Targa Newfoundland - IN PROGRESS

NYSpeed Automotive
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We’re keeping an eye on our boys the Kloosterman’s who are doing great so far in their Innovative Tuning tuned and sponsored STi:

http://innovativetuningdl.com/images/sponsored/Kloosterman/Targa07/Front.jpg
Front.jpg600×530

They tore it up in the Prologue Sunday and finished the first day strong yesterday, 2 seconds out of first due to a small penalty but they were actually the fastest car on course with an average speed for the day of 92 MPH. Pretty fast considering it was raining…:eek:

Last year they had a shot at the title but broke an axle at a stage start and lost enough time to cost them a win so we’re hoping for big things this year.

You can keep tabs on the event as it progresses at:
http://www.rallyscoring.com/results/2007/Targa/index.htm

More info at:
http://targanewfoundland.com/

Waiting to start…
http://www.innovativetuningdl.com/images/sponsored/Kloosterman/Targa07/6a00cd97400c7b4cd500e398a6d1840001-500pi.jpg

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Day 1 update from Tony Kloosterman (Driver):
Day 1 is over

CARNAGE!!!

It was a cool and wet day, rain on and off which is the worst possible condition, not pouring rain, just a light misty rain, enough to make the roads slick.
Stage 1 was cleaned by just about everyone, stage 2 placentia, it took out a very beautiful austin healey and a right hand drive crx on the same cornor. Doug Mepham lost the transmission in his volvo, we lost 2 seconds due to a couple of mistakes all my fault, a bad start, a very cautious stage as I could see lots of tranny fluid on the road,

stage 3 and 4 were both shortened and we made the target time on both. We caught Richard Kimber’s celica on stage 4 and again in stage 5

Stage 5 saw a lot of trouble, it was 28K and very fast and slippery, we missed one cornor that cost us a few seconds but we managed to make it all up, caught Kimber again, then passed narrini in the ditch, then near the end there was a wooden bridge we had to cross, we were warned by a marshall to slow down but too late, we hit the bridge and we hung on for dear life, it was a skating rink and we were headed right for the guard rail, at the last second the tires grabbed and we got straight only to find Scott Giannou turning his porsche around the right way as he had spun as well. We damn near hit him as he was pulling away. As we passed we saw that there were 4 cars in the ditch, savilles beatiful porsche 914 had gone end over end, pippys bmw was deep in the woods, afshin’s mustang was spun around backwards in the ditch, JD Turners mustang was in the ditch as well. A very very tough stage.
Stage 6 was much easier and we cleaned that was well.
We took 2 seconds in penalties today. There are 14 cars that are clean in the various classes.
In our class it is the factory subaru of pynters in first, then us 2 seconds behind, then kenzies mini and then burtons subaru.

Some cars did not fare so well…

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k230/PD_Photography/1016-1.jpg
1016-1.jpg533×800

http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5329/img7466tc2.jpg

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oooooops.

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ouch a french guy i w0rk with drive his austin to work EVERYday. sweet little cars!

GLmike and the innovative team!

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Here’s Tony’s update from Day 2:

Day 2 is now over

Mike Saulter could not start as he broke a drive shaft in his healey

The Mercur of Ian glyford-Jones had a drive shaft failure in stage 1 today
we took 2 seconds and we thought we were going well

in stage 2 everyone cleaned it, we almost caught the guagenti EVO, just a block behind at the end.

Tom Silver landed on someones lawn, ran over the tree thier mother planted and hit the house, the homeowner was more concerned about the tree then the house, tom is back in it but having a lot of brake problems

Stage 3 was 28 K and we had to drive the wheels off the car, we caught the evo and almost caught kenzie on the stage, we lost 2 seconds, paynter in the works subaru lost 14 seconds, he has a broken exhaust,Dick Pattersons mini had the motor expire…at the end of the stage Ryan and I had a long discussion about death wishes and the fact he wanted to live to see his 26th birthday, we had a couple of moments attributable to both gravel in some cornors and a rebound setting on the shocks that needed adjustment at the end of stage 3 today we were 6th overall and first in class, just ahead of Paynter by 8 seconds

Stage 4 was the reverse of 3, we took it down a notch, the car handled better but we lost 22 seconds, it was a wise decision to get both of us back to a point where we were comfortable, it looks like both Mcleod and Rottelle have blown motors at the end of stage 4, we lost a bunch of places but its a long week

Stage 5 was a quick stage and we cleaned it

Stage 6 was in Gander, an in town stage that is very v ery technical, we lost 21 seconds but drove very hard. A toyota corolla hit a brick wall and Giannou had his Porsche land on someones lawn, he lost 30 seconds, Paynter had more exhaust trouble and lost 28 seconds.

At the end of the day we have accumulated 49 seconds of penalties over the 2 days, we lead Unlimited by 1 second over Paynter but stand 14th overall. Not happy with the overall placing but happy enough with the result so far.

Car wise we have an issue with our steering column which the guys are working on right now, Its a modified column with a Howe steering quickener in it, its turning in its housing, the guys are making a bracket to stop it from rotating and we should be good for the morning.

Calling for rain tomorrow, 30 mm which means we should be able to make up some positions

Its a long tough rally and the attrition is getting abnormally high, but its not over for 3 more days.

Anything can happen and anything is possible

Our crew of Ivanno, Nuwan, Craig Daniel and Val are fantastic, we dont end a stage with out seeing them, they have been working tirelessly on 2 cars and are still cheery. Its great to have their help

Tony

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:tup: he’s pretty good with those updates! haha

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Now that official scoring is up, they’re first in class and 15th overall, just 49 seconds out of 1st overall after day 2.

It sounds like they had a reality check yesterday. Ryan (co-driver) had his arm broken to the point where it will never be right again amongst other injuries in a crash 2 years ago at Targa and I can’t blame them for taking it down a notch.

They fixed the rack last night and are good to go for today!
http://www.grindstonemotorsports.com/targa2007/n1.jpg

Leg 2 stage 6 start vid. You can’t tell they don’t want to blow an axle on a start like last year. :slight_smile:

http://seko.vox.com/library/video/6a00cd97400c7b4cd500e398a781140004.html

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yeah, that looks like fun.

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nice neighborhood.

wtf cant we have a siq rally in the us?

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Day 3 log from Tony…sounds like a crazy day:

Day 3 is over.
It started cold and rainy, the winds were vertical and there was frezzing rain at times. We had a long transit to the first stage and it was just pouring.
we left the line and the car bogged down, stumbled. almost stalled, it was all i could do to keep it going, for almost half the stage it would not go over 4000rpm, paynter caught us and at that same time the misfire cleared up,we followed him out and took a 11 second penalty. I suspect we had some water in the intake and it got sucked in on the start line.

we cleaned stage 2 as did just about everyone,

Stage 3 7 seconds off the pace

Stage 4 was 7K long and we caught the evo and the supra, we were rocking and the car was back to its usual top form.

stage 5 was greenspond, very short and very technical
there was a lot of dirt and gravel thrown up on the road, we just about hit a house and took 10 seconds

stages 6 7 8 we just made all the times by our account, results still are not up.

The first and third stages cost us today and I think we are about 16 seconds behind Paynter and 3 minutes ahead of Kenzie

I am bagged and need some sleep, I’ll try and post a more comprehensive report tomorrow

Tony

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we just about hit a house and took 10 seconds… that is great. thanks for the updates mike.

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Day 4
short note before I go for dinner

8 stages today, we started the day 19 seconds back of Paynter, after 5 stages we were 19 seconds back, after 7 stages we were 19 seconds back, Johna nd I traded fastest times all day, a hell of a lot of fun. On the last stage I made 2 critical errors and we dropped 13 seconds to him, so now we are 32 seonds behind but have about 3 and a half minute lead on 3rd in our class

Its been a long , tiring stressful and fun day.

Tomorrow we see what happens,

Tony

Day 5:
Its Over…a long and tiring week.

We were 31 behind Paynter this morning
first stage even
second stage they get beat us by one
third stage, we hit a stone wall with the left rear wheel and quarter panel, destroy the wheel, have a flat and drive 1.5 K with a flat and take 7 seconds, Paynter spins and takes 9

stage 4 he takes 1 back

stage 5 we both clean it

so 2 stages to go and we are 31 seconds behind, at this point descretion takes over and we decide to coast to the finish,
we lose 1 second on stage 6 and 8 seonds on stage 7 and end up second to the Factory Subaru team by 36 seconds and 12th overall.

we were over 5 minutes ahead of third in our class(kenzie)

Overall a very satisfying result. We proved we could keep up with the factory team and traded times with them all week.

Many thanks to our crew, they did a great job all week

Its time for a beer!!!

Tony

My thoughts…privateers keeping up with the factory team…priceless :slight_smile: I’m a very proud sponsor today.

-Mike

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this.
thread.
RULES.

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:tspry:

I’m sure Speed will air the highlights around Christmas time like last year.

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A factory Subaru actually wins? Unpossible.