November 4, 2008 - As I'm sure happens every year, a few communities are reconsidering their involvement in the race.
The CBC reports that Lewisporte has backed out for 2009. That's a real shame, although from what I remember we showed up, raced, and left. No car show, no meal, no meet-and-greet. So the community involvement was restricted to watching the cars on the streets. Hopefully the Targa organizers can work with the Lewisporte council to bring more benefit to the community. I know that the locals I talked to there were fans of the event, and I made sure to thank them for letting us come play.
Gander is also reviewing their participation. It's apparently an annual review, but the collision between a racer and a parked car has some folks excited. The Gander stage, of course, is the subdivision one that's hugely popular with the competitors - and from what I saw, with the spectators as well. The car show is right on the edge of the stage and we're there for two days. So the community certainly sees a benefit from the race, and the wide streets are safer than many of the other town stages.
Naturally, with any event like this, there will be supporters and detractors. That's human nature. Motorsports is particularly polarizing because of the inconvenience and safety factors. The job that the Targa organizers have done to get the event to happen with the support of the communities is astounding, and we would have enjoyed the race far less if we'd been kept far away from people the entire time.
Here's hoping something can be worked out for these two communities, as well as all the others we visited through the race. The race would not be the same without the participation of the towns that let us use their streets. |
THE DIARY