Keith wrote: fast_eddie: full story here: http://www.targamiata.com. In short, I ran the event in 2008. I towed the car out and back from Colorado, taking a few days in Ottawa on the way home to visit family. I took a full month off work. I have the sort of employer who is very good about this kind of thing :)
Any openings?
Martin and Ferd went off on today's Stage 3 after closing to within 12 sec. of the 2nd in Modern. 
(Confirmed by Ferd's son)
Damaged the front right susp. They will roll a tire across the line and get their finisher's medal but they are out.
And we're done. Lots of action on the last day apparently.
Modern: Well, we've heard about the 240. Shame. Matt Oldford kept it together and won Modern with a total of 2:53 in penalties. Second was Stan Hartling in his Lotus Exige at 3:39. The GT2 came in third in 4:42. Lots of penalties in the last day and not a lot of really close finishes. Great race, though. Much better than the slow motion 0:00 vs 0:01 races of years past. And a lot of attrition.
In Open, things finished as expected. Jim Kenzie kept his nose clean and came home with the win. If I'm reading the results correctly, he was assigned the maximum time for the last two stages which means something went wrong - but even that wasn't enough for Roy and Adrienne to catch up. They closed to within 2.5 minutes but that's as close as they could come.
Classic went to Scott Giannou. He's well due for a win. Bob Yulle in the Camaro must have gone off as he picked up a big slug of penalties on the third stage. Nobody else was close enough to pick him off, so Bob has second.
In GT, Townsley/Fuhrmann took the win with only 2 seconds of penalties over the entire week. Even more impressive, they're running Unequipped. Somebody's good with a stopwatch. Crant/Russell won Equipped with 9 seconds. Unfortunately, both Miatas are showing DNF for some reason. I'm waiting to hear from the teams to find out what happened. On of them DNF'd the second stage, the other was DNS on the third. More to come there.
Gratuitous Miata shot. Sponsored by Flyin' Miata, you know. I'll have a report on how well the V-Maxx did later.
The classic Brigus stage. See that fence on the right in the background? In 2008, 5 cars went through that fence. Including car 0, the stage opening car. Ooops. Here's the S2000-powered Escort, obviously back up and running.
Nice distance on that one! Gordon (the event photographer) wasn't taking pictures on this bridge in 2008. I wish he had been, I'd have it made up as a poster.
ACP put in another flying day (get it? Ha!), faster than anyone but Matt Oldford. He finished the event in 5th in Modern.
The winner in Modern, and not without a fight.
Scott Giannou.
Lots of great airtime pictures here: http://www.gordonsleigh.com/gallery2/v/Motorsports/Targa/Daily2010/. I can't find one of the GT winners, sorry.
This just kind of sums up what it feels like after you cross the finish.
The post party at the Keg on the waterfront. Jim Kenzie shows off his finisher's medallion.
The story behind that last picture: that steering wheel is the only part of the car that made it across finish line! Jim and Brian broke a halfshaft on the penultimate stage, and they must either have a Torsen or an open diff because it meant they lost drive. This means they were assigned the maximum time for the last two stages plus a 5 minute penalty. But as long as SOME part of the car makes it across the line, you finish the event. So they took a cab to the finish with the steering wheel and walked it across. Good thing they had such a big lead at the beginning of the day!
Remember how I said that a Targa plate was an excellent goal? Well, there sure weren't many of them given out this week. Nobody in Open managed it. One car in Classic got one. About a dozen cars in Modern pulled it off.
I like there's a 10 km/h speed limit ON the bridge but apparently none OVER it.
Thanks for the writeups Keith! Been fun following along.
I've heard that one of the Miatas missed some stages due to a bad alternator - they'd had trouble with it earlier in the week, but thought the problem was solved. The car was fixed in time to make it to the finish line, so that team did get a finisher's medallion.
I'm still waiting for firm details on what happened to the other Miata. A non-trivial off-road excursion from what I understand, but I'm not going to post more until I can separate rumor from fact. It's a shame, both teams ran a great race.
The Miata teams did manage to raise over $31,000 for charity, though. I believe it's going to pediatric cancer care. So that's an excellent result to their race, and I know they're eager to return next year.
Keith, I'm sure its been said many times, but Excelent coverage, just like last year. I look foward very much to the next...
Thanks!
Keith wrote: I'm still waiting for firm details on what happened to the other Miata. A non-trivial off-road excursion from what I understand, but I'm not going to post more until I can separate rumor from fact. It's a shame, both teams ran a great race.
Non-trivial? Unless there was another miata, the youtube video showed it rolled on its side! 
It was non-trivial, they were unable to proceed. That's all.
My co-driver Chris and I were piloting the Omni GLH. I had no idea until now that my favorite magazine was providing some of the best play-by-play during the event.
Anyone who enjoys driving must run Targa. I'll never experience anything this thrilling in my life. We had no experience beyond lapping days, HPDEs, and the occasional autocross. We just wanted to drive. So we learned the basics of rallying by running navigational rallies (much more fun than expected) and by volunteering at Canadian national and regional events. Then, with nothing but a line of credit and a lot of gall, we went from zero to Targa in 9 months, restoring a classic rally car (if you can't afford to be fast, be interesting) and driving the stickers right off the poor thing. Passing Porsches was fun (they weren't really trying) but it was regularly catching the V8 Mustang that was the most satisfying: The GLH was designed to do that from the start and it felt good to vindicate Chrysler and Mr. Shelby, especially with a Dodge factory race team from Detroit (check out their Papa Smurf Demon) chatting with us at the end of each day.
As our narrator here hints, most of the stories are too exciting to tell publicly. It's a legal cross between World Rally Championships and Cannonball Run and, being held in Newfoundland, it's impossible not to have a good time.
I'll be in debt for the next three years, my newborn twins don't know me, my wife refuses to tell her father what I've been up to, and it's been worth every minute.
All I can say is, find some way to do this and don't wait. Next year is the 10th anniversary. They want to almost double the number of entries. Hint-hint...
Good to hear from you, Rob! Yours is a true grassroots effort for sure. Go ahead and share the stories, that's what brings an event alive. A race like this is different for every team.
The Miata team has asked me not to share details of the off that ended their race, and I'll respect their wishes. That's the only story I won't tell. There are a lot of corners in the Targa, and you only have to get one wrong.
Over on the Targa forum, there's a fair bit of discussion about gaining finisher's medallions and DNFs, brought about by Jim Kenzie's method of winning. It's a good discussion - Jim's car didn't make it to the finish line because it broke down two stages before the end. A CV joint let go and the flailing halfshaft holed the transmission. So he wasn't able to finish, and it looks odd to have a class winner without a class winning car. But if he'd broken down earlier in the week, he would have been able to fix the car and rejoin the race without any controversy. Lots of careful understanding of how the rules work here, and it's pretty easy to argue both sides. I think Jim was correct and he earned the win legitimately, but it is an area of the rules that many teams are just now looking at for the first time and it's possible we may see some slight changes. For example, in the WRC, a team has to finish every stage to be counted in the final results. Of course, that means that no teams would have placed in Open this year!
Various other stories are trickling out. ACP's bad time on Tuesday was due to an off that wasn't serious, but left the car high-centered and unable to get out. The next car down the road - Matt Oldford, who was also running last on the road due to being the fastest - pulled over (as he was supposed to, as the OK sign wasn't being displayed) and yanked ACP out before the closing car arrived so ACP didn't fail to finish the stage. So not only did Matt manage to win the event, he's also a nice guy who helps out his competitors!
With my best John Belushi voice:
Targa! Targa! Targa!
Woo-hoo! Our Dodge Omni Targa car is in the February edition! I apologize to all the gods of racing for failing to open my copy the minute I received it. I saw the photo the same day a bunch of guys in the Motorsports Club of Ottawa did. Our rally forum lit up! What a boost on a cold, snowy, Targa-debt-burdened day in Canada!
I will do this one day.
Update! Yes, really.
The TV schedule has been announced. Well, the Canadian TV schedule. Speed TV will probably follow on in a month or so. I think there's also a show following the Trailer Park Boys team coming.
On TSN-1 on Sunday April 10th at 2:00 pm Eastern Time or 3:30pm Newfoundland Time
On TSN-2 on Monday April 11th at 5:00 pm Eastern Time or 6:30pm Newfoundland Time
On TSN-2 on Tuesday April 12th at 3:00 pm Eastern Time or 4:30pm Newfoundland Time
So Keith if you don't mind sharing, what does it cost roughly to get your car up to the rally? I imagine it costs a lot...
Actual transport costs?
That depends on where you start from and how you get it there. The only fixed cost is the ferry, and even that is going to depend on if you drive the car or tow it as the cost depends on the length of the vehicle(s). So anything from $5 if you live down the street from St. John's to several thousand bucks if you're having it transported via truck from California.
Haha good point, I would be in the thousands...although I'm technically closer than you are out in Colorado.
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