Another amazing day here at the Targa Newfoundland Rally. Leg 4 is described as one of the most beautiful routes of the rally. With most of the stages running along quaint little fishing villages against the bay, these legs would have many high speed sections with routes heavily focused on precision driving. Leaving Clarenville, we headed on our Transit Stage 140 km to Boat Harbour. This stage was an amazing journey of 24 km with super fast elevation changes, banked turns, a wooden bridge crossing, and even some gravel. Speeds of 200 kph were easily obtainable, but our class max speed allowed was only 130 kph which required extreme restraint from exceeding. Unlike other stages, this route had pretty smooth roads without pot holes, weathered ruts, and cut aways. This stage did claim another Subaru though. This time a full rally prepped WRX wagon went into the guard rail and folded the driver side wheels. Its crew hobbled it into the finish where their service crew met them and went to work to make it road worthy. This stage we would get to run back in reverse which made it a even more knarly experience at the speeds that were carried.
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Next we would run a short 2 km stage at Mooring Cove. Mooring is where you anchor your boat offshore so for rough seas it does not hit a pier, dock, etc. As with many fishing villages and the severe weather found at Newfoundland, this was a common practive and this seaside stage was popular for this. Since this stage was so short, we quickly completed it and headed to the next major city stage of the rally. Marystown South is a 6 km run through the city which has extremely hard 90 degree and 180 degree turns. It features large elevation changes and is the famous spot where the Ferrari Enzo went into the water during the 2011 rally. Because of its recognition last year, this stage had tons and tons of spectators lining the bridges and streets to watch the 50 cars tear through this town.
After Marystown we headed to Garnish which was 14 km of the roughest stage so far. What started off on a flat and quick section soon dove into a small village with brutal rippled roads, pot holes, and hairpin turns through 1 lane streets in-between houses. Some parts of the road were gravel and others were so weathered, they were harsh on the cars. But once you pushed through this short technical area, you came out to another super fast section with some crests and easy turns. However on the straightaways, the pavement was rippled and you needed to choose your line carefully or forced to be bounced hard off line.
After a lunch stop in the Burin Bay with home made food and deserts, we headed back to run the Garnish stage in reverse which was equally challenging. Once completed, we then transited back to Marystown to run that stage in reverse as well. Since this was the last one of the day, we pushed hard. Hammering the car through the course, we hit all our turns and crests with precision. Crossing the line at 4:40, we averaged 70 kph. As the first car to finish, we parked the Porsche Turbo S and gathered our stuff. High on our time, we checked with the Ford Escort rally car on their time or speed. They drove with an average speed of 89 kph. Light, nimble, and Group N Spec, this shows that horsepower can only take you so far.
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