Healy-Guttman Blog

I’ve been road racing for several years now in the vintage class but I’ve always wondered what “true road racing” would have been like in “the day” - when temporary circuits were made using public roads with real hazards (trees, telephone poles, ditchs, and other immovable objects).  Today due to safety reasons we race on permanent courses with tire walls, runoffs, gravel traps and areas for the spectators well beyond any danger.  …well, there is one last opportunity in North America to participate in the type of “real” road racing one can only dream about - albeit in rally format - and I had to see it for myself. 

The Targa Newfoundland adventure is a grueling 5-day rally event covering 2200 km of spectacular scenery of which about 500 km are run in “Targa” or speed sections (basically flat out driving) on roads closed to local traffic. Over the course of the event, there are thousands of high speed turns and the drivers tell me it all becomes a blur. Where today we memorize tracks and work on finer points in corners that we run over and over throughout the season, it is virtually impossible to memorize the multiple Targa legs. Even veterans make off road excursions like what happened this year in the first day where rain combined with a wooden bridge took out 4 cars (nobody was hurt). 

As I grudgingly advance into my mid-40’s I have started making a mental list of those things “I-have-to-do-at-least-once-before-I-croak”. Sure, I’ve heard this referred to as mid-life crisis - but for me, it is simply a healthy outlook that time is slipping by - not a “crisis” by any stretch. It is a positive change where “more time” becomes more important than “more money”. …but I digress…

Ever since I saw the Targa Newfoundland event covered on the Speed channel several years ago, it has been on my “you have to do it in your lifetime” list - ranking up there with racing in New Zealand (which will become reality for Suzanne and I this next February). But not ever having done a rally, I thought it might be prudent to check it out first. So earlier this year, I suggested to Whidbey Island friend and fellow automobile nut (Fish) that we had to go check it out. …I didn’t want to commit the time and energy it takes to put together a car and a competitive team without first traveling there to see what I might be in for. …not to spoil the story - but I’ll tell you right now that I’m going. …and I suppose it doesn’t hurt that the overall winning team drove a 1969 BMW 2002 (sound familiar?). …and you have to love their paint scheme:

After Fish and I had committed to traveling to Newfoundland for this year’s event, we spoke to Victory Lane magazine at a recent vintage race in Portland about this rally and our upcoming New Zealand adventure. …one thing led to another and by the time we left their booth, we had committed to doing a story.  As it turns out, this worked in our favor as we were able to secure media passes from the folks in the Targa PR department and were able to view the event up close and personal.  ….real close….

As I found out, the challenge of running flat out through small fishing villages (and through some of the most spectacular scenery in the world) while staying on the road, not getting lost and finishing in one piece is too great to pass up. It is the essence of “motor sport” where one better take steely nerves and a six-pack of courage. ….especially when faced with a course like this:

Notice all the immovable objects waiting to reach out and grab you should you take the wrong line or completely miss the turn (at speeds of 100 MPH plus through small neighborhoods like this, it is really easy to blow a turn…). Speaking of which, one of the things I learned on this trip was how important your navigator (or co-driver) is to a successful outcome in an event like this. At one of our stops, I caught this picture of the navigator in a BMW M3 studying the next leg and making notes:

In rallying, one style of recording pace notes is a ‘tulip diagram’. Each intersection is marked by its own diagram and distance from the last intersection (apparently this is named after the “Tulip Rally” held in Holland where this technique was first used). This is how things are down in Targa Newfoundland. As part of the media, we were given the same booklet given to the participants and had an opportunity to drive through several legs using the tulip diagrams. My “take-away” is that driving is not the most difficult part of this event - the co-driver who is navigating has the responsibility for keeping the car on the right track. …one mistake (and we saw many) might cost you the win.

So Fish and I set off from Seattle early on a Wednesday morning. I guess I never realized that St. John’s Newfoundland was a loooong ways away. Two planes and 18 hours later we landed at midnight in soggy St. John’s and checked into our hotel downtown. We had decided that we would see legs 4 & 5 (Thursday and Friday) and true to our “playing it by ear” strategy had run into our first “issue” when on the plane we came to realize that to actually see any of the action for Thursday’s leg 4, we would need to drive about 300 km or so down towards Marystown on the Burin Peninsula (known as the “Heritage Run”). Hey, no problem! …the good news is that the weather on Thursday morning - and for the rest of our trip - was fantastic! ….the other news is that Fish really needs to work on his navigation skills….

Once we sorted out how to get out of town and how to get on the “TCH” (Trans Canada Highway), we had lost a bit of time. It didn’t help that with a 4 1/2 hour time difference (I never knew there were places that had a “half”) we were a bit groggy and got a late start. I really wanted to get to stage 4-3 which was a high speed run just North of Marystown. Fish was doubtful we would make it, but being an eternal optimist, I simply drove faster. It was a really windy day and of course we were pointed right into it. I have to admit that for much of the 2 hours and 45 minutes it took us to get there (including the off-course excursion) I had that Dodge Avenger go pedal down to the floor. ….so we started out our adventure with our own personal “Targa run”. At one point I had to signal to Fish that things were alright:

Fish suggested I get my hands back on the wheel. ….one thing I like about Fish is that he remains calm and collected - even when faced with these types of obstacles:

We got to the start in time to catch the launch of about half the cars. Next we found our media contact to collect our badges and set off for one of the best corners in stage 4-4 which runs through Marystown. I knew it was going to be good when I saw the filming crew for Speed up on the hill. Sure enough, it didn’t disappoint. It was still really windy and the tape used to mark the course wasn’t quite holding up and the corner was a bit confusing. Here a Porsche 911 almost gets sucked into an early right, makes a last minute correction, and comes hurtling back onto the course:

After this stage, we decided we would trek even further south to Fortune to catch up with the participants at their lunch stop. By this time we weren’t in such a hurry so I was able to slow things down - but 90k per hour? ….that’s not easy… I was wondering why we were passing so many of the Targa participants when I was pulled over by the friendly Canadian police officer. Do you know how fast you were going - eh? ….I guess this classic line doesn’t change north of the border…. What I really wanted to say was that 120k was nothing compared to a few hours ago, but I smiled, flashed my media pass and waited for my punishment. To his credit he decided to lower the $400 fine to $100 since I was “part of the rally” and let me go on my way.

In Fortune - a bustling town of perhaps 50 - 60 - the lunch was at a local Legion Hall of which every town seemed to have. This was our first chance to speak with some of the drivers and co-drivers and I had my first chance to learn how difficult this week had been on the participants. I was also struck by the camaraderie of those who had made it this far. You can see how difficult some of the “immovable objects” had been on some of the cars:

We also had our first chance to speak to several “Newfies” and found them to be fantastic people who are supportive of the rally and the excitement it brings to their towns. This was driven home (pardon the pun) in the next targa run where we “spectated” in the little seaside town of Garnish. At the beginning of the leg as we drove up with 30 minutes to the start, they had closed down the roads to traffic. This is where our media passes came in handy as we were able to talk our way in (with the cautionary word that once we were in there - we were there until it was over). In the center of the town which was basically one small store, a fishing pier, the local cemetary and 30 or so tightly packed houses, the party was getting into full swing. Here Reuben & Hazel Frances (and friends) had a party going on in their garage in anticipation of the high speed run through their town:

Although you can’t see it, the targa course winds its way around the town past their houses on a small road (maybe 12′ wide) where you could reach out the window of a house like this and touch the car going by at 100k. …and not just the adults were excited about this event - the kids were all out in full force many of whom planted themselves on shaky roofs:

Fish and I decided to plant ourselves in a short section where a Porsche had made a swan dive into the bay last year and got a chance to mingle with the townspeople before things got started. As the first cars drove through our section of the course, a lot of gravel started getting kicked onto the road on a hard right that was a bit deceiving on the entry. After about 40 cars had come through it was getting pretty slick. I decided to leave Fish in his photo spot and walk 30 yards around the corner as the cars started sliding through the tight turn and getting closer to a house that was hit last year. Apparently the woman that owned the house had just replaced the side of the house that was damaged (at the expense of last year’s errant driver) but that little sixth sense told me she might be doing it over. Sure enough one of the three BMW M3’s that were participating this year driven by a great team from Texas got it a bit wrong:

The two young Texans were OK and scrambled out to place a caution triangle on the road and flash their “OK” sign to the course workers. The next few cars had to do some heavy braking to avoid the accident and since the corner was even more slippery there were a few that got close to hitting the M3. I felt sorry for the team, but that is what the Targa Newfoundland event is all about and what makes it unique. Things happen fast and there isn’t always a lot of room for a mistake. On the other hand, the word from the gathering crowd of locals was that Pearl (the owner of the house) might not be too upset since she really didn’t like the color of the siding from last year’s crash and perhaps they would get it right this time… You gotta love the attitude of these great townspeople!

Our pace was unhurried as we left Garnish to head back to St. Johns with the buzz of an amazing day still ringing in our heads. We discovered a few more bars on George St. (the St. John’s version of Chicago’s Rush St. or 6th St. in Austin) and made it an “early night” in anticipation of the final day - Leg 5 - and our “VIP tour”.

Friday, we had opted for the new “Targa VIP Program” with a full coached tour (no more tickets for me) of the last day of the event including the award’s ceremony event in St. Johns. Our host was Dave O’Grady who had driven in the 2003 event. He was a wealth of information and handled some of the snags so common with these “first time” events with aplomb. Along the way we had an opportunity to meet the President of Targa Newfoundland, a navigator who had done the event several times and led us through one of the legs while translating the “tulips” to give us an idea of how things worked in the car (even at bus speeds, it was confusing…) and Fish caught a few photos:

Second place overall winner in a 1967 Acadian Sport Canso:

The wife of the driver of this car along with her kids and some other family were on the bus with us:

Rachel & Andy Nelson - fellow vintage racers from the Vancouver, BC area - were crewing for the “Brick and Brute” team which included two mini’s. …I think they were surprised to see us in Newfoundland. They were busy but filled us in later at the awards ceremony on their adventure.  They wrote a great story from a crew’s perspective about the event that you can read on their website by clicking here

And the 1963 Austin Mini Cooper S driven by Dyrk Bolger and Terry Milnes in the Bricks & Brute team ended up in 3rd place overall - 1st in their class (a targa record for a rookie team):

This BMW 2002 was a “square tailight” ‘76 so he didn’t make the pre-71 classic group but did fairly well:

A crowd pleaser:

This BMW M3 had a bit of a mishap during the first day and rolled. Within one day the front windshield had been replaced, some Lexan was patched in as a rear window and the body banged out. Here it soldiers on around the “caution triangle” placed out by the other wrecked M3 back in Garnish:

Some Detroit iron:

Sometime during the day, Fish grudgingly allowed for a “kodak moment”:

The final leg of the day was in Torbay near St. John’s. Due to several washouts on the roads around the region (heavy rains and flooding recently) we were a bit late for this final leg. The bus rolled in and we sprinted up onto a rocky outcrop on an off-camber turn. …the speed filming crew was there again, so we expected some excitement. …and it was exciting not from the twisted metal perspective but that many of the cars who had off road excursions - including the M3 in the photos above - got their cars in driveable condition to complete this leg and get their medal. It was inspiring.

….so the event was over and the tired participants rolled into downtown St. John’s to the final awards ceremony on the waterfront. The event was packed and you could feel the collective sigh of relief from the drivers and crew that it was over. A few photos from this final event:

The overall winners of the event - Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes - accept their trophy:

So now what? ….well, Fish and I hadn’t been “screeched in” yet so we proceeded over to Christine’s for the 11:15 screech in upstairs on George St. You don’t know what this is? ….well, you will have to find out on your next visit to Newfoundland… But don’t worry, the cod puckered up nicely when it saw a fellow fish:

Keith, our official “screecher” put on a great show. There was no paddling involved, but I have to admit that made me a bit nervous in the beginning… There is a saying you are supposed to be able to say as part of the “ceremony” but none of us could get it right - especially after our shot of screech…

The rest of the evening will have to be left undocumented. What I can tell you is that Fish and I made many friends and woke up completely unrefreshed the next morning. I needed a visit to my cousins pharmacy:

After some serious pharmaceuticals, we headed for the Eastern most edge of North America - Cape Spear.  Along the way, we went through some great small seaside villages like this one:

Cape Spear didn’t disappoint and was much more interesting than we had anticipated.

Another grudging kodak moment for Fish:

Later on was more time at George St. but without the enthusiasm of the previous night. The event was over, we had seen some of what Newfoundland had to offer, and we were ready to go home. On the plane ride back to Seattle all I could think about was my next trip back with the car I was going to build, the team I was going to put together, the trophy I was going to win…. …until then….