Want more Targa? For official results & pro pictures visit the official Targa site. More great photos and write ups at FOC SOVREN member Jack Healy's BLOG MINI.CA writeup click HERE
Mike Salter's crazy Caravan tow rig! Click HERE MSN Autos/Jim Kenzie reports & updates click HERE
The 2007 Targa Newfoundland is now in the history books! The Brick & Brute Racing Targa team consisting of two Minis Molly & Betty, and the Austin Healey “12” all crossed the finish line at the conclusion of the Targa in St. John’sNewfoundland on September 14th. The event can only be described as amazingly unique, an adventure of motor sport like none other. Five days of racing, 39 grueling stages over 2200 Kilometers took us through some exceptionally beautiful scenery and small towns that make up the most Eastern landmass in North America. A proper report would probably fill a novel, so here is the abbreviated version of events.
Driver Dyrk Bolger and co-driver Terry Milnes expertly piloted Molly to an incredible 1st in class and 3rd overall! They finished higher in the standings than any novice driver/navigator team in the history of the event, and really did the Mini community proud with their victory.
Our team as a whole was not so lucky. Dick & Tony in Betty had several small issues initially, but were sidelined when Betty’s engine seized during a stage on Tuesday. Mike & Mike in 12 suffered an off road excursion, a broken axle, a bent diff housing, and some front wheel bearing problems. Dick & Tony’s crew put in an amazing effort to get Betty running again, using Dyrk’s spare engine. Betty was towed back to St. John’s (we were in Gander 4 hours North when the engine went), and the work was completed at a local shop. Now turning a fuel injected/electronic distributor, 8 port, front rad, electric water pump, dry sump, and wildly modified car into a normal 5 port carbureted mini transplant took two full days. Betty did not rejoin the Targa until Friday, which put Dick & Tony out of the points and dashed all hope of a win. Dick also suffered an injury when the car slipped off the jack and pinned his finger in between the body of the car and the jack stand, which required stitches. This guy is tough as well as having a great sense of humor! The valiant effort to sort Betty out earned Dick’s crew an award at the Gala. They also assisted Mike with the Healey. I have never seen a Healey on a forklift until this event! During repairs to the car in Gander, the rain started coming down in torrents and the staff at the Gander arena put a pallet under the car and fork lifted it into a shed for further work. Really amazing how wonderful and helpful the Newfoundlanders are, even if it is tough to understand them!
The Targa is not for the faint of heart. Completing the stages earns the team a finisher’s medallion, which attests to the difficulty and challenge of completing all 39 stages. In fact, this event tests the endurance of everyone involved. It is by no means a solo endeavor, and requires excellent cooperation and coordination from all to get the job done. Driver & navigator face 5 to 9 very challenging stages each day, over some exceedingly rough roads at high rates of speed. They are exhausted as one would expect. Having a service crew is a necessity if you want to get your car worked on and also get time to sleep. I imagine there may have been some teams who did not have a crew, but if so those guys really busted themselves getting the job done!
A typical day in the life of a Targa service crew goes like this: 05:00am: alarm goes off. Meet your crew in the hotel lobby at 06:00am. Get driver & navigator to the arena early to line up for the breathalyzer test (“0” blood alcohol tolerance, test every morning at 06:30am). If you fail the test, you are not driving! Then over to the officials for notes or updates to the route. Coffee somewhere either on the way or at the arena. Final checks for the car and then transit to the first stage start position at around 07:00 to 07:30. Service crew drives to first service point and anxiously awaits arrival of car! 6 to 8 Targa stages driven each day, varying in length from 2.5km to 20+km per stage. Total distance driven each day between 300 and 500km, with 3 to 7 service points. Try not to get lost between service points (a high percentage of roads in NFL don’t have signs!). Most of the official Service Crew route book was devoid of north/south indications, some diagrams were upside down, nothing is to scale, and in many cases we had no idea where the stage was actually being run. Note to self: copy navigator’s route book before you leave town. Rick did a brilliant job of navigation to the service point, while Andy drove the service truck. We found it challenging at times but never got totally lost (others however reported excess mileage on their odos). The Subaru guys even had a tough time here and there, and several other people were actually following us so I guess we did quite well for rookies. We all came to the conclusion that part of what separates the winners from the losers is based on the talent of the service crews to actually find the service points! Molly’s fuel cell is 8 gallons, which means we need to plan our fuel delivery to the car to insure they don’t run out, as well as to keep the car as light as possible. It is critical to be at the service point on schedule, since gas stations are few and far between, and roads close for the Targa stages in between service points on certain sections. At the conclusion of the stages around 6:00 pm, transit to the arena for car wash and public car display (which goes 6pm to 10pm). Get a spot for the car and then run the driver/navigator to the hotel so we can eat & review the next day’s schedule before returning to the arena for car maintenance. At around 9:30pm, return to the arena by which time most of the crowd has dissipated. Unload tools and supplies from truck. Check entire car for any issues, fix reported problems, and check every nut, bolt, screw, and moving part possible. Finish car 01:30-02:00am, go back to hotel and shower and sleep. Repeat the next day. That is the glamorous life of a Targa service crew! Let’s just say that no one on the team did less than 110% each day.
We were very fortunate that Molly did not develop any serious problems during the event. The top engine stabilizer failed (which we replaced by using alternator brackets and pieces of the original broken stabilizer and a home made bracket in the spares kit), a rear wheel bearing was needed, and the rest of the to-do list consisted of normal checks. By “normal” I mean that every part of the car needs to be inspected at the conclusion of the day, because of the rough roads and air time/hard landings cause bolts to come loose and alignment to change. Of course we did a oil and filter change, bled the brakes, adjusted the clutch and steering rack several times, changed the fan belt, set the valve clearances daily, retorqued the head, fluids topped, repaired miscellaneous wiring issues, checked the compression, rechecked and set the toe & camber several times, inspected suspension, carb adjustments, etc. etc. I can’t recall everything we did to the car over the five days, but you get the idea!
What is vastly different than regular racing is that you are working in an area that is usually a long walk from your service vehicle. You don’t have the luxury of having your tools and supplies organized and beside your pit spot. As a consequence, you end up walking back and forth to your rig, and have to re-pack everything again just so, or you won’t find it again. Many of the top teams and factory teams did most of the work on the car outside in the parking lot before moving it inside, which is fine if you have a cube van or trailer and canopies. Not so good if it is raining or blowing! It was an interesting to see how each competitor dealt with service on their vehicle. Especially if there was major work involved to get the car running for the next day. We were by no means the only ones working the midnight shift!
The crowds in the arenas could be intense, and if you worked on your car while the show was going on progress was tough. Kids and adults alike all loved the Mini (I heard many comments regarding a Mr. Bean car), and they wanted autographs and pictures of the car too. The guys who have factory support usually have a rep and the drivers handing out “hero cards” (which are comparable to hockey cards only larger with more info) to the kids. It is a PR circus for sure! In many of the communities the schools were closed so that everyone could watch the event. The event organizers also staged “meet & greet” opportunities so that the locals could see the cars up close in towns where we were not stopping for the night. In many of the small towns where the Targa group stops for lunch, we doubled or tripled the population. To say that these people love Targa is an understatement!
Targa is unforgiving. Some of the stages took their toll on the cars. One mistake and you are off the road (and I use the word ‘road’ loosely), two cars hit buildings, and several trees & guard rails were used for target practice. Despite the carnage to the vehicles, none of the drivers and navigators were seriously hurt in the incidents.
Dyrk & Terry were consistently cleaning stages (which means meeting the minimum time/speed limit and not incurring penalty points) and moving up in the standings. A number of the other teams came over to check out the Mini and congratulate us on our progress. I think many were surprised the car was so fast, as it has a distinct lack of ‘bling factor’ compared to a number of cars at the event. By Thursday we were in 3rd place overall and the team was feeling the pressure. The finish line was coming ever closer, and as we were now talking about a class win and perhaps a good overall finish too. No one wanted to jinx the luck we had so far, and we didn’t get our hopes up (except perhaps privately!). We all agreed that it was remarkable to have made it this far, and each completed stage was icing on the cake. On Friday we were all pretty much running on pure adrenaline, as fatigue from the long days, lack of sleep, combined with the scent of victory had us all pumped up big time! Seeing the car off for the final two stages at the last service point was very intense, and after the car was serviced we rushed back to St. John’s to see the car cross the finish line (we hoped!). I think on our final transit to St. John’s we were all kind of crazy, as we would not see the car again for two stages and anything could happen! It’s not over until it’s over, if you know what I mean!
Since the Targa starts the fastest cars at the back of the stage, Molly was one of the last cars to cross the finish line. The crowd on hand in St. John’s was pumped, and as each competitor crossed the finish line there was much cheering indeed. It was a photography free-for-all, as everyone tried to get a good shot of their favorite car. Andy, Rick, Elaine, and I watched anxiously for our team cars to arrive. “12” was first, followed by Betty and then Molly. It was an awesome feeling to see the car drive over the finish line! We had done it, and done it in style too! Thereafter followed a melee of photos, questions, and congratulations among the teams. No one knew for sure exactly where they ended up in the points, but everyone was exceedingly pleased to have finished. We all went to the Keg (which was the start/finish point) and downed some much needed adult bevies. The results were posted within the hour, and at first we were listed as first in class and 18th overall due to a 5 minute penalty. Terry talked to the steward and it turned out that the penalty was incorrect, so we were reclassified 4th overall! Oh what a feeling! The news got better on Saturday however. The top 4 finishers are automatically impounded at the finish line, and removed for a technical inspection the next day. As it turned out, the 2nd place Camaro was running an ‘undeclared’ Ford rear end, which put him in a different class. This moved the 3rd place Acadian Canso to 2nd and elevated our position to 3rd overall!
Talk about an incredible experience. For everyone involved it was truly amazing, and we all pulled together as a team to make it happen. As I have said, this isn’t an event to be taken lightly, and it separates the men from the boys for sure. You can’t do it on your own, and that is a big part of what makes Targa unique. The people of Newfoundland are fantastic, helpful and accommodating. The competitors themselves are just awesome, and we felt very welcomed by everyone. Oh, and doing 198 in a 60 zone has got to get your blood pumping too!
The memories and friends from Targa will last a lifetime. If you have a chance, go - you will not regret it!
