2008 Targa Newfoundland Daily Log 
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2008 The End and The Beginning 2008 marks the end of a significant chapter in Open Road Motorsports history and opens the door for a new direction with our team. For the past 5 Targa's Open Road has competed in our trusty Porsche 911. During that time, the car underwent significant development to make it one of the quickest and most consistent cars in the event. The car's crowning achievement came in 2006 when it powered the team to overall victory. We have decided to temporarily retire the Porsche from competition so it can undergo a complete restoration. Speaking of retirement, Evan Gamblin has also decided to retire from Targa competition. Evan has competed in all 6 Targa Newfoundland events acheiving many podiums and the overall win in 2006. Evan's contribution to Open Road's competitive success will be sorely missed. Evan will remain involved with Open Road and will continue to pass on his experience to all who will listen at the Targa Schools. |
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Open Road and Island Racing Join Forces
2008 marks the start of a new beginning for Open Road. We are joining forces with Island Rally Racing to contest the 2008 Targa.
The new team will consist of: Vehicle: 1991 Subaru Legacy
Andy has four Targa Newfoundland finishes to his credit, including an overall first place finish in Grand Touring in 2006 and acquiring a Targa Plate his first year competing in the Targa Class.
Andy lives in Gander Newfoundland and works as an Air Traffic Controller at the fabled Gander International Airport (remember all the aircraft on 9/11) |
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Andy's 1991 Subaru Legacy is a celebrity, originally built as part of the television show War of the Wheels hosted by Andrew Comrie-Picard on Global Television.
Sourced from a used car lot, over the course of three days the Subaru was transformed from grocery getter to Rally Racer by some of the top professionals in Canadian Rally today. The team included Dan Sprongle, Ben Dagenais, Mark Moore and Elise Racette. During the car’s transformation on TV it received DMS shocks, ECUTEK ECU, a 4.44 JDM Gearbox, STI Four Piston Brakes, Compomotive Rally Wheels, roof vent, TerraTrip computer and Terraphone communications system.
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Andy purchased the Subaru on ebay just two weeks before it won the Touring Competition in 2006. Open Road Motorsports successfully ran the sister car from the TV show in the 2007 Tall Pines |
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“Island Rally welcomes the opportunity to join the Open Road Motorsports Team. OpenRoad has challenged for the top ten each of the 5 years they have entered Targa. Glen’s driving skills as well as knowledge of car set up are second to none. “I look forward to working with Glen both in setting up the Subaru as well as challenging my navigational abilities throughout the week.”
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| "Open Road Motorsports is confident that with Subaru’s proven engineering & the teams Targa experience will prove to be a competitive combination. Our goals include challenging for the class 8 win and placing in the top 10 overall." | |
Targa Newfoundland 2008 is scheduled for September 13 to 19. For more information visit www.targanewfoundland.com. We still have quite a bit of work to do before Targa, but we should be in good shape for the event. Thank you to everyone who is helping us prepare. Glen Clarke Andy Proudfoot Special Thanks to our 2008 Sponsors:
The team is also pleased to represent the Meningitis Reseach Foundation of Canada at the 2008 Targa Event. |
Car Prep and Pre Event Testing
Developing a new car for competition is always a challenge. Although the Legacy has been prepped for safety there is a lot of room to improve the car's overall performance. You have to remember that the Legacy was designed to be a family sedan, not a rally car. Creating a car that can compete for the overall win on pure pace in the dry is a challenge and is probably not something that we can acheive for 2008. When comparing the Legacy with our 2006 winning Porsche, the Legacy is heavier, less powerful and has much smaller tires. The transmission, suspension, brakes and aerodynamics are also much less developed than the Porsche. The Legacy's advantage over the Porsche is it's 4 wheel drive configuration. 4 wheel drive is an advantage in the wet but a disadvantage in the dry. In dry conditions a rear wheel drive vehicle should beat the 4 wheel drive every time. However, in the wet, 2 wheel drive forward acceleration should always lose out to a 4 wheel drive car. The reality is: We won't be competive with the top cars in the dry conditions but we could be competitive in the wet. So we are going to take a bit of a gamble and hope for 5 days of rain at Newfoundland this year. It has never rained on all 5 days of competition but there is always a first time. To help achieve a wet set up we are focusing on specific aspects of the cars performance. Tires, Weight, Brakes, Suspension and Power. The Transmission and Aerodynamics will have to wait for future years. Special thanks to Mat and Mark for all their efforts put into the cage, seats and support systems. |
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Tires In the past two Targas, the Legacy has competed on a 185-65R15 street tire with 15" x 6" rims. Although this is a relatively good tire size for gravel competition it is quite narrow to support the side loads we need to carry through the paved corners of Newfoundlands roads. For 2008 we intend to increase the tire size to 225-45R17. Tire type and compound are still being evaluated, however we are leaning towards the Michelin Pilot Sport provided by Professional Tire. This tire will not provide the dry grip levels of the Toyo Proxes RA1s or R888 that most of the front runners will be using but it should provide superior wet weather traction and hydroplaning resistance. To support these wider tires we are using Subaru JDM 17"x7.5" rims provided by Tonik Motorsports. An added complication is the narrowness of the Subaru's wheel well. The car has not been designed to handle a tire larger than a 195-60R15 tire so we expect to need to widen the fender flairs to accept the wider tire. This can be done within the Targa rule book so long as the overall look of the car is maintained. |
185 Fuzion on Left, 225 Michelin Pilot Sports on Right. Although the Michelin looks taller, it actually has the same overall diameter as the Fuzion. |
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Weight Weight is always a huge issue in any competition. Testing has shown that 10lbs of weight is equivalent to 0.1s per km of competitive stage. When you look at the past Targa results you can see that over the 500km of competition stages the margin of victory is measured in seconds. Shaving 10lbs off a cars weight could mean 50 seconds of stage time. An enormous amount that should move us towards the front of the field. When the Subaru arrived at our shop it weighed in at 3073lbs with a full tank of fuel. With 55liters of fuel in the tank we estimate that the car would be 2950lbs dry. (more than 700lbs heavier than our 2006 winning Porsche) This is a fair bit above the minimum weight allowed by the Targa rules. So we are putting the car on a diet and expect to get its dry weight down to 2800lbs. A significant improvement. |
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Brakes We upgraded the front brakes to include Brembo 4 pot calipers with KVR rotors and Feroddo pads. During testing we had quite a bit of trouble getting the brakes dialed in. The pedal tended to be good when left foot braking against the throttle but it was inconsistent when braking in off throttle conditions. We tried 4 different boosters but could not completely correct the problem. With time running out before the event we just have to lean to live with what we have. For 2009 we are going to look at installing a twin master manual system.
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Suspension During a routine suspension inspection we found that the DMS shocks were leaking quite badly. Each shock had a noticably different damping rate so we had to come up with a quick fix. A call to Peter Reilly at Hot Bits helped us sort out our issues. Peter sent us a set of single adjustable struts that would get us through the event. After a day of testing at the Mosport DDT we found a reasonable set up that made the car responsive and easy to drive.
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Engine The engine in the Subaru is a stock 91 Legacy with 80,000 original kilometers. The engine produced about 180hp when new. When you think that the top flight cars in the event have a power to weight ratio better than 10lbs/hp, we have a lot of work to do to catch up. The good thing working in our favour is that the Subaru engine is very versatile and can be upgraded with relative ease. Engine work was handled by Tonik Motorsports. Warren, Richard and Chris reviewed what we had to work with and created a plan. Due to time and budget restraints we left the engine internals alone and focused on adding a front mounted intercooler and electronic boost controller. The Targa rules require that the turbo remains stock so we are not able to boost our performance by bolting on a bigger turbo. The turbo was sent out to be rebuilt. Tuning was performed on the road and on the dyno. During initial dyno runs we established a base line of 157hp and 197ft-lb torque at the wheels. With quite a bit of tuning we managed to increase these numbers to 180hp and 235ft-lb torque. A great improvement but far short of what we will need to make the car competitve. The biggest tuning challenge was building and maintaining boost as the waste gate controller did not seem to be strong enough to keep the waste gate closed. |
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Final engine performance curves on the KVR 4 wheel dyno in Ottawa. |
Trip to Newfoundland The trip to Newfoundland was routine until the engine of my support vehicle packed it in on one of the long hills near New Glasgow Nova Scotia. Have you ever hitch hiked with a 7000lb 24ft trailer? Suprisingly not many people will pick you up. Luckily we were travelling with Keese Van Winden and his family. They were wonderful help and managed to tow my trailer all the way to St. John's. |
My cube truck gets loaded onto the wrecker near New Glasgow Nova Scotia. |
Friday September 12th - Test and Tune, Argentia
This year we moved our annual Targa licensing School to Bell Island. It was a great event for both the school participants and the island residents. We raised $1100 for the local boys and girls club and in turn, the club provided marshalls for the test stages. The local high school and public school were closed on Friday to allow the students to enjoy the excitement of the Targa cars practicing on their roads. The school was well attended including appearances by Bill Arnold (3 time winner), Roy Hopkins (2007 winner), Chrysler's new 2009 Challenger and team Mitsubishi with top competitor Andrew Comrie-Picard. The Chrysler team was represented by two SRT engineers who were tasked to shake down the new Challenger for driver and VP of Design Ralph Gilles. The engineers provided a bit of excitement with their Dukes of Hazard jumping style. They landed hard on the final jump and cracked their oil pan. This laid a great oil slick in the landing zone and ensured that they would have long night of repairs ahead of them. Rumour has it that they have been offered new career opportunities at a dealership in Anchorage Alaska. Click here for more information on the School/Test Day and Bell Island. |
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K-Rock Prologue Day
Prologue consisted of a high speed run through the Flatrock stage and two runs through the Torbay town stage. On our first run through Torbay we caught the Davenport SVT just past the hairpin. I thought Mike had seen us as he moved the car to the right. I took the opening and went for the apex but Mike turned into the corner and let me test out our skid plate as I put two wheels into the ditch to avoid giving him a yellow racing stripe. We followed Mike to the finish and had a good laugh about it at the next service point.
The Legacy ran well and we qualified 8th overall. Based on pre event testing I had expected to quaify in the 20's so 8th was an excellent start to the event.
Start Order
| 1st | Andreou/Rodgers | EVO 8 | |
| 2nd | Arnold/Ryall | BMW Bavaria | |
| 3rd | ACP/Horsey | EVO 10 | |
| 4th | Paynter/Paynter | WRX STI |
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| 5th | Burton/Hopkins | WRX STI | |
| 6th | Lachapelle/Ockwell | Lexus | |
| 7th | Sprongl/Hendrickson | Audi Quatro | |
| 8th | Clarke/Proudfoot | Legacy | |
| 9th | Mackenzie/Alexander | Camaro | |
| 10th | Hacking/Leblanc | EVO 10 |
Leg 1: Goodyear - South Avalon
The start order for each stage is based on the combined speeds from the previous day. The slowest cars start at the front and the fastest cars run at the back. This keeps the field from spreading out over the course of the day. It also makes it more challenging for the faster cars at the back of the field as they have to deal with all the gravel, debris and broken tape that the 70+ cars starting ahead of them tend to spread all over the course.
I was a bit concerned about our starting position as we had the Sprongl Audi lined up right behind us. I was worried about getting run over. Frank Sprongl is a multiple North American and Canadian Rally champion and he was driving a factory prepared Group B rally car. This particular car had won the Mount Washington hill climb during its last competition. Group B rally cars ran in the WRC up until the mid 80's when they were banned for being too quick to be safe. In fact I remember reading an article about a Group B car testing at Brands Hatch that would have set a time quick enough to put it onto the second row of the Formula 1 race that year. Pretty impressive for a sedan. In its prime, the Audi had 700bhp propelling its 2600lb chassis. I had heard that the Audi had been detuned to 450hp for Targa but that was still 400lbs lighter and 270hp more than we had in our Legacy. |
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The first stage of the day was Argentia and I made just about every mistake in the book. Coming off the line the car stumbled as it seemed to be carboned up from the long transit. This cleaned up as the stage progressed but the car had lost a lot of time at the start. To make up time I pushed a bit too hard on the first couple corners and blew my braking points. All rookie mistakes that I knew I shouldn't be making. We made our time and after a deep breath I started to work on getting comfortable in the car.
As we were waiting on the line for the start of the Placentia stage the ambulance went roaring by and the stage was shut down. Unfortunately, Molley, the 2007 3rd place finishing vintage mini had crashed at the 180 degree uphill left hander. This corner has a reputation for eating cars and Molley was the latest victim. Word came back that the crew, Terry and Dirk, were OK but the car had been destroyed. This was the start of a difficult week for the mini teams.
Unfortunately the Placentia stage was cancelled. Placentia has always been one of my favourite stages and it would have helped us in the overall standings.
The remainder of the day's stages ran well and we ended the day tied for 1st place with 14 other cars. A fairly typical opening day at Targa.
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| Gander Repairs - That's our rented motorhome in the background. | The motorhome gets busy at night. Looks like Bill dipping into the keg. | |
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| Bert Potvin works on the Turks and Caicos Honda | Andy relaxes with son Collin |
Leg 2: Thrifty Car Rental - Exploits
Tuesday opened with some light rain, just what we were looking for. We had a great run through Appleton and Lewisporte with a slightly damp surface. Although we had built the car for the rain, this was the first opportunity I had to push the car in the wet. I was amazed at how good the Subaru's handling was in the wet. You could easily slide the car into the corner and use the front wheel torque to pull it straight on the exit.
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| 91 Legacy with 08 STI | Burton/Hopkins Gumball STI | |
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| with Keese and Curtis at Leading Tickles | Discussing Strategy with Harold Seagle |
The run up to Leading Tickles was pretty eventful. Andy calculated that we needed to average 138kph to make our time. This is pretty quick on the twisty and bumpy roads. We made our time but picked up a bad vibration in the front end. Bert and Peter Reily from Hot Bits diagnosed the problem as a bad bushing in the front strut. We decided that it would hold together until the end of the day so we pushed on. When we arrived back in Gander, Peter had a new set of front struts for us to bolt on. Great service from a great supplier.
The run back out of Leading Tickles claimed another Mini. Jim Kenzie went off at a very high speed on a downhill left hander. The car is thought to have rolled several times before landing in the trees next to the bridge. The car was destroyed but the cage and the safety equipment in the car protected the passengers very well. A testament to Targa's safety requirements.
The Glenwood stage provided the first real test of the event. This had always been a good stage for the Porsche and I was looking forward to see what the Legacy would do. Unfortunately I pushed a bit too hard into the braking zones and the low grip surface made it difficult to get the car slowed and rotated into the corners. I took quite a bit of time on this stage and dropped down the order.
Our final run of the day was through the Gander town stage. This is a great stage for both the competitors and the spectators. It was getting dark and hard to see in the stage by the time we made our run.
Early into the stage the Michelin tires started to give up. The undersized tires and heavy car created a lot of understeer as I tried to drift the car through the corners. This was the first stage where the Michelins showed their weaknesses and we really needed the grip of the Toyo R compound tires to keep up with the leaders.
| 1st | Hopkins/Hughes | BMW | |
| 2nd | Mackenzie/Alexander | Camaro | |
| 3rd | Arnold/Ryall | BMW | |
| 4th | Buchanan/Adams | Acadian | |
| 5th | ACP/Horsey | EVO 10 | |
| 6th | Paynter/Paynter | WRX STI | |
| 7th | Collingwood | Firebird | |
| 8th | Clarke/Proudfoot | Legacy | |
| 9th | Sprongl/Hendrickson | Audi | |
| 10th | Pacione/Maxwell | Lotus |
Leg 3:
For the past 2 years, Wednesday has been huricane day. Huricanes are not fun in a Porsche but I was really looking forward to running extreme wet in the Subaru. Unfortunately we didn't get our wish and the sunshine returned.
The first stage of the day was a high speed run along the coast line. As the first corner approached Andy called a sweep right. (code for go fast). I entered the corner in 5th gear with only a slight lift, then reality set in. This was actually a tight 90 right and I was carrying way too much speed. Hard braking and lots of run off room slowed us down for the corner but I managed to flat spot the front tires. Later when we discussed the call, Andy said that he was worried about slowing me down too much for the corner so called it a sweep. Great, now my navigator thinks that I am driving like an old lady.
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| Competition from behind | Andy fuels up at the North Atlantic | |
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| Keese Van Winden's 1966 NSU | Exiting an SRZ |
At the first service, Carrol (Team TCI) sent a text message to our crew who prepared to change our front tires at the lunch stop.
Musgrave Harbour has never been a good stage for me and this year was no different. I found it difficult to get the car slowed and turned in on the gravel covered pavement. We took a bit of time and lost a bit more ground to the leaders.
New Wes Valley is my least favourite stage of the event. It is a very high speed stage with lots of blind crests that get the car light on turn in. The route book also seems to be a bit light on the calls for this difficult stage. In 2006 we were actually blown off the road by a gust of wind in the hurricane.
Greenspond, my favourite stage of the event, was cancelled due to the passing of one of the towns senior council members. Our condolences to the town and the families and we hope to see them again next year.
The final run of the day was through Clarrenville and we had a great run. The car was working well, Andy's calls were spot on and I was able to hustle through the corners.
A great run through Clarrenville helped us pick up a spot in the overall standings.
| 1st | Hopkins/Hughes | BMW | |
| 2nd | Arnold/Ryall | BMW | |
| 3rd | ACP/Horsey | EVO 10 | |
| 4th | Mackenzie/Alexander | Camaro | |
| 5th | Buchanan/Adams | Acadian | |
| 6th | Paynter/Paynter | WRX STI | |
| 7th | Clarke/Proudfoot | Legacy | |
| 8th | Lachapelle/Ockwell | Lexus | |
| 9th | Sprongl/Hendrickson | Audi | |
| 10th | Collingwood | Firebird |
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| Pierre and Stan - Turks and Caicos Motoring Club | Woodstock - Roy and Adrienne's BMW 2002 |
Leg 4: Rogers Yahoo - Heritage
Our first run of the day was a nice high speed run into Harbour Mill. The car ran well but I developed quite a bit of front end vibration under braking. When we got to the end of the stage the front brakes were on fire with lots of flame and smoke to keep the TV crews busy. The pads were glazed and we wouldn't be able to fix them until the next service stop in Marystown. Two stages away.
At the Marystown service, Jason and Bert quickly changed pads and topped up the fluids. The engine was starting to feel a bit soft and oil consumption was rising.
I made my first big mistake of the event in the Garnish town section made famous by Craig Seko's U boat impersonation in 2006. Entering a tight haripin I was distracted by Tom Collingwoods disabled Camaro and a marshal who appeared to be in the wrong place. Andy had correctly called a hairpin right but the Camaro was parked at the apex of the corner and I couldn't find the exit. I thought I could follow the red tape around the outside of the corner but unfortunately this just put me in a parking lot off the course.
We quickly spun the car around and got back on route right in front of Ralph Gilles 2009 Challenger. I put my foot to the floor and didn't lift for several km. Ralph was close behind but didn't seem to be close enough to warrant a pass so I kept pushing forward trying to make up for the lost time.
On the long causeway, the marshals clocked us on radar at 195kph just before the braking zone for Chrysler corner. (This is the corner where Ralph had crashed his Charger in 2006) Ironically I repeated Ralph's performance by missing my braking zone by a couple of feet. The Subaru launched off the corner into the bog. Just before leaving the road I recognized the post that Ralph had hit and I steered to the left. We had a nice soft landing but we were 20 car lengths off the road and I though our event had come to an end. After a few seconds we started rocking the car back and forth in reverse and suprisingly the car came right back up onto the road.
At the finish line Ralph was trying to describe where we had crashed when we appeared in his rear view mirror. Something we had a good laugh about later. Unfortunately this off road excursion ruined our chance of finishing in the top 10 overall and pushed us down to 11th.
During evening maintenance we discovered that the car was putting a lot of oil out of the blow off valve. We disassembled the intake system and determined that the turbo bearings were leaking. Luckily we had spare turbos with us and we changed the turbo that night. A quick midnight test seemed to indicate that everything was OK.
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| TCI Honda Cuts the Corner | ACP's Mitsubishi Evo 10 GSR | |
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| Jason and Bert - Great Crew | Pacione Lotus |
One of the funiest things to happen during the event related to the local interpretation of one of the team names. Team Pacione (pronounced pass-eee-own-eee, very Italian) has a logo that highlights the "i" in the middle of the name. PACiONE. A group of locals refered to them as the "Pack-eye-One" crowd. I guess you had to be there.
Leg 5: South Avalon
Friday turned into a day of survival. Unfortunately we had miss diagnosed the oil leak problem. The oil was actually blowing past the rings on one of the cylinders so we continued to blow lots of oil all over the engine. Oil consumption increased all day long and we eventually put 8 liters of oil through the engine on Friday.
At the lunch stop in Brigus, Jason and Bert installed a 2 gallon gas can in the engine compartment to catch all the oil blowing past the rings. It looked like a good fix to get us to the end.
Although we had dropped out of the top 10 overall we were still leading class 8 and were hoping to hang onto that lead until the finish. Everything was looking up until I felt the boost drop off in the Colliers stage. The second last stage of the event.
We also passed Bill Arnold's broken down car on this stage. Bill, leading overall with 2 stages remaining, broke his front strut and had to stop on stage. The Subaru Canada team worked with Bill to repair the strut and Bill was able to complete the final stage and get to the finish line. Unfortunately this indicent dropped him from 1st to 17th place.
During the final transit section our turbo sounded like a skill saw as the impeller impacted on the housing. We were now down to 3 cylinders and a dying turbo.
When we reached the start line of the final stage we enlisted the help of ACP and Frank Sprongl to figure out how we could nurse the engine home. Two options were presented. Disconnect the oil supply from the turbo and let it seize or open the waste gate and ensure that it made no boost. We elected for the latter and filled the engine with all the oil we had left.
We started the stage with just enough power to get the car up the first long hill. When I looked in the rear view mirror, all I could see was smoke, not a good sign. Hopefully we wouldn't run out of oil before the finish. (Later the officials at the start line said they were able to follow our progress through the stage by watching the cloud of smoke above the trees)
We made it to the finish and kept our class 8 lead but we dropped to 14th overall. Not bad considering.
All in all it was a pretty good event. We acheived two of our three goals. We finished and we won our class. (We were on track for 6th overall except for my off road excursion and the failing engine) Andy and I started to gell as a team and we are now making plans for 2009. With a little work we should be able to get the Legacy to challenge for a podium position next year.
Thanks to everyone who helped out in 2008, especially our crew: Jason Byrne, Bert Potvin, Catharine Clarke, Kathleen Clarke
Glen and Andy
1991 Subaru Legacy
Car #801
2008 Video Summary
Final Results
| Overall | Team | Car | Class | Country | |
| 1st | Hopkins/Hughes | BMW | 4 | USA | |
| 2nd | Buchanan/Adams | Acadian | 4 | Canada | |
| 3rd | ACP/Horsey | EVO 10 | 9 | Canada | |
| 4th | Mackenzie/Alexander | Camaro | 4 | Canada | |
| 5th | Paynter/Paynter | WRX STI | 9 | Canada | |
| 6th | Lachapelle/Ockwell | Lexus | Hybrid | Canada | |
| 7th | Patterson/Mattson | Mini | 3 | New Zealand | |
| 8th | Vadenboncouer | Honda | 7 | Canada | |
| 9th | Salter/Orritt | Austin Healey | 2 | Canada | |
| 10th | Sprongle/Hendrickson | Audi | 1 | Canada | |
| 11th | Webb - Baldassarra | Toyota | 7 | Canada | |
| 12th | Pacione/Maxwell | Lotus | 9 | Canada | |
| 13th | Tillotson/Robertson | WRX STI | 9 | UK | |
| 14th | Clarke/Proudfoot | Legacy | 8 | Canada | |
| 15th | Karlin/Macintyre | BMW | 8 | USA |
