We were all quite thrilled with this result, while basking in the setting sun on the harbour in St-John’s. The eagerly-awaited trophy presentation, with traditional champagne spraying, was regretfully cancelled by the organizers. The numerous protests received would eventually make results unofficial until almost noon the next day. Undeterred, we resolved to have another great team dinner on the spot, at The Keg. That’s when Chief Steward Keith Townsend dropped by our table to inform us that our car was being impounded, along with the five other top finishers. I drove our precious GS 450h to a nearby dealer with Keith’s robust frame wedged into Alan’s low and narrow racing seat. It was an interesting experience that continued the next morning with a full inspection conducted by Targa Technical director David Lambert (see the Saturday, Sept. 20 blog entry).

Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hugues won the Christos award as overall winners at the Targa Newfoundland rally for a second time. They were given hugs, handshakes and a trophy by three generations of Giannou: Jack, Robert and Scott.

Once done, we hurried to the Confederation Building parking lot to participate in the annual Targa slalom for the benefit of Children’s Wish, the charity supported by Team Lexus. Things ran late but I managed to convince the event director to let us make a single untimed run on the course before taking the car back to the Toyota dealer, from which it would later be whisked away to Toronto by closed transport, along with the jam-packed Tundra pickup used by Peter and Vinh as tech support vehicle throughout the week.

My passenger, for this run, was Team Lexus guardian angel and logistics whiz Laura Garrett who laughed all the way through as I finally showed some of our rally buddies that a GS 450h can most certainly be powerslid around a slalom course in style once the traction and stability control systems have been shut off. It certainly wasn’t a perfectly clean run, but I think we put on a good show. I sure enjoyed this short ride as much as Laura and my heart rate probably rose higher than it did all week in the rally stages. Team Lexus captain Chad Yee caught it all in a great video which I will try to add here asap.

Jud Buchanan received the first-ever Platinum plate from Targa president Robert Giannou for an amazing collection of seven straight finishes within his Targa Trophy times.

Peter and Vinh could not come to the Targa awards gala because they wanted to get back home for a track event they had planned on attending on Sunday: The mark of true enthusiasts. The gala was hosted by Jim Kenzie, who did his usual impeccable job. Alan and I went up to get our trophies as winners of the Hybrid division but we watched an American team take away the Churchill Trophy we had hoped to retain. With another second-place finish for the Jud Buchanan/Jim Adams crew and our 6th position, we probably would have clobbered our competition for this trophy regardless of where Scott Giannou and Ray Felice ended up. Alas, their rally ended on Leg Two, when their 1981 Porsche 911 SC’s engine blew up: “it needs a $15,000 rebuild now” Ray added. The pair had finished 5th overall last year.

Looking back at our week, I realize that the three timed ‘Prologue’ stages run on Sunday as a prelude to the five days of competitive driving had proven crucial for us. In the first stage, at Flatrock, I had discovered anew that our GS 450h’s fully electronic steering has a mind of its own at times. In substance, the wheel tends to firm up more than noticeably when braking hard for corners at substantial speeds. Yes, it does get the driver’s attention. Thanks to the team’s new CB radios, which would prove extremely useful – and often entertaining – throughout the week, I relayed my first findings to Team Lexus technical wizards Piotr Nytko and Vinh Pham. From this point on, we worked together at refining the car’s suspension settings and tire pressures to improve response, with great success. A change as small as adding 3 psi of pressure in the rear tires transformed our big sedan’s handling in one of the fastest and longest stages.

Team Lexus captain Chad Yee and team coordinator Laura Garrett flanking co-driver Alan Ockwell and driver Marc Lachapelle holding their trophies as repeat winners of the Hybrid Division at Targa.

Our only crisis came on Tuesday’s Leg 2 when I hit a cement curb with the right rear wheel while sliding wide out of a square turn on damp pavement in the short and twisty Lewisporte stage. The blow shattered the outside of the alloy rim but thankfully, the tire did not go flat and we were able to ‘zero’ this stage too. Within minutes, the wheel was changed and calls were made to fly in one of these directional wheels. The tire was installed on it the next day during our stopover in Clarenville.

Other than this, our trusty GS 450h required only regular brake service through the week. Peter and Vinh replaced two sets of front brake rotors and one at the rear. They also changed the racing brake fluid once. That’s it. The hood was opened several times, but only to change the damping settings on our fantastic new Multimatic Dynamics shocks.

We’re already talking about next year. Can’t wait, already.

See you soon, Targa Newfoundland.

Did I forget to mention that we have indeed finished the 7th Targa Newfoundland tarmac rally? By pure luck, we followed Frank Sprongl and Rod Hendricksen’s fabulous Audi quattro Group B rally car to the Harbour-front finish line. Frank then proceeded to launch the Quattro at full revs, all four tires blowing billows of blue smoke. It was just glorious. What a magnificent idea on Audi Canada’s part to bring such a motorsport classic to Targa and have it run hard all week at the hand of one of Canada’s best rally drivers of all time. It was a treat in itself, not only for spectators but for every enthusiast in the Targa “crocodile” all through the week.

Targa Technical boss David Lambert performing an engine displacement check on our car with the help of Team Lexus tech experts Piotr Nytko (foreground) and Vinh Pham (at left).

Team Targa Lexus chose to make a very different entrance and arrival. Co-driver Alan Ockwell and I simply drove up in total silence, running on electric power only. For us, it was the best proof that you can run hard for six days (counting the three Prologue stages last Sunday), make it to the finish and still be as environmentally-friendly and quiet as possible, in a modern car. Not to mention competitively. The provisional results issued after the finish confirmed Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes as repeat overall winners of the rally and the third consecutive second-place finish for Jud Buchanan and Jim Adams in Jud’s 1967 Acadian Canso. Pro rally driver Andrew Comrie-Picard and co-driver Jen Horsey finished third after an overnight clutch replacement.

We finished sixth overall and became repeat winners in the Hybrid division, of course, but we also finished a virtual third in the Modern division with our two-ton-plus hybrid-powered sedan, bested only by a pair of rally-inspired, all-wheel drive compact sedans with about 350 horsepower each. Third place in Modern officially went to brothers Hugo and Maxime Vadeboncoeur in a Honda CRX, who also won the Baldhead trophy handed out to the best rookies.

We were all the more pleased, earlier today, when our car passed the post-rally technical inspection for which it had been impounded, along with the three top Classic cars and the aforementioned Modern division front-runners. It was a great second Targa for our team and a fantastic result. Now I must get ready for the gala presentation of all awards of trophies. I can’t wait. It’s going to be a great evening.

The same result sheets showed that we had gained a position during Day 4. Our remarkably trusty and solid Lexus GS 450h now in seventh place overall. Co-driver Alan Ockwell and I had a very good day, pushing hard while making doubly sure to avoid even small mistakes that can prove extremely costly. Our hybrid-powered performance-luxury sedan is no match for high-tuned modern rally cars on the tightest stages, or for highly-tuned classic cars that have much less-demanding target times, but it is faaast on long, open stages and it has proven that hybrids can do much more than save gasoline.

To get the very latest, in full detail, you can simply go to the Targa 2008 Results Pages on the RallyScoring.com web site. Jean-Georges Marcotte’s team of two provides exceptional rally results thanks to its four portable computers and a host of networking equipment and web services.

There are six rally stages to complete as we head back towards St-John’s for the finish of this 7th edition of Targa Newfoundland. Our team’s goal is to bring it home tomorrow, safe and perfectly sound, with the hope of an error-free run in a few hours.

Only another three seconds abreast is three-time overall winner Bill Arnold and co-driver Alan Ryall aboard another Bavarian sedan, Bill’s self-built and self-tuned 1972 BMW Bavaria. Lest you think Bill had it easy, in one of the day’s fast stages, Bill felt a jerk as his car’s steering wheel turned an unexpected quarter-turn while he was going 185 km/h. He shrugged it off, finished the stage and tightened the Bavaria’s steering rack: Nerves of steel indeed.

The new faces? Top rally driver Andrew Comrie-Picard knew the Targa Newfoundland event well as a TV commentator and is running a solid third, only another three seconds back, aboard a new Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, with co-driver Jen Horsey, a veteran Targa co-driver and rally driver in her own right. Running 9th is Canadian rally legend Frank Sprongl and top co-driver Rod Hendricksen in the Sprongl brothers’ fabulous 1983 Group B Audi quattro coupe.

Who else is new to the top ten provisional standings at Targa Newfoundland: Oh yes, the Lexus GS 450h hybrid-powered sedan, with brilliant young co-driver Alan Ockwell in the right seat (Alan will get this one) and yours truly at the wheel of a tough, gritty, fast Targa car, magnificently prepared and tuned by Piotr Nytko, Vinh Pham and Injum Bhutta. And we would be going nowhere without the relentless support of Team Lexus Targa manager Chad Yee and guardian angel Laura Garrett.

Don’t worry; we are not letting this good result get to our collective heads. There are still two full days of hard, fast and sometimes treacherous rally stages to complete before getting to the finish line in St-John’s. Our goal has not changed. We want to bring our car there in perfect shape, with a happy crew.

I’d better get some sleep. Our day starts at 6 am.

And leading the Touring competition are defending 2007 champs Alan Kearley and Greg Martin from Newfoundland. After three days of competition, they are still at a perfect zero penalty in their 2004 Mazda 3 Sport GT.

But the rally had to go on, and logic would soon prevail. Along with a few other teams, we kept a clean record of zero penalty points, until the two last stages of the detail. The short and twisty stage going through Glenwood, and the infamous stage that sends us barrelling through the streets of Gander. There, our GS 450h’s two tons were no match for more difficult target times and zillion 90 degree turns. We were even caught by Andrew Comrie-Picard and I stole a few seconds from him on the narrow course. Yes, Andrew knows how sorry I was for impeding his progress in any way.

He and co-driver Jen Horsey are now running 5th overall and the best-placed Modern car in their Mitsubishi Evo, just ahead of John and Clarke Paynter’s Subary STI. In the lead now, are last year’s winner, Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes in their 1972 BMW Bavaria. We are now 15th overall. After the thrill running a day and three quarters with zero penalty points, we are back to our objective: getting to the harbour in St-John’s on Friday with a perfectly healthy car and crew. It’s a tough event. We knew and we know more than ever now.

Jim is ok tonight, and it’s all that counts.

Realistically, this perfect score might very likely soon become a memory to cherish for some of the teams, because things will get more difficult for everyone today. They certainly will for us, as we tackle two tight stages to start the day. With the weight of our trusty Gs450h, these are typically the most difficult in conditions that reward great agility and fierce acceleration. This will be the test for our team. Then we will drive toward Leading Tickles, with its magnificent views, for our lunch break. I see sun outside. It should be a gorgeous day, let it be safe for all competitors.

Meanwhile, my thoughts and those of every Targa competitor and official go out to driver Kirk Bolger and ‘co-driver Terry Milnes from Manitoba had on had a nasty crash as their 1959 Mini tackled the very first special.