Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2003

Leg One - Persona North Avalon

Targa Newfoundland '03 started out much like TN02... unfortunately. Two cars crashed out on the first stage, a short jaunt through a semi-rural neighborhood near St. John's. The Cobra replica of Mark Armstrong came into the final turn at the Flying Finish a little too fast and went out of control, eventually landing in a ditch. Ken Bavis came into that same corner wa-a-ay too fast and rolled his Honda Civic. As a result, most cars had to transit the stage and it was not scored.

The damaged '65 Mustang Fastback of Jeremy Hill and Lennox McNeely showed up for the start, looking a little battered and reportedly a little out of kilter underneath. They made it through the day without taking any points, however. The popular Mustang will make its way to a body shop in Gander (tonight's overnight stop) for some frame straightening.

One of those favored to make a run for the top finishing spot was the mustard yellow Ruf Porsche GT of Gary Church and Bob Miller. However, the car did not make it to the final stage of the day due to a blown radiator hose. Jack MacDonnell and Carson Rasmussen thought they were out of the running before the first stage when the hydraulic clutch system on their Datsun 280Z failed. They were able to make repairs and rejoined the event for SS2. Since SS1 was dropped from scoring, they were allowed to continue without penalty.

There were no serious incidents on any of the remaining six stages. Several teams collected their first points on SS2, including the Subaru Canada Rally Team WRX of John and Clarke Paynter (1), and the Vermont Sports Car prepared WRX of Jerry Churchill and Jim Roxbury (4).

Targa Newfoundland scoring favors cars in the Classic category, requiring those who compete in Modern cars to work a little harder. The base times for each class are listed on the Individual Stage Scores, along with the penalty time over that base, and the time over the Targa Trophy Time.