Targa: Leg 1 Wrap Up

Posted on 10. Sep, 2007 by Andrew in Targa 2007

Monday dawned to a cold, misty morning and the stages were a mix of wet and dry conditions. The first two stages - Argentia and Placentia - were mainly dry but still claimed the first victims of the week. The lovely Austin Healey 100 of Ivan and Ian Shelton went off the road, damaging the car considerably, and moments later the right-hand-drive Civic CRX of Martin Racine joined them off the road.

We next caught up with the teams as they rolled into the finish of Stage 4, a quick blast into Gooseberry Cove for lunch.  This stage was originally around 30km in length, but was shortened by 18km after a shortage of marshals developed when the "mackerel came in" and many of the volunteers had to go to work!  At the finish of SS4, we grabbed some comments from the drivers about how their day was shaping up...

Peter Rotelle was all smiles as he rolled to a stop:
"It was killer!  A little bit slick. A little bit slippery for sure. I've got a killer co-driver, he's doing a great job.  The driver's better though...but keep that hush!"

Richard Burton and Dean Hopkins rolled up to the finish with Black Eyed Peas blaring on the sound system of their ex-DC Shoes Gumball STI:
"It was awesome, very fast, but really grippy in this car. We've had the tunes going the whole time!"

Dave Koszegi came blazing up to the line throwing the horns with a big grin, doing his best imitation of Borat:
"We make very niice tiiiime! Oh man, we were just flying. The car still isn't working right, but this stage was good.  We have hoses, ski-doo parts, and bailing twine, but she's going!"

Last year's overall Targa winner, Glen Clarke, has been having mysterious electrical gremlins since the beginning of the event, and today was no different:
"We're having a lot of trouble today, a lot of engine problems.  We've got very little ignition, I can only give it about 30% throttle. On some of the hills, I struggled to get going 60-70km/h. Because I have to keep as much momentum through the corners, I hit the big bump in Placentia as hard as you could and the hood blew off!"

On the return trip back from Gooseberry Cove, many teams were caught out by a wet wooden bridge.  We've heard reports that four cars were off the road at that tricky point, and Ray Felice (co-driver to Scott Giannou) said they also went for a wild ride and just managed to avoid disaster. The varied weather is certainly keeping the drivers on their toes this week.  Tomorrow's weather is supposed to be improved but variable.  We'll be back out on stage tomorrow to bring you more photos and news, and we'll have some features on the amazing cars that make this event so special.

Tags: argentia, crash, gander, newfoundland, placentia, rain, rally, targa