About 30 rally and sports cars roared to life at the Mary Brown’s Centre in downtown St. John’s on Saturday morning before heading to the Southern Shore for the first stages of Targa Newfoundland 2025.
Teams are running in four divisions in this epic week-long, 2000 km rally from eastern to central Newfoundland and back again with the finale in the town of Brigus on Thursday, September 18. There are three competitive divisions – Targa 2, Targa 1, and Grand Touring – and Targa Tour, a non-competitive motoring adventure.
“This is the biggest and best Targa Newfoundland in years,” said Targa owner Robert Giannou. “We’ve attracted rally enthusiasts from across North America and parts of Europe with a large number of returning competitors and exciting new teams. Targa Newfoundland is back!”
The deep field of tough competitors includes a number of past Targa winners gunning for another victory. They include the team of American professional road racer Randy Pobst from Georgia and co-driver Paul Abbott of St. John’s who took the Targa 1 crown last year; John Hume Jr. of Ontario and Justin Crant of Paradise, Newfoundland & Labrador, who won the Targa Modern division twice before; last year’s Targa 2 winner Keir Pollard from Prince Edward Island; 2018 Targa winner Mark Rittenhouse from Ontario; and two-time Grand Touring champs Marinus and Renee Damm from Oregon.
Also in the running are some new teams with serious rally experience. They include the Rally Brothers, Chris and Jeff Mason, who have run the famous La Carrera Panamericana in Mexico several times as well as the Mille Miglia in Italy. Enrico “Rico” Bouchard and Patrick Levesque of Quebec have had success in the Canadian Rally Championship in a vintage BMW. Read team profiles on the Targa website.
Targa 2025 Stages
Visit the Event Stages webpage for information about each day of the event and stage maps. A detailed event schedule is also posted.
Be a smart spectator. Think safety!
- Stand at least 15 metres from the road.
- Never stand on the outside of a turn.
- Choose high ground.
- Never stand behind red tape.
- Always stand, do not sit down to watch
- AND remind others to do the same.
About Targa Newfoundland
Owned and operated by Newfoundland International Motorsports Limited, Targa Newfoundland is one of only three internationally recognized Targa motorsports events in the world. Since 2002, Targa Newfoundland, the ultimate tarmac rally in North America, has attracted hundreds of professional and amateur racers from around the globe to Newfoundland and Labrador.
Held each fall on the ruggedly beautiful island of Newfoundland in eastern Canada, the rally covers 2000 kilometres of challenging, twisty roads through amazing scenery across the island including about 500 kilometres of thrilling stages at speed on closed sections of public roads. Now in its 23rd year, Targa Newfoundland will reach an incredible milestone – the 1000th stage – during this fall’s event.
Visit the Targa website targanfld.com for more information.