Article- Targa Rally

I few months ago a friend of mine Jason Overall told me about this Rally he was putting on called the Targa Rally. He went on to explain to me that this was a different event than what I had seen before. Much more technical course, and much more about the driving and less about showing off. Event's like Gumball 3000 and Bullrun came to mind and I was a bit skeptical but he assured me that this was way different and that I should join him on the next one that was starting in Orange County. From there he explained you would drive a technical, pre-planned road corse with a check point in Palm Springs and after a fancy lunch another challenging ride back through the twisty mountain roads back into Orange County.

Fabryce at GMG was also always telling me how much fun it was and that I should do it, so I thought about it and told Jason I would come up from San Diego to check out what all the fuss was about. Now mind you for me to get to the event for the 7am start time I had to be on the road by 6am, so a 5:30 wake up time would be in order - which already was a recipe for failure!

Well guess what? I over slept and didn't meet my friend till 8am to hit the road. So with that plan all messed up we decided to extend our track day weekend to a 2 day adventure and we instead set off to Willow Springs raceway for the weekend for the POC STS event. So yeah....I missed the first one but I figured I'd catch the rally when it started in San Diego a couple of weeks later.

So after a few weeks the next Targa Rally was set to start from the W hotel in downtown SD. This time I was ready! I got my car all washed and the livery put on the night before. I didn't want to stress it so I woke up at 6 and Mobonic (my "Navigator") and I were on the road by 7.

Got to the event around 7:30 am and was greeted by one hell of a line up of cars and press. People from Motor Sport magazine and other motor media were there taking all sorts of pictures of the Porsche's, Ferrari's, Aston's, Lambo's, and anything else you could think of. It was an impressive show of force in the heart of downtown San Diego. People were coming from all over town to take a look at this intense line up of super cars.



And you know what I noticed after about 5 minutes of being there.....I was not in my element. Most of these cars were so expensive that you would be terrified to let it go on track. I mean how many Carrera GTs do you see on track?! Really think about it for a second.... when does a car become so precious that it's not being used for what it's made for. It makes no sense to me! So yeah there were some there to DRIVE and some there to look GOOD. That's alright though, to each their own and if owning a million dollar car to look good next to is your thing.....get busy with it! But the one thing that was a common thread between everyone is they came to the event to have fun and as I will tell in the following paragraphs.....some did and some DIDN'T!

Our team's story was a little bit of both. After picking up Mobonic from his house I soon started to realize that we were going to have problems when we got lost trying to get to the W hotel in our home town and at a hotel I've stayed at many times! I was questioning my navigator choice out loud for a good laugh with Mobonic and in the back of my mind getting a bit worried that this was a sign of things to come. LOL.



After our short drivers meeting we were ready to hit the road. To make it an even playing field and not have any funny business go on they don't give you the "road" book until you are at the start line. So with that I handed my fearless navigator the road book and told him to study the **** out of it while I drive, I didn't want to get lost and I was in the mood to win!!

The key to winning this rally is not who gets there the fastest. It works something like this, the officials come up with a fun and changeling road course, drive that course, record the time it took them to do it and then crown the winner based on who was closest to their official recorded time. It's an interesting concept with traffic and road conditions being factored in it could be anyone guess who will win the event. Our plan was not to go crazy at first and just drive the route, if we got in some major traffic we would try to make it up in the back country roads where we could pick up the pace a little and be more quick in the twisties than some of the other cars.



We started down the Interstate 5 in a normal easy going fashion. Our first mistake is that Mobonic and I started yapping about this and that. Instead of us studying the road book we were bull****ting! Go figure. Anyways you can see where I'm getting with this right? Anyways more about the later.

As we made it off the highway and to our first twisty roads I started to get excited because nothing makes more happy than a road with like 400 turns in it. The Porsche 997 is so nice in the turns, it makes me love the car more and more. Every time I'm coming out of a turn it's like a sling shot! There had been some minor traffic on the 5 and we were a little concerned that we were falling behind in our time. We hadn't seen any of the other cars since the start and were trying to calculate how much time we needed to make up.

So with that I started to pick up the pace in the twisty back country roads. It was so nice not to get out of 3rd gear for like 20 miles! Just turn after mountain turn, they kept coming like it was a video game! After about an hour we caught up to a yellow Lambo! We were thinking... ok! now we're back in the game, we had overcome our lost time sitting in traffic and caught up to the rest of the pack. Shortly after we pasted the yellow Lambo we came upon an Aston Martin then a black Ferrari. I started to think maybe we were going too fast! Then in the distance we saw a black Lambo Murcielago. We said F it! We were going to pass just one more car!

This is the point where everything started to go really wrong. As we were blasting past this huge Lambo we didn't realize that he was actually lost in the distance and we were suppose to take our next turn to the right. I guessed we assumed he knew where he was going and that after we pasted him we would find our next turn. BAD MOVE! At this point we were in the high desert about 20 miles from Borrego Springs California. So we continued down this beautiful desert road that was a straight line for as far as the eye could see. We were going pretty quick, let's say... as fast as you think you would go if no one was around for about 100 miles. As we came to this little hill in the road a Police officer in a SUV with his blue and red lights blaring was hauling *** in the opposite direction of us! Mobonic and I both let out a huge gasp. But he kept barreling off into the distance behind us.That got us thinking really fast. Where was our turn and why are we in the middle of nowhere going all sorts of fast?

Bugs are nasty at high speeds!


I noticed we were running a little low on fuel. About 40 miles left in the tank. And the outside temp in the desert that day was coming in at 110º on the read out in the Porsche. So I asked Mobonic where our turn was? What we came up with is that yes, we had blown through our turn back at the black Lambo. Bummer.... and to add to it we had been on this road for about 10 to 15 minutes at a high rate of speed. We were in serious trouble if not completely out of the standings for the rally. We were lost in the desert with a tank that is almost empty, no cell phone reception and no idea how far off course we were.

We pulled over to take a much needed bathroom break. Everyones got to **** in the middle of the desert once in their lives. In the California desert it's common, trust me! Once I got out of the car I realized how serious this was. The heat was so intense you knew straight away you would not last for long out there. And one word came to my mind over everything else at that point....GAS! I didn't care about winning the rally anymore or if we would even finish it, at that point I went into survival mode.

I had seen a sign maybe 10 miles back for a turn off for the town of Borrego Springs. The sign said "Borrego Springs 12 miles". So I told Mobonic we were making another detour to the town to get some gas.

As we were making our way back what do we see? The big black Lambo sitting on the side of the road out of gas in the middle of the desert with a couple that was completely freaked out. The wife was having a panic attack thinking they were going to be vulture food. So we pulled over to help them figure out a plan. As we were trying to calm them down who showed up but our friend the high desert police officer in his big SUV.

At this point the lady in the Lambo was losing it as the police officer walked over to talk to me about what we were doing here in nowheresville and how this rally was screwing up his day. He went on to tell us to be safe as one of the cars in the rally had already crashed (a silver Carrera GT) and that a Ferrari 430 had caught on fire.

This CGT needed 250k in repairs OUCH!


We assured him we were driving reasonably and that thanks for the heads up. He said he saw us going fast but couldn't deal with us since there was a Ferrari on fire. He warned us they called out the entire police task force to catch us and to be careful not to break the speed limits. In then turned his attention to the the distraught couple that ran out of gas.

We made it back to Barrago Springs, got gas and got back on course to the mid point location, Harrah's Casino. Once there we heard everyone else's adventures. Some people took pics as they passed the burning 200k prancing horse and we were glad to see our friends in the Lambo got to the mid point in once piece after being helped by the nice police officer.

We had lunch, we exchanged stories and then we set out to start the adventure back. As we left the parking lot with the rest of the cars it stuck me that I had had enough. My place is on the track and I didn't have a chance to win the rally anyway.I had had enough excitement for a day.



So.... we took a much shorter and leisurely drive down the interstate back to the finish line. We got to finish about an hour before everyone else and totally out of the points but at the end of the day we were happy we didn't run out of gas, get eaten by coyotes in the desert or get a point or two on my license over a speeding ticket. It was a lot more fun and challenging than I thought and I would recommend it for those who want to go on a nice spirited drive on some really wonderful roads but for those of us that have a really competitive nature about them and can't help but go too fast, watch yourself!!!!

 

I know a couple of people who've done it. They also said it was a blast. I really want to do it someday as well...

Sick car you have there!

 

Great write. We participated in the rally also. I was driving my Black 996TT.

Any more news on the CGT?

 

All I heard was that car was F'd up. Like 250k in damages or something. That's the rumor running around. What a shame. Another CG bites the dust!

 

I saw in the back of a local dealer getting inspected.

It was not good, lets just hope no frame damage or there goes another totaled CGT!

 

From what I heard the day of he was "bumped". He was driving pretty agressive that day. Hopefully no one was injured.

 

Jose, sounds like you had quite and adventure.

Mo, stop looking at the Italian stuff and read the GD guide!

 

Great write up! Sounded fun.

 

Yikes - wild tale. Great wide angle shot!

 

Great time. Would highly recommend it...

 

North, I had a few issues distracting me:

1. A.D.D
2. Hangover
3. Trying to read a bad map while you're in a car thats driving at triple digits speeds
4. Looking out for the man!

It was fun though!

 

nice write up and pics.

 

What does ADD mean, A Dangerous Driver

I think #2 is the real reason you got lost! Should have had a few drinks (you, not Jose) before the drive started. Red Bull and Grey Goose would have helped you out!

 

Here are some updated pics i got. cool stuff

 

Awesome pics!

Check out this picture of Gomez on 3 wheels at Willow Springs!!!!

RIDING ON THREE WHEELS!