After signing a new four-year deal with the Town of Gander in April, a move which councillor Dave Blundon opposed, Targa drivers will leave the Gander Community Centre at 8 a.m. to drive to Appleton and Glenwood.
Before heading to more westerly points on Sept. 14, racers will return to Gander that evening for a car show at the Gander Community Centre and depart the following morning at 7:30 a.m. for stops at Main Point/Davidsville, Frederickton, Carmanville, Musgrave Harbour, New-Wes-Valley, Brookfield and Greenspond.
Targa Newfoundland president Robert Giannou was in Gander two weeks ago finalizing the Gander preparations, and said despite Blundon’s opposition, never once thought Gander would remove itself from the Targa circuit.
“We’ve had excellent relationships with Gander, and I can’t say enough about Gander’s council. The one councillor who isn’t as keen on it is Coun. Blundon, but I have a lot of time for Dave’s point of view,” said Giannou. “When Dave brings his point of view up, it comes out to us as a check mark. Have we checked this? Have we really checked this? A couple of years ago we had an incident, because some of our checks fell through. Instead of throwing up our arms and walking away from it, we sat down with council, and by the time we got there we had done a full investigation on it, so we knew what happened, why it happened, and what we were going to do to prevent it from happening again. That’s key to us.”
“We couldn’t run Targa without Greenspond.” - — Robert Giannou
Gander’s Wayne Lorenzen, navigator for long-time Targa driver Brad Melendy, also from Gander, always thought Gander would be part of the circuit. He’s happy Targa signed a four-year deal with the Town of Gander, and hopes the hometown course will be kind to the Gander tandem.
“There’s one thing you can always count on with Gander — they’re always fiscally responsible,” he said. “They understand the fiscal benefits of having this race here, and that’s one thing you can always rely on with Gander. It’s a good thing.”
Out with the old
With Gander agreed on for the long term, Giannou was happy to announce that Glenwood is also back on the Targa route. However, after what he called a successful Eastport stage last year, a new council decided to pull out of this year’s circuit.
“We ran two stages back-to-back, and it was one of the most successful stages we’ve ever ran. We had a beautiful meal in Eastport on the first day, and everything was lovely,” said Giannou. “This year, they have a new council, and perhaps they have different priorities. We were sad to see it go, but a number of other communities wanted to jump in. But we’ll be back again another time.”
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