year, we got together with two communities, Carbonear and Harbour Grace and created two repetitive town stages. We’ll be spending a whole day running four stages in each town. We’ll start in the morning and do the runs in Harbour Grace and then off to Carbonear. We’ll have a big car show at lunchtime and then after that we’ll run them all in reverse again. So it’s going to be an opportunity for that town to have a real festive day around motorsports. It all happened because of a new business in Carbonear. Some years ago, Mr. Bruce Branan, who’s since become a friend of Targa, came to Carbonear and bought an old stone building and restored it into a pub called The Stone Jug a US$5.2 million project which created a spectacular facility which attracts people from all over the world. The whole event that day will surround that establishment. It’s really a gorgeous restau- rant and a fabulous entertainment centre all wrapped up in one stunning facility. We go into some of the older historic communities like Brigus, where my family hails from and it always becomes a really wonderful community event everywhere we go. We’re sort of like the Santa Claus parade now – we happen but we are in September of each year. I understand that nearly a whole army of volunteers makes Targa Newfoundland a possibility, Robert. Can you say a few things about how this comes together? We use about six or seven hundred volunteers for Targa. We recruit all winter long and organize our stages well in advance. The beauty of Targa is that there’s no charge for the communities. We bring the safety vests, the timing equipment – whatever it is, it’s supplied for them. It’s all done in each community in a total of two to three hours. We do the whole dog and pony show. And we don’t have trouble finding people. People everywhere on the East Coast are pretty quick to lend a helping hand. Robert, I’m sure the Spotlight on Business readership would love a story or two of races gone by. There’s more of those than God’s seven angels would create. We have some really amazing people at Targa. One of the Chaps is a guy who used to own Island Records, he came all the way from Ireland with his son to race here. I remember him saying once that there are places in New- foundland that are more Irish than Ireland. We have a guy from Nova Scotia by the name of Ralph Saulnier who is our photographer. And Ralph writes books on Targa Newfoundland, descriptive picture books. For the last four or five events, he gets on his motorcycle in Halifax and comes to Newfoundland and spends the whole event racing around on his motorcycle and creating this photo journal. He’s able to get some incredible shots from that vantage point. It’s become a work of love for him. There’s even a racing team from Toronto that hires him to take pictures of them during the race.
Our competitors are often representing various causes, like a teamout of Toronto that sponsors MS research, Heart & Stroke, some support blood services, children services like the Show A Child You Care Foundation and the Children’s Wish Founda- tion. We also work with the Easter Seals and the AutismSociety. We’re pretty all-encompassing and we support as much as we can when our competitors want us to chip-in. We’ve had a lot of very interesting competitors show up here over the years. We had a team out of Indiana: Jack Rogers and a lady by the name of CJ Strupp. CJ and Jack would come here every year in an old Mustang and enjoy it thorough- ly. Three years ago, CJ was diagnosed with cancer and she showed up at Targa with no hair – nothing. She still did the run. Her only complaint was that because she had no hair, there was no traction on the helmet. The next year, she came back with a full head of hair and a clear bill of health. They did really well, too. They did so well, in fact, that they were in second place in the last stage. They then barrel-rolled the car, landed safely, and drove over the finish line to great applause. Targa is about people who want to persevere with life; people who recognize that life is very special that it has its dangers and that you might as well live it for all you’re worth. That’s what it’s about. “But what’s interesting to think about this year is we have eight different nations coming to compete. We have people from Belgium, Monaco, Switzerland, Turks and Caicos, the U.S., and more.” Before Targa officially starts, we have a meet and greet followed by the week of Targa which culminating in a black- tie dinner. I tell people there that there are three promises we make everyone at Targa: Number one; You will meet some of the most special people in the world. Number two; You’re going to be hooked on the event. Number three; It will change your life in a positive way. To sign up as a competitor or volunteer for Targa New- foundland 2017, or for more information, please visit Tar- ganfld.com .
We’ve also been able to raise over $1.6 million for charities.
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AUGUST 2017 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE
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