Targa Trophy 2010 San Francisco – Results

Targa Trophy 2010 Event #2 – Bay Area Run – San Francisco – August 28, 2010

Wow….what a weekend…..and a busy one, but a heck of a lot of fun.  We had the Targa Trophy event, plus the No CA Euro Car show where BRracing was a lead vendor at the show as well.  We had people everywhere.

But, this is all about the event.  We added this event to our “lifestyle” series of events as part of the BRracing portfolio for our customers, to expand the type of events that we all could participate in, and have a ball with.  This event was about a great group of people, cars, and drivers, and getting to cover a HUGE amount of roads in the Bay Area all in one day.   The event is designed as a traditional “time and distance” rallye event.  You are provided a rallye packet, which has the routes outlined in great detail, and you had to pay a lot of attention to the route book, and the objective was to finish the route book (section #1 was the first half of day, section or book #2 was the second half of the day) in the target time.   BUT….you didn’t know what the target time was…so, you either had to guess, or know from running prior events, what kind of pace they normally run as the definition laps.

Here are all the details on the event……and there is another event this year, event #3, and after this event, you can believe that BRracing will be there (event #3 is in Las Vegas, as part of the SEMA week there, and will have an interesting twist or addition to that event…more on that later).

Registration (either Friday night at the Hotel W in San Francisco, or Saturday morning, early, at the hotel).

Once registered and teams defined, you were provided the decal package for your car, to get ready for the event.  It took about 30 minutes for all the cars (gathered in the main lobby area outside the hotel) to get all stickered up. There was a great diversity in the type of cars, and state of tune or prep on them.  There were several Ferrari’s, several Lambo’s, a couple of Porsche (the one from LA Porsche Dismantlers was very well turned out…..and their initials make for an interesting car (LAPD)), a pair of old, original Nissan Skylines from Japan w left hand drive, a legit Dodge Challenger Police Car (ex police car….but it was at one time…and now very quick), a Mustang w a very beefy motor (over 600hp), a Range Rover SC, a Porsche Panamera (European Car team), a Lexus IF, a couple of Audis, a Bentley Speed convertible, a gaggle of Mercedes AMGs, several BMW E92 M3s, a very well prepped BMW E90 335i, and many more.

(SEE all of our photos in our BRracing web gallery under events)

There was a drivers/team meeting 30 minutes before the start.  We were told the rules, guidelines, timing, halfway point, where lunch would be, and that’s it.  We wouldn’t see the route book till we were released from the starting line.   BRracing had three team cars in the event….our Porsche GT3 (Robb Todd driver, Stef Todd navigator), our BMW 135i (Bruce Todd driver, Shayan Adl navigator), and our Audi A4/S4 (Brian Smith driver, Rico Ramires navigator), plus we were partnered with the Novitec F430 Scuderia (bright yellow)(being driven by Albert Cook, and the editor of Forza acting as his navigator).  We were here to have FUN….and our Audi car certainly lived up to the term fun.  As the rest of us were getting set and ready in our cars w our nav systems, radios, video, cameras, phones, etc…..Brian and Rico were also getting ready…..they showed  up fully suited up in their race gear…full suits, helmets, gloves….but this is a street event….but they were going to make the most of their role.  In fact, the even is sponsored by NOS energy drink, and they came by, and Brian got himself all hooked up with a NOS energy drink directly connected to his helmet drink system……energy at the tip of his tongue.  We all then lined up, and were let go at 1 minute intervals……they recorded our starting mileage, and time, handed our “BOOK”, and then let go.  We were OFF….quickly reading the book to determine the rough outline of the route, trying to see where the car was in front of us, making sure we knew the quick way out of the city and onto the freeway as we headed out.

Now the guessing started….what speed and what rate should we be traveling at?  You can see the types of cars….we were indeed in some quick company….there wasn’t a slow car, or team in the group.  And interesting things happen when you get a large group of fast cars, fast drivers, and a long route together……and, if you could catch the car in front, you also had a leg up on understanding the route……the amount of route details were intense.

Here’s an example of the book –

Depart Howard St toward 3rd street – .2 mile

Left on 4th St. – .2 mile

Ramp, right, onto US-101 South – 1.2mile

Straight on US-101 South – 9.3 miles

Ramp for I380 West – 1.8 miles

Ramp for I280 South – 8.6 miles

Ramp right for SR-35 West – .2 mile

Bear left onto SR-35 Skyline Blvd

Turn right onto SR-35/SR-92/Half Moon Bay – 1.9 miles

……

Turn left onto Empire Grade – 2 miles

Turn right onto Pine Flat Road – 3.7 miles

ETC…..this went on for pages and pages, and many of the roads, once we got into the back country, were very obscure roads, which were not immediately obvious, so you had to be watching your mileage, and the cars, and looking for signs……while the driver is trying to make the right time and speed.

But….as stated before, you get many fast cars on the road at the same time…and some interesting challenges always seem to arise….our first encounter was when we had the BMW E60 M5, the GT3, the BMW M3, the BMW E90 335i, the BRR 135i, the Porsche Turbo….all traveling on the freeway together…and who would set the pace….some teasing would be going on…..some leading others on….some pretenders, and then a challenge…..with the first being the BMW 335i thinking he would show that he is much faster than all others thought….so, we had to demonstrate that our BRR 135i was up to that challenge….and we did.   All this was on the wide open, and relatively empty freeways, imagine what it would get like on the empty back roads.

We covered 147 miles in the first leg.

At that point we converged at the Hotel W in Silicon Valley…..where the Euro Car Show was taking place.  BRracing had a full 10 x 60 booth setup, with 6 cars, and many products.  We also had Eddy from APEX working in our booth, as displaying his line of APEX wheels.   We met many people, had a great time at the show, and there was a large collection of cars at the show.  The show was sponsored by NOS, HRE, BRracing, JLevi, AudiZine had a large group gathering, along w several clubs in attendance.

From here, we got new route books, and set off on the second half of the journey.  One of the hard parts is judging what speeds you should be at.  You would get stuck behind some traffic on these back roads, and the cars in front of you would disappear, and now you had no sense of how much time you had lost on your target.  So……sounds like a good reason to be off on a chase to me…    :)

We finished the 2nd leg back in San Francisco, but this leg covered 150 miles, and we went all the way up and over the Mount Hamilton road, and onto a back road on the backside where for 30 miles I didn’t see another car, sweeping, wide open, curvy roads…..just awesome to drive, and a beautiful day weather wise to boot.

We had a BLAST….and we will be going to the next event on November  4 – 5, 2010, in Las Vegas, and they are adding a “TRACK DAY” as part of the event as well, and this will add bonus points to the competition.

BRracing will be there….hope you can join us.  (And, that date in November is the end of SEMA week, where we need to be to stay on the cutting edge of our industry).  IF you have any questions, talk to us…will have more pictures added to our gallery soon.