A two-man team of GTA lawyers is racing in this year’s Targa Newfoundland, a week-long, 2,200-kilometre rally across the island running from September 11 to 18. We’re following Dean Novak and Rob Hansen’s journey here at lawandstyle.ca, and posting updates from the racers throughout the week.
You can also check out background info about Dean and Rob’s race team, and donate to their fundraising effort (a friendly competition with a team of racer-bankers to see who can raise the most money.
September 17:
Rob: “The last day of Targa. Unfortunately, this would not be our day. We started with a 60 km transit north from Marystown up to Little Bay East for the first stage. Both H1 (Law) and H2 (Investment Banking) made it through without being penalized (least penalized team wins here at Targa).
“The rest of the day was a bit of a blur. We started the second stage, Harbour Mille, at 9:30 a.m. Harbour Mille was the reverse of the first stage. Smooth, fast road with two very long, hard right corners. The deviation off the main road was narrow and rough with square and acute turns. H2 was the first car out and our car followed a few cars behind. As we came up to the hard left at the 0.74-km distance mark, we noticed that H2 had suffered what we would describe as a “non-minor off-road incident preventing the car to go on due to mechanical issues.” We’ll have to leave it at that. We continued on the stage to find a radio car to call for assistance. We didn’t find help until the end of the Harbour Mille stage. We were told by the folks at the finish that the H2 guys were fine and that we should proceed on to the next stage.
“It’s really strange but the two Miatas seemed to have some sort of connection. Both had similar mechanical issues in Clarenville. And now, with H2 out of the race, H1 decided that she could not go on. Our alternator was toast. A fully charged battery would give us only about 10 minutes of power before the dashboard started looking like it was possessed by a ghost. Special thanks to Telmo and Desmond from BMW Toronto for providing us with the battery charger and diagnostic advice. We managed to limp about 150 km along the Trans-Canada Highway back into St. John’s where we had our alternator rebuilt (for free!) by a guy at DC Alternators. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to get back up to race the final stage in Brigus (which we had been looking forward to doing all week). Brigus is a very challenging town stage with tight narrow turns, jumps, bridges and pavement changes.
“We waited along the parade route in downtown St. John’s for the Targa cars to return for the ceremonial finish on the waterfront. We slipped into the parade and managed to cross the finish line right behind our very good buddies in the Porsche Boxster Spider, Adrian and Ian. H1 received Targa finishing medals, but unfortunately were classified as “DNS” for the final four stages of the day and were disqualified from the competition. Despite the disappointing results, Targa Newfoundland 2010 was one of the most exciting and fulfilling weeks of our lives. We met some fantastic people, drove our cars hard and fast and got up close and personal with one of the most beautiful places to be in Canada. Is there enough gas left in the Hammerheads’ tanks to take this on again in 2011? We’ll keep you posted…”
Read older updates here.