So You Want To Do Targa Newfoundland:
A Guide For Living The Dream

STEP 4. EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

You never know what sort of mechanical or logistics challenges will pop up in a week-long endurance event like this. The RV place closed earlier than we thought so we had our man Mike at Plaza Scion call Islander RV’s owner who sent someone over to get our RV out of lockup for us. That could have been a disaster without a whole bunch of help from locals. We also had the rear lower control arm mounting bracket tear off the rear subframe, a very unusual failure to say the least, so we had to ad lib as best we could by finding a local shop in Clarenville that could weld it back on and gusset it up for added strength. For this our “Crow” (an assigned helper on the Targa Newfoundland staff whose job it is to help in situation like this) came in very handy, so again it comes down to knowing what help is available to you and not being afraid to ask around.

Point being, you can’t plan for every eventuality, so be ready to problem solve in the fly, ask for help from your Crow and your fellow competitors, and you’ll be amazed by the response you get. Targa really is a big travelling circus and all the performers want to see you cross the finish line.

STEP 5. DON’T BE “THAT” TEAM

Every year a team crashes out in the Prologue. That’s the practice stages, the day before the actual racing begins, and yet somehow people manage to let their adrenaline take control so completely that they end up ruining their Targa adventure before it even started. Don’t be that team, and don’t be that guy (or gal). Like all forms of endurance racing, for first-timers Targa Newfoundland is very much about pacing yourself, easing into the competition, getting a sense of what the roads are like, the target times are like, and your car is like in this environment. If you try to go 10/10ths on the first stage, bad things are virtually guaranteed to happen (BTW, the guys in the red Lotus above didn’t have this mishap until about Day 3 or 4 and were able to repair the car and keep racing, but it did effectively end their chances of a podium finish).

We definitely took it slow and steady the first couple of days, preserved the car as much as we could on the ultra rough roads of Day 3, and this really set us up for a great run the last couple of days. We also had a number of teams in front of us in the standings drop out due to mechanical failures of big off-road shunts, all of which added up to us finishing 3rd in Modern and 6th overall while securing the President’s Cup (Manufacturer’s Championship for factory-backed teams like ours).

STEP 6. DO IT WITH FRIENDS

Probably sounds obvious, but Targa is an intense experience, so make sure you team up with people whose company you genuinely enjoy. If you’re at odds with your co-driver or other teammates when things aren’t terribly stressful, imagine how ugly it could get during the ups and downs of a week long rally. Peter and I chose our teammates carefully for this very reason, and it really couldn’t have worked out any better. Vinh our team manager helped keep everyone in synch, Moose or team technician kept the car in tip top shape and did a ton of work prepping the car before it shipped, and Dan our videographer took most of the killer photos you see here and produced the documentary style video you’ve probably seen about our trip. We all got along great despite the tight quarters in the RV and came away closer than ever.

STEP 7. BUDGET WISELY

Targa Newfoundland isn’t a low cost event. With registration fees of $6500 and other Targa related fees like race license, First Aid course, and opening and closing ceremony dinners, you’re into it for $7-8k right off the bat. From there you can figure out your travel costs, including hotels and food and fuel, and it’s easy to see how the tab can quickly get up into the $15k range. Add a crew member or two to the team and costs rise further. And if your car needs a bunch of prep work to bring it up to Targa spec, you’ll need to factor those costs into your budget, too.

That may sound like a lot of money (because it is), but to put it into perspective, renting a seat in a pro race car in a series like Pirelli World Challenge or IMSA Continental Tire SportCar Challenge costs $15-20k or more (depending on the team and type of car). So to go on an utterly unique motoring adventure like Targa Newfoundland for similar money, the value is definitely there because the memories you make at Targa will stay with you for a lifetime. The downside is, of course, that you’ll want to go back every year, and many Targa competitors do.