Subaru Rally Team Canada at Targa Newfoundland 2009

This year I am driving Subaru Canada’s official entry at Targa Newfoundland, a fully race-prepared Impreza WRX STI. Subaru Rally Team Canada is thus competing on the Rock for the seventh consecutive year and our goal is to become the first team ever to win overall in the Targa class with a Modern car, no less.

My co-driver is Keith Townsend who has a long experience in Canadian performance rally competition as both a co-driver and driver. Keith has already competed at Targa twice, winning his class as well as the Modern Division and finishing third overall with his own virtually-stock Subaru WRX STI in 2006, only 12 seconds from the overall win. Keith knows Targa and rally navigation inside out and his expert contribution is an extremely important part of our effort.

• Also: Leg 3 – Navigational eccentricities, a mystery penalty and new miracles
• Also: Leg 4 – Clarke and Proudfoot still leading with nine more stages to the finish

Our Impreza WRX STI has been prepared by the Subaru Rally Team Canada crew, led by Stewart Hoo at Can-Jam Motorsports. This car finished 5th overall in the 2008 edition and gets many tweaks and modifications to optimize its performance, handling and reliability this year. It also sports the same cool new colour scheme as the Subaru Rally Team Canada STI that is defending its Canadian Rally Championship title this year with Patrick Richard as its driver and Alan Ockwell in the co-driver’s seat.

Targa Newfoundland is the only event of its kind to be held in North America and one of only three internationally-recognized Targa events in the world. This year, the competition will run from September 13 to 18 and cover approximately 2,200 kilometres on paved roads over the central and eastern part of Newfoundland. The teams will compete in 42 timed stages which will total more than 400 kilometres on public roads that are closed to traffic.