Targa Tasmania 2007
April 18 - Leg One
Launceston
Thunder, lightning, heavy rain and even a fire alarm evacuation couldn't stop Team MINI's tilt at Targa on opening day. Indeed, Leg One of the 16th running of the iconic tarmac rally event included all of the above and even some sunshine, as the 300-plus Targa field raced its way over nine stages in the island state's north near Launceston.
The weather always plays a part in Targa and on Day One it see-sawed between dry roads, bright sunshine and streaming wet conditions -- and everything in between.
The day got off to a shaky start for all competitors when the Silverdome exhibition centre 'home' of Targa was evacuated due to a fire alarm. The warning proved to be false, but once the event got underway there were plenty of hot performances, not the least for the gang in the MINIs taking on the drivetravel.com.au Modern category at Targa.
Once again MINI Financial Services-sponsored Team MINIs fast guys held their ends up, with both the Grant Denyer/Dale Moscatt #992 'Cheetah' and Paul Stokell/Peter Burrey #993 'Tassie Tiger' Cooper S putting in some giant-killing performances.
On the challenging Paradise stage, the Cheetah team posted 22nd fastest time overall, and the #993 Tiger backed that up in a drying Devonport stage with 18th overall.
Team 'Snake' in the Carsales Network supported #988 Team MINI Cooper (with yours truly at the helm and Bill hayes calling the shots) didn't let the team down though -- posting equal 11th fastest overall on the Nookville stage. We shared the honours with Paul and Peter. Go MINI!
Grant went on to post perhaps the best MINI performance of the day, an impressive 14th overall on the tight and tricky Holwell stage, Leg One's penultimate competition section.
Today's stages concluded with a town stage through the mining hamlet of Beaconsfield and the entire population, it seemed came out to cheer on the Targa field.
At the end of the day, six MINIs made the Targa Top 40 including all three of Team MINI's entries. Fast man Stokell (2:09) is 15th overall and the leading front-wheel drive car while Denyer (2:13) is equal 20th overall. Two top 20 placings given the conditions (which favoured all-wheel drives) is an awesome achievement. Consider too, the exotica that makes up much of the field.
Team Snake currently lies in equal 37th (3.00) and well within our game plan. Co-driver Hayes is an old hand at this rally stuff and is just the calming influence a tenderfoot like yours truly needs. He's continuing the great work Justin Hunt did in 2006 making sure I concentrate on my lines and the pace notes rather than the Porsches and Subarus we've been harrying...
THE MAIN EVENT
Team MINI is quite literally getting closer to the main event, but nobody could hold a candle to the Alan Simonsen/Ben Searcy combination today. The Les Walkden Racing Evo pairing cleared all but two stages today and lost just 8sec over the nine stages. Amazing.
The Mitsubishi all-wheel drive finished 10sec ahead of Tasmanian heroes Jason and John White and their Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.
Tony Sullens and co-driver Julia Rabbett followed in their Subaru Impreza WRX, six seconds clear of eight-time Targa Tasmania Champions, Jim Richards and Barry Oliver.
Leading from the front in the Shannons Classic section, as he has done until the final moments of the past three Targas, is NSW driver Bill Pye in his 1977 Porsche Carrera 3.0.
But hot on his tail, and just 15sec behind on provisional results, is the 1989 Porsche 944 S2 of Victorian Gavin James, with a five second lead over former Shannons Classic winner Rex Broadbent in his 1974 Porsche 911 RSR replica.
Back in 54th place and still coming to grips with the power of his V8 Supercar spec-1974 Ford XB Coupe is Eric Bana with navigator Tony Ramunno.
Competitors will contest another nine stages tomorrow as the event travels Tasmania's challenging East Coast roads, finishing with a night stage at the Derwent Entertainment Centre at Glenorchy.
Top 4 -- drivetravel.com Modern outright
1 Simonsen +8 secs
2 White + 18 secs
3 Sullens +32 secs
4 Richards +38 secs
Top 4 -- Shannons Classic outright
1 Pye +1min 42 secs
2 James +1min 57 secs
3 Broadbent +2 mins 02 secs
4 Coad +2mins 11 secs
Images by Perfect Prints
See also
Targa Tasmania Prologue
The team behind Team MINI
Pace notes - perfect preparation
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Event updates at targatasmania.com.au
Follow the link to Team MINI's news and results from the 2006 Targa Tasmania event here