Category: Targa Tasmania

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011: Day 1 update

Targa Tasmania

Tony Quinn leads Targa Tasmania after Day 1 of the island rally. Negotiating his Nissan GT-R successfully through the opening day the 2009 Targa Tasmania winner holds a narrow three second lead in the modern outright category. In second place is yesterday’s Prologue winner Jason White. Sitting nicely in third, 27 seconds behind the leader, is 2008 Targa champion Steve Glenney in his Mazda RX8 SP.

Brendan Reeves, driving a Mazda 3 MPS, leads the 2WD showroom category by a comfortable 65 seconds from Mike Sinclair, who is at the wheel of a Skoda Ovtavia RS wagon.

In classic outright a Torana A9X driven by David Cooper is 12 seconds in front of Andrew Miedecke, who is at the wheel of a Ford Perana. Two-time world rally champion Walter Röhrl sits in equal fifth place just over one minute behind Cooper.

Closer to AUSmotive’s immediate interests, Andrew Robinson is leading his class (9MSB) in his MINI John Cooper Works and sits in sixth in category. He had a good day overall, with just a minor off causing damage to the front-left rim. With a spare wheel fitted “Robbo” is now all set for a big Day 2 in Tasmania’s north east.

Televsion highlights from Southern Cross TV can be seen after the break.

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Lamborghini Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011: George Town

Targa Tasmania 2011

Jason White signalled his intent for the 2011 Targa Tasmania event by setting the quickest time at today’s Prologue in George Town.

The Jason and John White team are the defending champions and also won the rally back in 2005. Their Lamborghini Gallardo was literally and figuratively on fire as the Whites were almost five seconds faster than their nearest competitors, 2009 Targa Tasmania winners Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R).

A selection of images from “Day 0” at George Town can be seen after the break. The town stages at Targa are often about entertainment and the fire-breathing antics of the Lamborghinis always please the crowd. Also gaining plenty of cheers are the, but many classic Australian V8s as they powerslide around corners.

UPDATE: Video sourced via the Southern Cross TV YouTube channel has been added below.

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Porsche Targa Tasmania

Walter Röhrl talks about his Porsche 911 SC at Targa Tasmania

Dual world rally champ Walter Röhrl is in Australia for the 2011 Targa Tasmania rally. It’s part of Porsche Cars Australia’s 60th anniversary celebrations.

Röhrl is driving the 911 SC he drove in the 1981 San Remo rally, where he almost beat the all-conquering Audi Quattros. It is considered one of the best ever drives by the rally ace.

In this video from Porsche you can hear Walter Röhrl and co-driver Christian Geistdoerfer reminisce about the glory days of the 911 SC.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2011

Targa Tasmania

Proceedings for the 20th Targa Tasmania rally began today with the “Day 0” Prologue event at George Town. Below are a few handy links to help you follow the event:

AUSmotive is at the rally working as service crew for car #923 Robinson/Neagle (2009 MINI John Cooper Works). We’ll be updating news from the event as our schedule allows and your best bet is to follow the #TargaTas hashtag on twitter for the most current info.

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MINI Targa Tasmania

AUSmotive heading to Targa Tasmania

Robinson/Neagle MINI JCW

AUSmotive will be returning to Targa Tasmania in 2011. We’ll be forming part of the service crew to support car #923 driven by Andrew Robinson and Dennis Neagle.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Targa Tasmania rally and it’s going to be huge. You can see a full entry list HERE.

For an insight into what working as service crew entails, take a look at our report from 2008. In 2011 you can keep an eye here, or at our Twitter and Facebook pages for updates.

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Skoda Targa Tasmania

Skoda Octavia RS ready for Targa repeat

Skoda Octavia RS-P

Last year Skoda raced a parts bin special Octavia RS-P at Targa Tasmania. This year the same car has been given an orange coat to mark the company’s sponsorship of new AFL team GWS. The changes run deeper, too, with the car altered to make it eligible to run in the two-wheel drive Showroom class at Targa 2011.

This year is the 20th anniversary of Targa Tasmania and the rally runs from 5–10 April. Entry numbers have swelled to near 400 for the anniversary event.

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Porsche Targa Tasmania

Rally legend Walter Röhrl to compete in 2011 Targa Tasmania

Walter Rohrl

Exciting news for Australian motorsport fans with the announcement that rally legend and Porsche icon Walter Röhrl will be competing in Targa Tasmania this year. Röhrl has raced in Targa Tasmania twice before, 1997 and 2000, and will be reunited with a 30-year-old rally car in Tasmania for 2011.

Back in 1981 Röhrl and co-driver Christian Geistdoerfer raced a Porsche 911 SC at the San Remo Rally. It was the era dominated by the fearsome Audi Quattros and Röhrl almost won the race, in what is considered to be one of his greatest drives ever. It was the only time he raced the 911 SC and the very same car has been located, restored and will be in Australia competing under the Porsche rolling museum initiative. Geistdoerfer will complete the fairytale by re-uniting with Röhrl in the navigator’s seat.

Reminiscing about the 1981 San Remo Rally, Röhrl siad, “That rally is one of the most memorable for me, for sure. We were not supposed to be competitive in the San Remo because the stages were very difficult and the all-wheel drive Audi had much better grip and more power than our 911 SC.

“But we pushed and pushed and pushed … and finally something broke on the car on the final tarmac stages when I thought we were going to win the rally.”

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Lamborghini Porsche Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Day 5

Jason White, Lamborghini Gallardo

Jason White driving a Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Strada has held on to claim the 2010 Targa Tasmania trophy. It is his second Targa victory and he finished 1 minute 5 seconds ahead of Ray Vandersee in a Skelta G Force. In third place was 2009 winner Tony Quinn driving a Nissan GTR.

The Classic competition was won by Rex Broadbent in his 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS.

A full list of category and class winners is available HERE. Tonight’s local Tasmanian news bulletin can be seen after the jump. Congratulations to all teams, crews and officials for their part in another successful Targa Tasmania. Next year’s event will be a massive one, it will be the 20th anniversary of Australia’s most prestigious tarmac rally.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Days 3 & 4

Steve Glenney crashes out in his Mazda RX-8 SP

Targa Tasmania competitors have just set off on the final day of competition. Wet and windy conditions are expected for the race into Hobart. Jason White in a Lamborghini Gallardo continues to lead the field, but as you can see from the pic above it hasn’t been plain sailing for those chasing him.

On Day 3 Steve Glenney was in second position when he crashed out, involved in a three car accident. Nobody was seriously hurt, but Glenney’s Mazda RX-8 SP was in no fit state to continue. Ray Vandersee in the Skelta G Force has taken advantage of Glenney’s demise to assume a comfortable second position. Although, his car had a full engine change in Strahan overnight and he will have his fingers crossed that there are no gremlins to be found during today’s final stages.

Last year’s winner Tony Quinn in a Nissan GTR is third, 2 minutes 16 seconds behind the Australian-built Skelta. Former Targa West winner Steve Jones, also in a Nissan GTR, sits in fourth. While the Vandenberg brothers, in a Mitsubishi Evo IX, have moved ahead of Jim Richards into fifth place.

For now, though, the Whites hold a 1 minute 9 second advantage over Vandersee. They’ll be hoping they don’t follow the path of fellow Gallardo driver Kevin Weeks who last year took a slender lead into the final day before suffering a bad crash on a downhill section of the Queenstown stage.

You can keep an eye on results in all categories on the Targa Tasmania results website. News bulletins from Legs 3 and 4 can be seen after the jump.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010 update – Days 1 & 2

Tony Quinn, Nissan GTR

Tasmanian based Jason White in his Lamborghini Gallardo continues to hold the outright lead in Targa Tasmania 2010 at the completion of day two. However, it was defending champ Tony Quinn in his Nissan GTR who set the early pace this morning, posting the quickest time through the awesome Sideling stage.

Quinn is currently in fourth place, 54 seconds behind White. But the surprise packages have to be in second and third placings. Steve Glenney, 2008 winner, is second, 31 seconds behind the leader, in his one-off Mazda RX8 SP. Actually, Mazda are doing a good job of covering their three cars in the event, so make sure you take a peek at the Mazda Motorsport Australia website for more info.

In third place, 42 seconds behind White, is Ray Vandersee at the wheel of the extreme looking Skelta G Force. You have to respect the man who builds the car out there racing the car and doing very well.

News clips from the first two days of competition can be seen below and you can keep up to date with all the latest results, including live updates, at the Targa Tasmania results website.

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Targa Tasmania

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010

Targa Tasmania 2010 kicked off in earnest today with the first leg of the event taking place. Wet and wild conditions greeted the field and while most crews did manage to make it back to Launceston safely, some crews are already out of the rally. Fortunately there aren’t any reports of serious injury, despite some very ordinary looking cars.

A quick shout out to all the drivers, navigators, support crews still competing, as well as the event officials. Here’s hoping they enjoy a safe and successful Targa for 2010.

Live updates from the rally are available from the Targa Tasmania results website. It’s not the most sophisticated set up, but based on today’s effort it seems to work quite well. You can also see some news footage of yesterday’s Prologue at Georgetown after the jump.

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Skoda Targa Tasmania

Skoda Octavia RS-P ready for Targa Tasmania

Skoda Octavia RS-P

Skoda Australia’s wicked one-off creation, the Octavia RS-P, is all set to make its tarmac rally debut at Targa Tasmania which kicks off next week.

The recipe is pretty simple, take one standard Octavia RS, turn up the boost of the 2.0 litre turbo, fiddle about with the intake and exhaust. This will see you increase power from 147kW to around 190kW. Then throw on some adjustable suspension, a few strut braces, some uprated brakes and fit semi-slick tyres to great looking 18″ alloys and you’ve just cooked yourself one very cool, and surprisingly rapid, Euro estate. Five stars!

At the wheel of the Octavia RS-P will be Mike Sinclair, Editor-in-chief of carsales.com.au, with Justin Hunt guiding the way in the nav seat. Further detail, and extra pics are available after the jump.

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