The Prologue was definitely just a taste of what was to come, because today we did 7 stages in Leg 1 as we headed North from St. Johns. The rally is comprised of both closed course stages and transit stages. The transit stages are how we travel between stages on public open roads and highways. Some of these can be as short as 10km and some like today were as long as 160km as we finished up in Gander, NF.
View Targa Newfoundland 2012 Rally Photos Here
The day started out with us leaving the Re/Max Centre which is home to Curling champions. Oh yes Curling is real. The first stage was in Holyrood where we ran this twice in the same direction. This stage started out with a super aggressive right hander as it ripped in-between forest and houses on a narrow but smooth paved road. Entertaining ourselves, we used the Porsche 997 Turbo S launch control. Revving to 5500 rpm, you press the brake then floor the car and release the brake sending you rocketing forward in 3 seconds 0-60mph. This first stage was about 6km and really got the blood boiling. One of the most aggressive portions of the stage was a blind drop that was about 30 yards to a T where a hard left was mandatory. If you did not turn left, you would get a dose of the “drink” as Canadian’s say which was the water directly in front of us!
After this was the Marysvale stage which we ran 1 time. This was an incredibly fast section which had a jump followed up by a uphill compression. This required you to load the suspension by quickly tapping the brakes then releasing. Great for video and spectators, you have to make sure your speed is dialed as going over that whoop and headed into the compression can definitely trash your front end. The ending of this stage gave us some relax time chilling in the grass before we headed to the Sunnyside In and Out stages. This was our lunch checkpoint which had us going hard through rolling crests and off camber turns through a neighborhood to the bottom of a fishing wharf. The elevation changes and compressions resembled a mini Nurburgring to me. Few sections you could see ahead and over each crest was a different battle. This made the importance of the navigator crucial. Running this stage in reverse was just as challenging. With the spotting of 2 Canadian moose and a BMW E46 M3 that had gone off into a yard of a locals house, we had our cautious minds in action.
The final run for the day was stage 6 and 7 called the Targa North West Brook Stage. At a lengthy 29km long in Goosberry, this stage would truly test the partnership of driver and co-driver. Having wide open sections with many sweeping turns and crests, you could truly go as fast as you could imagine through the quaint little town. With a max speed cap of 130kph in our class, this could have been easily destroyed with our Porsche Turbo S. The stage did display the harsh roads of Newfoundland. Major potholes, shoulders worn, and uneven payment along with loose gravel made coming through the turns and crests difficult even at 100kph. Being 29km long, this was quite long in comparison to our previous ones. This required major focus and decision making while the adrenaline was pumped the entire time. Once the entire group completed the inbound stage, we turned around after our break and regrouped to go outbound. This stage was actually halted due to a Targa class Subaru STI that had gone off and into the trees at over 170kph! Good thing this car was fully built for rally and both driver and co-driver walked away unharmed. We finished the stage in what they called a Fast Transit. All 50 cars were lead back through single file behind the pace car.
Our final adventure was a Transit Stage to Gander, NF which was just over 160km. Gander which is another small town in Newfoundland, is known for its crazy neighborhood stage as most people have seen online. Unfortunately, we don’t know what tomorrow and Wednesday hold as Hurricane Leslie is expect to land. As a category 1 hurricane, she could also be dropped to a tropical storm. Either way this means rain and flooding so we could see the dominance of the all wheel drive vehicles. Tomorrow holds another 12 hour day with about 9 planned stages! So check out the pictures and stay tuned for more updates! Make sure to bookmark www.vividracing.com/targa.
good coverage, more pictures would be nice.