Targa Tasmania 2007
April 17 - Prologue
George Town
Team MINI's three Cooper S JCW 'ferals' were firm crowd favourites at yesterday's kick off of the 2007 Pure Tasmania Targa Tasmania.
The 4.81km George Town Prologue, held yesterday, sets the starting order for the main event, which gets underway this morning.
Short and sharp, the Prologue pits the 300-strong Targa field against a tight and technical stage through the riverside town's suburban streets, shopping strip and foreshore.
The three Team MINI cars wowed the crowds at the Launceston kick-off this morning with their new animal livery.
The fastest of the MINI Financial Services' cars over the Prologue course was the Cheetah #992 car of Grant Denyer and Dale Moscatt. Beseiged by spectators at every stop, Grant managed to get away from auditioning the enthusiastic Tasmanian crowd long enough to post a time of 3:30.41.
More at home in exotic machinery like Lambos and Loti, Paul Stokell and co-driver Peter Burrey's Tassie Tiger Cooper S posted a time of 3:31.67. Paul says he's looking forward to keeping the exotics honest on the open road.
Both MINIs placed better than a host of four-wheel drive rally specials and exotic performance machinery. And in front-wheel drive terms finished close to the only quicker vehicle -- the significantly more powerful Mazda of Rick Bates.
Yours truly was at the wheel of the third Team MINI Cooper. Wearing its snakeskin livery -- in the face of 'handbag' and other taunts (such as suggesting the driver and the car had to lie in the sun for an hour before starting!) Monte (after the famous rally, and for python), very ably guided by co-driver to the stars Bill Hayes, came in with a steady 3:37.03.
The time places us midfield for the start of the Targa proper today. And with our main aim to improve on last year's Top 50, we're on plan. As it is oft said, you can only lose Targa in the opening days, not win it.
In total, nine new generation MINIs will front the official starter today. The four-MINI Sherrin Motorsport crew also fared well and will work hard to make us 'factory' boys earn our placings.
THE MAIN EVENT
The fastest car through George Town Prologue in the drivetravel.com Modern section was Matt Close with his wife Casey in the co-driver's seat of their Porsche 911 Turbo. The pair set a blistering 3:15.34 'lap' to finish 0.61sec ahead of Rally Tasmania winners Allan Simonsen and Ben Searcy driving the Les Walkden Rallying Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.
Eight-time Targa champions, Jim Richards and Barry Oliver posted the third fastest time in their brand-new Porsche 911 GT3. Jim was a canny 1.81sec back.
Last year's winning combination of Jason and John White placed their updated Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera ninth fastest across the Prologue layout -- they finished 4.08sec off the fastest time. Not a bad result at all, considering that the Lambo was hit by an oil fire on the weekend and nearly missed the event.
Heading the field in the Shannons Classic Outright competition is Adam Kaplan and brother David, in their V8 mid-engined 1988 Giocattolo Group B. The pairing's 3:21.21 would have seen them well placed in the outright Modern competition.
In second place, 0.63sec back, was the oversteering Steve Coad in his crowd-pleasing supercar-style Monaro GTS
Eric Bana, who is incorporating his Targa experiences into a new motorsport film, blooded his impressively-engineered XB Falcon GT coupe at George Town. Alas while the bright red two-door was a huge hit with the crowd, it finished well back (57th) posting a 3:52.06.
Top 10 results - Shannons Classic - Provisional
POS, NO, Crew, Vehicle, Time
1, 717, Kaplan/Kaplan, Giocattolo Group B, 03:21.21
2, 513, Coad/Vandenburg, Holden Monaro GTS, 03:21.84
3, 736, James/Mcleod, Porsche 944 S2, 03:24.38
4, 613, Barwick/Walker, Holden Torana A9X, 03:25.00
5, 577, Broadbent/Goadheer, Porsche 911 RS, 03:25.30
6, 631, Pye/Geelan, Porsche 911 Carrera 3, 03:25.48
7, 636, O'Keefe/Winton-Monet, Holden Torana SLR 5000, 03:25.94
8, 718, Morton/McDonald, Porsche 944 Turbo, 03:26.58
9, 573, Eames/Eames, Holden Torana A9X, 03:29.58
10, 611, Todd/Tighe, Holden Torana A9X, 03:31.91
Top 10 results - drivetravel.com Modern - Provisional
Pos, No, Crew, Vehicle, Total
1, 913, Close/Close, Porsche 911 Turbo, 03:15.34
2, 902, Simonsen/Searcy, Mitsubishi Evolution Lancer IX, 03:15.95
3, 919, Richards/Oliver, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, 03:17.76
4, 953, Heskin/Deniese, Mitsubishi Evolution Lancer IX RS, 03:18.39
5, 991, Weeks/Allen, Lamborghini Super Leggera, 03:18.47
6, 940, Higgins/Hansen, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, 03:18.55
7, 939, Warwick/Murphy, Porsche 911 GT3, 03:18.95
8, 996, Quinn/Wenn, Porsche 997 Turbo, 03:19.19
9, 934, White/White, Lamborghini Super Leggera, 03:19.42
10, 972, Vandersee/Taylor, Skelta G-Force, 03:20.28
Images by Perfect Prints
Also see
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
