Sep18

Written by:Steve Hart
9/18/2009 5:40 PM 

Well Tom and I had a great day of racing!! The weather was dreadful, driving rain, windy and low overcast but our porsche ran like a top and we were scoring like the leading racers. We had zero penalty points on the last five stages (which only had a three second window). Everything came together today, we made some minor adjustments in our computer calculations which allowed us to be much more accurate and along with driving fast we did much better than expected. What a great way to finish. Unfortunately the heavy rain kept many of the spectators away but there were some hearty Newfoundland souls that were cheering us on. We had a hearty breakfast of fried bologna, eggs, baked beans, home fries and toast at a small fishing village called boat harbour. Lunch was served at the Brigus community center by the locals and what a spread they put out for us. Were were somewhat behind schedule so we had to eat quickly to meet our start times. We had one long stage cancelled today because (we think) there were not enough race officials to keep the course safe. With the weather conditions it was probably a good call. We switched drivers after the Brigus stage and the team of Megan and Hart zeroed the last three stages. After the last stage we drove to harbour drive in St Johns for the ceremonial finish line. We were given finishing metals, had pictures taken and we all got together and celebrated the week. Tonight we will go out for a little more celebration and then tomorrow our journey back home begins. This trip has been a great experience, the thrill of driving a car fast is great and that is the primary reason we came. What we didn't expect was how friendly the people of Newfoundland are and how excited the kids were to see the Targa cars and drivers. This is a big and beautiful island and I hope to return and visit it with Meg someday. And maybe our kids will do Targa in the future, if so Tom and I will volunteer to be their pit crew!! Thanks for following...