Friday was the final day of the 2012 Targa Newfoundland rally. As we raced out of Marystown, to Carboneau, and back into St. Johns, it gave plenty of time to reflect back on the day and week of Targa. For the day, we had some of the most intense in-town stages. Combined with some of the most beautiful scenery ever, another 12 hour day of driving came to an end as we cross the official finish line in downtown St. Johns to receive our medals.
View all of our 2012 Targa Newfoundland Rally Photos Here
Some of the first stages would be run in and out, while others would be done twice in the same direction. Carboneau was the highlight of the day as it was 3 in a row of town stages. Starting after another great hometown cooking lunch, it was go time. Lining up to the count down tree and getting that green light had us full throttle into a hard right hander. Most all of it was a blur of roads from there after as my navigator blurted out pace notes to help set me up for what was ahead. Acute lefts, hard rights up a street the width of your car with a large crest at the top, and my favorite, the drifting 90 degree turns in between houses. But the final stage was the one to watch. This featured the very popular bridge jump. A 1 lane wooden bridge had basically 2 pavement tracks leading up to it. In the years past you could see many cars go air born over this as it had a 30 yard straight in front to set you up. The most amazing photo of this has to be that of a orange Porsche 997 GT3 RS with all 4 wheels off the ground last year. On our first run of this stage, we took it conservative. After 6 days of stages and nearly 1000 miles of driving, the last thing we wanted to do is stuff our Porsche Turbo S. We were also tired and excited we only had 1 more stage. After the bridge jump it winded its way between some classic Newfoundland houses on single lane roads up and downhill. Eventually coming to a crest, it dropped down to a hard sloping right and you accelerated next to the wooden guard rail separating you and the ocean bay. With 1 more turn left, you accelerate to cross the finish.
We could not just leave it at that though. So for the final stage and now seeing what the course had to offer, we strapped in tight with our Status Racing harnesses, got our OMP Racing gear secure, and lined up to the start line. Setting up launch control, the PDK transmission revved to 5000 rpm and we released the brake and took off like a bat out of hell. Making our lefts and rights, we quickly approached the right hander before the bridge. Coming out of the turn I lined the car up and gave it gas hitting that bridge jump at about 50 kph. With the crowd in my peripheral vision and a $150,000 car on the line, we bounced the front end on landing and hammered the gas to continue on the way. Rounding through the houses, we came to the hard right hand turn that took you down by the bay. Accelerating through the apex, I noticed on my left that the guard rail was missing and broken in a section. As instructed in our drivers meeting, we continued forward to the finish. That was it, Targa was done and we had survived! But what happened to the guard rail? One of the Targa Class Fiat Abarth’s had blew the turn and punched through the rail going nose first into the sea wall rocks but not hitting the water. It was a total loss. But thanks to the strong safety standards of Targa, this team was completely unhurt.
We pulled over and the rest of our class pulled in behind us on this random residential street. Everyone got out and gave each other hugs and high fives. We had done it. No serious damage, no issues. Targa 2012 was in the bag. Each of us snapped pics of our teams and as other Targa drivers went by and honked their horns with thumbs up, we returned the favor. Our class was not about time or racing, but about having a really good experience driving our cars in a way they were meant to be driven. Called Fast Tour or Hot Tour, we had no rules, we had no bickering, we simply became a tiny group of individuals with a passion for motorsports that transited together, watch out after one another, and most importantly got to learn about each others life. With over 40 cars in the event, these 2 other Fast Tour cars I will remember forever. Russ and Karen in the Jaguar and Tim and Carrie in the Porsche Cayenne Turbo. Being able to take away something from meeting new people is a larger prize then any trophy. Having been fortunate enough to drive in Gumball 3000 rallies on 3 continents, run the Bullrun rally along the entire east coast, and even travel to drive the famed Nurburgring in a Porsche GT3, Targa goes down as one of the best experiences ever.
A big thank you to my co-driver for keeping life real over 2 weeks of travel, our film guys for helping push this footage, and our sponsors below as this was one hell of a trip. Until the next adventure!
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