Targa Tasmania 2009 – George Town

The first hit out for Targa Tasmania competitors is the ‘Temco Prologue’, held on the streets of George Town. The stage itself doesn’t count towards the final placings, but effectively seeds the drivers by determining the starting order for the rest of the event.

In order to help compress the field during the rally, thereby minimising road closure times, the slower competitors—as determined by the Prologue results—begin each day first, with the field gaining pace as the next driver starts. Occassionally re-seeding does take place, as it did this year when Steve Glenney’s RX-8 SP blew a turbo on the George Town leg. The Mazda techs had his car ship shape for Leg 1 the following day and so the organisers moved his starting order up the field reducing the likelihood of Glenney overtaking slower cars all the time.

On arrival of the fleet in George Town the cars gather in a park giving spectators a chance to get up close and personal with all the cars and drivers before they hit the streets in anger.

After the jump you can see plenty of photos (click each image to load a 2000px super image). I’ll be posting up a few image galleries from the event and aim to give a good cross section of the cars taking part, from the old classics to the latest supercars.

Also included below is a YouTube clip from this year’s Prologue filmed inside car #715, a 1970s Porsche 911. This footage not only shows you the streets of George Town, but also gives a good example of the pace note system used by many of the teams. Rounding out the photo gallery is another YouTube clip showing some raw footage of the cars in action. Keep an eye, and ear, out for the fire spitting out of Jason White’s Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera!