Pre-Targa hoopla, registration and last-minute fixes

There are several pre-race events in St-John’s before registration begins on Saturday at Targa. Teams come in by air or by land, get organized, run errands, pick up parts or raid the grocery store for vital things like water bottles or energy drinks to keep drivers awake during long stages. Liquorice sticks become an essential food group for some teams.

This year again, teams were invited to bring their cars to the Confederation Building on Prince Philip street in St-John’s on Friday for a special presentation that airs on the evening news. A good dozen teams showed up, including ours, with its Targa STI in its new blue and silver colours, Stan Hartling and Pierre Beswick of the Turks and Caicos Islands in a 1988 BMW M3 built for them by double overall winner Roy Hopkins and Michael Salter in his rare and quick 1953 Austin Healey 100, with co-driver Jeff Hagan.

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Young Jack Giannou was there, of course, tagging along with his dad Scott. While the Targa Newfoundland VP was getting ready for the live TV interview and presentation, Jack jumped into the seat of the Targa STI. Is this the first time you sit in a race car Jack: “no it’s not, and it sure isn’t the last time either”. Hockey isn’t the only thing on the mind of this young guy, now in Junior High: “Grade 7”, he adds.

The Brick-N’-Brute Racing gang also showed up with its classic Minis in all colours, ready for action.

Double overall Targa winner (2007, 2008) Roy Hopkins and co-driver Adrienne Hugues were there too, with a new lightweight carbon-fibre hood on their 1969 BMW 2002. To keep the tradition intact, the hood has been ‘wrapped’ with a picture of the exact paint job on the old metal hood. Now, there’s a new twist on ‘Classic’.

It is no exaggeration that our Subaru STI is a cult car for today’s enthusiasts, but when I was a car-crazy teenager, my dream car was the British-Built Ford Escort Twin Cam, one of the best rally and race cars of the era. Well, Paul Horton and Carol Potter of the Turks and Caicos Islands will be running a magnificently-prepared 1968 Ford Escort Twin Cam MK1 in this year’s Targa and it was there on Confederation Place in all its glory, complete with a full set of period-correct Cibié rally lights that will stay there for the duration of the event: “if the Gander stage is run as late as last year, we will switch these on and it’s going to be like daylight” says driver Horton.

All teams were also invited to a gathering hosted by Capital Subaru in the large lot between its sister Mitsubishi and Hyundai dealerships. All three are owned by St-John’s Frank Howard who runs these successful businesses with his sons. In fact, this event was organized by his son John who manages Capital Subaru. Frank Howard is also a car enthusiast with a clear taste for American iron. When we get there with our Targa STI, I see a very special car parked quietly across the lot: a dark blue Ford GT, no less. It is owned by Frank Howard: “it’s the 50th birthday present I bought for myself a couple of years ago. I mention that I have been testing cars for a living for more than a quarter-century but have not had the chance to drive the GT. A nanosecond later, Howard whips out a set of keys, hands it over and offers a test drive. I simply cannot believe it but immediately take the keys and head for the GT. Co-driver Keith Townsend and I went for a quick drive in the GT. We did get some speed but nothing like the 205 mph Frank Howard saw on the speedometer one clear morning: “then I ran out of nerve and had to coast for quite a while to let my heart rate come down.” The grin on my face took a while to recede too. Only in Newfoundland and only at Targa will you see something like this.

At registration on Saturday, we finally see the bright orange, 620-horsepower Nissan GT-R that top racer Steve Millen will be campaigning at Targa this year, with co-driver Mike Monticello, the Features Editor at Road & Track magazine. The GT-R is a direct rival of ours in the Modern Modified Large class. It’s going to be quite an interesting race.

Meanwhile, former overall winner Glen Clarke is helping fellow competitors and fixing an oil leak in his new Porsche racer built from the shell of a 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera he bought on eBay for $300 and double overall winner Roy Hopkins is desperately looking for a new u-joint for his BMW. Bring on the Prologue stages, set for this Sunday morning.