no sound Gander
No good video of these, I am cursed. But it's one of the classics. A bit dizzying with constant 90 degree corners for five minutes as you blast through a subdivision. Popular with the fans and the drivers and very difficult to avoid penalties. We'll see how they do.