Jim Kenzie's The Driver's Seat

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

On an early stage on Day Three, Mark Kostick, driving the pretty red Kia Forte Koup in support of the Children’s Wish Foundation, caught second gear when he probably wanted fourth (who amongst us?...).

The engine tried bravely to rev to a bajillion r.p.m., but that lasted for a rev or two before it grenaded itself.

Engine bits, oil and coolant everywhere.

The Solider On team of Master Corporal Jody Mitic and Corporal Andrew Knisley in the Acura TL were following the Kia, and saw a huge ball of smoke up ahead. It was clearly a ‘mechanical’ issue and the Kia guys were all right, so the soldiers, um, soldiered on.

They did notice their Acura was starting to handle a bit oddly, but managed to make it to the finish, only to find out one of their tires had a slow leak in it.

Turns out a piece of one of the Kia’s pistons had embedded itself in the tire. Fortunately, it kept enough air in the tire for just long enough...

The Michelin tire rep who is shepherding the soldiers’ rubber said that in his forty years in the tire business, he had never seen a tire holed by a piston!

But wait; there’s more to this tale. Mark is Canada’s largest Kia dealer (in Edmonton). He pounded on the metaphorical jungle drums and found out that the ONLY Kia Forte with a 2.4 litre engine in all of eastern Canada just happened to be in near-by Gander! So the rally car was towed there, both cars’ engines were hauled out, the busted swapped for the new, and the entire transplant took only four hours.

That’s got to be some sort of record, and don’t expect to see it in any mechanic’s flat-rate book.

Mark and co-driver Adam Hill re-joined the event in Clarenville, and have successfully completed Day Four as well.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

In Scotland earlier this year, I heard a variation on the old line, “If you don’t like this weather, wait twenty minutes.”

There, they say, “If you don’t like this weather, look behind you.”

That was Day Three at Targa Newfoundland.

We started in sunshine, went through clouds and pretty heavy rain, and ended up in sunshine again.

At the start of each stage, course officials run the route and decide how good/bad the weather might make the traction.

They then assign one of three ‘conditions’ to the stage:

Condition 1 is ‘dry’.

Condition 2 is ‘wet’.

Condition 3 means there may be cod in the road.

The higher the number, the more time we get to complete the distance.

I think we had all three conditions on various stages on Day Three before lunch.

And Day Four was much the same.

This is why tire selection is so critical. We are only allowed six tires in all, and because no-one in their right mind would mix types of tires, especially on a performance car, that means you have to have six of the same kind.

Because we're almost guaranteed to see rain at some point, most competitors choose something in the 'intermediate' to 'wet' range. Because what you gain in the dry with a 'dry' tire, you more than lose when it rains.

And in a Targa rally, if you are trying to eke out every tenth of a second you can, chances are very slim you're going to last until Friday afternoon.

You're more likely to become a part of the scenery.

So while the philosophy is pretty much the same for most, the execution thereof varies widely. We've chosen Yokohama ADVAN Neova AD08s this year, and have been very happy. Sure, we get wheelspin at will at launch, but this is a pretty quick car, and controlling that is what my right foot is for.

The grip is very predictable in the wet, and still very good in the dry.

Toyo, Goodyear, Michelin, just about every major tire maker is here.

Who has made the right choice?

We'll see Friday night.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

There was a rapper some years ago who wore flip-up sunglasses, giving them their fifteen minutes of coolness.

But now?

I mentioned to multi-time Targa Newfoundland winner Roy Hopkins that about the nerdiest thing you could imagine was a rally car driver wearing flip-up sunglasses.

Said Roy, “They’re a great idea! Flip them down when the sun comes out, back up when it goes behind the clouds! I’d wear some, if I had them.”

Too bad I didn’t have a spare pair to lend him…

His co-driver, Adrienne Hughes, added, “Nerdiness is part of being a rallier!”

Ahem - that'd be me.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

I couldn't get on the Internet Wednesday night at the St. Jude Hotel in Clarenville - the log-in page said there were "too many" people already on it. Probably some TV dudes uploading video clips and Bogarting all the bandwidth.

And my Rogers iPhone phone is a paperweight up here.

So I couldn't give you any updates.

It's going on midnight Thursday now and I really need my sleep for Day Five, so I'll just post a few notes from Wednesday and today, then let you go to the results page of www.targanewfoundland.com and see how we're doing.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

At the end of today (Day Two, now in Gander) a well-meaning newbie competitor who did not understand how Brian and I work (he never tells me ANYTHING about where we stand; it simply confuses me...) mentioned that we were second in the Open division by a couple of seconds to an eight-million horsepower custom-built-for-Targa Dodge being driven by a team which does this sort of thing all the time and has won this event about three times - so for a four-cylinder front-wheel drive compact car (OK, a pretty hot and beautifully race-prepared four-cylinder front-wheel drive compact car) driven by an old fart who does exactly ONE rally a year - this one - we are delighted!

Our crew of Alain Lauziere and Jacques Fournier is fantastic - the car is washed down every time we stop, and they even waxed it this morning! Jacques thought a minor suspension tweak might make the tight Gander stages better so he did it - and it was!

The car runs great and looks terrific.

I also passed a personal milestone today. I drove past 'Kenzie's Other Korner' - where I threw our lovely little 2004 Targa Mini into the woods two years ago - at speed for the first time (the stage was 'scrubbed' last year due to a timing problem, and we just 'transited' - drove slowly - through it).

Now, I made sure Brian warned me about the corner (despite its infamy - I'm not the only one who has lost it here - it is not marked in our route book), so I did slow WAY down to make sure history did not repeat itself.

Once past the spot, Brian immediately got on the Intercom: "OK, scratch that off your list and focus on the next corner!"

It's things like that which make him the best co-driver in the entire field.

Not much time for blogging tonight - I need my sleep! More tomorrow from Clarenville.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

Our brilliant service crew, Alain Lauziere (left) and Jacques Fournier (right) make sure our wheels and tires ard ready for Monday afternoon.

We lost two cars on the last stage into Southern Harbour this morning. Mike Louli, driving a Subaru WRX STi that he bought from Targa veteran Tony Kloosterman dove off into the weeds. He and co-driver Jim Adams are both OK; the long-term health of the car is TBA.

And the pretty Datsun 240Z of 'Mr. Gorham' (sorry; I'm not close enough to an entry list to get the co-driver's name) hit a water barrel, apparently turning it into an impression of Old Faithful. Again, the crew is OK; the car not so much.

We did a long sideways slide through the gravel at the flying finish - hope someone got a photo...

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

Correction: I said earlier that Matthew Oldford was driving a hot Civic Si. He was behind us so I didn't actually see the car -he usually DOES drive a Honda or Acura, while his father Brian holds on for dear life.

But this year, they're in a Subaru Impreza WRX STi, obviously equally hot.

Matthew said at one point in the Prologue he locked the brakes up Big Time and thought he was heading for the water. But he gathered it up and went on to post fastest time.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

We leave the Avalon peninsula today, and when we do, we generally lose Rogers cell reception too. So I may not be able to blog/Twitter during the day for the next few days. We'll catch up each evening.

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

I'm not supposed to know ANYTHING about how well we're doing during the event - over the years, we've found it works better if Brian looks after all that.

But last night, I looked at the starting order for tomorrow (mainly to see how much sleep I was going to get) and we're fifth-last.

In Targa, unlike most performance rallies, the faster cars go last, so the 'crocodile' of cars tends to 'accordion' closed as the stage progresses, rather than expand.

"Not bad!" I said to Brian. He said, "You aren't supposed to know, but two of those guys didn't even do the Prologue. You are in a three-way tie for second-fastest."

Holy crap!!!

And we had to slow down for a car which broke down on the course! We would have been second for sure.

OK, so it's only the Prologue, and most everyone (except Matthew Oldford in a hot Civic who was fastest) was taking it easy - but so were we.

But so far so good!

You (not me...) can follow the results on www.targanewfoundland.com

Targa Newfoundland Tid-Bits

One addition to our MINI Challenge car this year is a set of headphones for the 'transit' stages. We have intercom in our helmets for the timed race-pace stages, but those l-o-n-g stretches of public road between stages can be pretty wearing in a car as (beautifully) noisy as ours.

These units allow us to converse normally, and also block out most of the ambient noise.

(They do seem to match our shirts, but that's just a coincidence...).

Although both my navigator Brian Bourbonniere (left) and I look pretty grim in this shot (team manager Alain Lauziere may have warned us he was about to hit the shutter, but with these headphones on we couldn't hear him! ) we think these will have a very positive effect on our performance as the week rolls on - less noise, less fatigue, better results.

That's the theory anyway!