Mini Takes 3rd at the Targa Newfoundland
The two year run in which a factory backed MINI of Canada team has won the Targa Newfoundland “Unlimited” class is over. The team featuring a 2004 JCW MINI with Jim Kenzie and Brian Bourbonniere driving finished 23rd overall and 3rd in Unlimited behind two factory Suburu STIs.
However (and a big however) the 3rd overall finisher was indeed another Mini. That’s right… the lower case variety. The ’63 Austin Mini Cooper S driven by Dyrk Bolger and Terry Milnes came in an impressive 3rd overall.
The winner this year was a 1969 BMW 2002 driven by Roy Hopkins and Adrienne Hughes.
Congrats to all who finished and to Dyrk and Terry for making it to the podium!
The top-three overall were:
1) Roy Hopkins – Spencer Port, NY and Adrienne Hughes – Spencer Port, NY in a Classic division (Class 4 Modified – large) BMW 2002 ‘69
2) Jud Buchanan – Campellville, ON and Jim Adams – Pickering, ON in a Classic division (Class 4 Modified –large) Acadian Canso SC ‘67
3) Dyrk Bolger – St-Andrew’s, MB and Terry Milnes – East St-Paul, MB in a Classic division (Class 3 Modified – small) Austin Mini Cooper S ‘63
In seventh overall and the winner of the Modern division was Jeff McKague – Cobourg, ON, Mike Gayowski – Ajax, ON in the Modern division (Class 9 Standard – small) Mazda RX-8 04
The winner of the Grand Touring Not Equipped division was Alan Kearley – Gander, NF and Greg Martin – Gander, NF in a Mazda 3 Sport GT ‘04
The winner of the Grand Touring Equipped division was Michael Martin – Toronto, ON and Cathy Martin – Toronto, ON in a Porsche 911 ‘03
It looks like Canadian auto journalist Jim Kenzie wrote daily journals to this years race. The videos aren’t up yet, but you can read his recap of each day on the link here…
<a href="http://www.mini.ca/en/More_MINI/Targa_Newfoundland/default.aspx" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.mini.ca/en/More_MINI/Targa_Newfoundland/default.aspx</a>
thanks for the heads up on the journal, MiniCanuck! A great read.
I had to go to the main page, <a href="http://www.mini.ca" rel="nofollow ugc">http://www.mini.ca</a>, and drill down to access the notes.
Subaru’s??? Ugh!
Need an R56 tearing up the circuit now. I want to see how it fair’s against these competitors.
This headline is selective reporting. The car came third in class and 23rd overall. A bit like saying you were second runner-up when actually third.
Like MINI Challenge cars, you can’t expect the current Mini to compete with the Japanese rocketships like Subaru and Mitsubishi Lancer Evo, or world rally championship cars like Ford Focus or Citroen.
MINI doesn’t even get a look in the Targa Tasmania or Targa New Zealand where a wider variety of higher powered cars are entered.
It’s my understanding that they came in 3rd overall.
no, the 1963 austin mini came in 3rd overall. the 2004 JCW MINI came in 23rd overall in and 3rd in class. the headline is completely correct.
the rules for targa NF favor older cars which is why the last few years have been dominated by modified classic cars.