Race Report: SCCA Targa
Talk about pressure. Acura gave my brother Prototype #0000 of the as-yet-unreleased NSX supercar. Told him he could enter it in the SCCA Targa event that spanned racetracks from Atlanta to Bowling Green. Gave him a factory race engineer. There was just one caveat: he had to come home with the trophy. No excuses.
Bark and I had originally discussed running the Targa as a team --- but when I had a scheduling conflict, he brought on Jadrice Toussaint to handle the autocross segments. Toussaint is perhaps the world's best autocrosser, having won the most difficult class at Solo Nationals in a fashion best described as "dominating". But Bark and Jadrice wouldn't have it all their own way. Randy Pobst showed up with an Exocet. If you don't know what an Exocet is, think of it as a an Ariel Atom with Mazda power.
Until the final day, things looked very good for Bark and Jay. They'd beaten Randy in every event except the road rally, where Randy took a decisive win. But Jadrice coned away the win at NCM Raceway Park's autocross segment --- and then the Exocet beat the NSX in the Targa's most interesting competition, a judged car show.
"How does a prototype car in perfect shape not beat a Miata kit car?" Bark wondered. But nevertheless, when it was time for the final event Randy was one point ahead. That final event: a "Track-Cross" where every competitor would get four timed runs at a section of NCM's race course that included the infamous "Sinkhole". It didn't look good for Bark at the beginning. But he put it together, and with Danger Girl riding shotgun he managed to take a decisive win by over four seconds against Pobst's Exocet.
"This thing... it gets up to 105 quick. And then... it stays there," Randy complained to me afterwards.
Bark's final run made him the SCCA Targa class champion. And the overall champion. He did what he was supposed to. I was very proud of him. He's my brother. And he did great.
