The first leg of the Targa Newfoundland left St. John’s for Gander yesterday. The 140 competitors are in four different classes, Targa Classic, Targa Modern, Targa Open and Grand Touring. There were a few problems here and there, but nearly everyone’s still in the running for the second leg, underway today. It is possible to run further legs without completing all of the stages in a previous one.
Apparently Bruno Rodrigues landed his Porsche 911 in a pond yesterday morning. The team of Jon Howard and Paul Dyer came off the road into a bog at Conception Harbour and had to be towed out. And Daniel Williams Jr. and Doug Martin had a gasket blow on their Subaru, and had another car hit theirs while it was sidelined. And that’s just the first day.
In the Classic class, Montreal driver Jon Nichols in his Chevy Camaro is currently tied for first with three other cars in a field of nine. In Targa Modern, 28 cars started, but only 25 finished. There’s currently a six-way tie for first, with the Soldier On team right behind them in seventh. Only eight of the 10 cars in the Open class finished the first leg. Currently in first is Pacione and Maxwell of Chrysler’s team, driving a Dodge Challenger SRT8. All 12 cars in the Grand Touring class completed the first leg. There’s a five-way tie for first after the first leg.
Several competitors are posting updates online. Here are some of them, if you’d like to follow along.
Competitor and Toronto Star auto writer Jim Kenzie’s blog
Chrysler’s team info
http://www.youtube.com/show/motoman
Kia’s team info
http://autonet.ca/targa2011 (in French, but there’s photos and video)
www.twitter.com/#1/kiadrivechange
Jeff Hagan @jeffhagan on Twitter
In addition, photographer Gordon Sleigh will be posting photos.
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