Targa: The Road Trip
After two weeks of 20 hour days and late nights, Bill Caswell and I were sitting at the local watering hole around the corner from VRPerformance wrapping our heads around what we got ourselves into. Despite all the late work, we were not 100% done with the car.
But, before we could even get to Newfoundland for the race, there were two thousand miles of Canadian highway and one very long ferry to tackle. There was still plenty ahead of us before we started the race. So we drank beer until the bar closed.
There is something wonderfully old school about a team towing a race car they built across country. We think of the days when race car driver’s drove themselves to events, slept in motel rooms near the race track, sharing the rooms with their mechanics or other drivers, smoked and drank all night and competed during the day. And there we were, team VRPerformance, ready to drive into the bowels of a seagoing ferry—with an almost finished race car in tow—doing just that. And we were not alone.
While in the ferry staging lanes we met several other race teams from across Canada and the US; two teams in particular would become fast friends. Tony Piscitelli and Chris Fitzgerald from Massachusetts pulled in behind us with their highly modified, over boosted Volvo 245 Turbo GLT. Together with Tony’s brother, Phil, they made up team Skidmore Racing. Porsche club racers Rodrigo Herrera and longtime friend John Bilikas, both from Quebec, came with a nicely prepared Porsche 911 SC.
We secured the Touareg and M3 on the ship, checked into our stateroom and then headed to the outdoor deck where we met more Targa competitors. Once the ship was underway all of us headed to the garish, multi colored lounge for some drinks and heavy duty bench racing.