Targa NZ 2014

[Zeakiwi]

Targa NZ 2014 starts on Monday in the South Island.
www.targa.co.nz
The pre-event favourite for the overall win is Tony Quinn with a new Lamborghini Huracan.

[Zeakiwi]

A real old classic has been dusted off and brought out of the garage for this year's Targa - Tony Palmer the commentator.
http://youtu.be/OOArhu6eZPQ?list=UUvyGV5q8KHyQ4rZM6ZilC7Q

[raybak]

What happened to Tony Quinn?

[Zeakiwi]

From what I can determine, TQ arrived a bit quick at the end of a stage that had a jump just before the finish, the car in front of him had an accident (running into a stage end official's vehicle) and the people were standing around probably before any warnings had been put out. TQ swerved into a paddock through a fence damaging the Huracan. Impressive black tyre marks on the road. The Targa start intervals are usually 1 minute so there is a lot of overtaking or close following on stages for some competitors.
http://youtu.be/IVQ7oBnL7nY?list=UUvyGV5q8KHyQ4rZM6ZilC7Q

https://www.facebook.com/HighlandsMotorsportPark (Huracan possibly back in the event after repairs)

[Zeakiwi]

Inkster won Targa in the Evo.
http://youtu.be/jDMT8iqEwfU

[Munkvy]

Tony fell off on a cautioned big bump at the end of a long straight over the finish line, it was in the route book and an Escort had already fallen off there in a significant way, but that would have been a long way up the field before him. I think he was simply carrying too much pace for the road conditions. Didn't look to be significantly damaged though.

I was competing in a matte green WRX, we finished, but struggled with a blown headgasket on the prologue day and then a very underpowered engine for the rest of the event. Still, pretty cool to have completed a race with 800km of racing and 2000km+ of touring. It's a proper endurance race when it comes to modern rallying in NZ.