Targa Tasmania 2015

[raybak]

Just got home from an Epic Targa Tasmania.

Codrove for Bruce Power in a Series 1 RX7 13B in the Late Classic category. Finished 4th in Late Classic and 10th classic outright.

Our team consisted of our RX7 plus two Series 4 RX7's and one Series 6. All cars prepared in Canberra by Jon Waterhouse.

Barry Faux in one of the 4's finished 2nd in both Outright and Late Classic while Greg Sutton finished 4th outright in the other Series 4. Glenn Ridge in the series 6 finished 8th in Early Modern.

Very happy with the result for all cars, no breakages or damage to any of them, although Greg's clutch was iffy for the last day.

Next year we will be running at least 7 RX7's from Canberra, so a big team effort. Starting to hunt for service crew now a 11 months out from the event.

Ray

[focus206]

I saw quite a few videos about Targas (Tasmania, Newfoundland and others) on YT in the past, and I'm curious about them. Pardon my ignorance, in what they differ from an "European" style tarmac rally? It looks like the roads are much larger and straight, I saw even drivers with Lamborghinis, but apart from that? Would rally cars be eligible for these events? I suppose if so, only Group N would give any competition as a WRC or S2000 would be useless in those roads. Again, pardon my ignorance and thanks for any answer :)

[Zeakiwi]

The Modern 'Targa' as it is run in this part of the World is similar to the 'European tarmac rally' but differs in that there are different rules.
Targa - competitive section - open to roll caged etc vehilces that can be registered for public road use to drive between stages- only the local motorsport safety requirements to be met. Tyre limits - marked tyres so the drivers have to conserve their allocation or have time penalty if they need extra tyres. Speed guideline - maximum speed to be kept below 220 kmh, some stage sections have lower limits if there is a dangerous section in the stage but there is plenty of flat out stuff.
http://targa.co.nz/what-is-targa
Rally cars are eligible and have won at times on slower speed technical routes when the drivers have conserved their tyres compared to faster cars.
Some targa events have a 'tour' section - high end uncaged sports cars etc drive over the stages at a 'brisk' pace with a lead car setting the speed, higher than the legal road limits in places, a networking opportunity for people.

[focus206]

The Modern 'Targa' as it is run in this part of the World is similar to the 'European tarmac rally' but differs in that there are different rules.
Targa - competitive section - open to roll caged etc vehilces that can be registered for public road use to drive between stages- only the local motorsport safety requirements to be met. Tyre limits - marked tyres so the drivers have to conserve their allocation or have time penalty if they need extra tyres. Speed guideline - maximum speed to be kept below 220 kmh, some stage sections have lower limits if there is a dangerous section in the stage but there is plenty of flat out stuff.
http://targa.co.nz/what-is-targa
Rally cars are eligible and have won at times on slower speed technical routes when the drivers have conserved their tyres compared to faster cars.
Some targa events have a 'tour' section - high end uncaged sports cars etc drive over the stages at a 'brisk' pace with a lead car setting the speed, higher than the legal road limits in places, a networking opportunity for people.

Thanks, very helpful!

[Munkvy]

Australia and New Zealand both have Targa events, but they work very differently. In Australia they have notes and recce. In NZ there is neither, in fact the route isn't made public until just before the event. I am not sure how many days they run over in Oz, but in NZ they have a 3 day event and a 5 day event.

There was a Citroen C2 Max rally car competing in the NZ Targa last year in the which did ok, but I think the big advantage of being able to carry a heap of corner speed in a car like that is rather negated when you don't know where the road goes without notes!

Typically the events here (in NZ) are won by GTR's, Evo's and Subaru's and recently once a GT3 Porsche, but that was due to lots of other cars falling off. Typically the cars are highly modified from a power perspective compared to what an FIA homologated car has.

I am involved in the NZ event - CRO for the upcoming Bambina event (3 days) next week, and I compete every couple of years when I can afford it. So happy to answer any questions you might have.

[Zeakiwi]

The NZ Targa route can be fairly well assessed before the event by the the public notification of road closures being advertised in local newspapers etc and the race circuits if used by the Targa need to be booked. Some stages are used twice or run in opposite directions.

[raybak]

There are quite a few Targa type events in Australia. The team that run Targa Tasmania also run Targa High Country. Mountain Motorsports run the Australian Tarmac Rally series which is held over 4 events run in the Victorian High Country. Stuart Benson former Targa Tasmania Clerk of Course is running a new event in November also in the Victorian High country.

As you can see we have quite a loot of events. They all differ in length but with similar regs so you can have one car and run all events. Targa Tasmania this year was over 6 legs with around 450km competitive and 1600km transport. There is no speed limit in the Targa events, unless you run in regularity which has a 130kmh limit.

I have seen speeds over 250kmh on Reeces Dam stage when we ran the M3R, this stage is no longer run though. Currently in the RX7 we have a top speed of 198kmh, the car is down on top speed versus the Porsches in our category but much more nimble. If we get a couple of days of Targa in the wet then we are a podium chance, this year being all dry hurt us a bit.

You can buy pacenotes for all Targa events in Australia with quite a few options, from the likes of Smootline, Rallynotes, Vandenbergs and Blacktrack all offering good notes. We prefer to do our own notes although we are in a minority.

Targa Tasmania has what is called a Trophy Time set for each stage, if you beat Trophy Time on each stage you will receive a Targa plate, do this 3 years in row you will get a Gold targa plate and so on right up to a Diamond Platinum for 5 sets of 3 years or 15 years. You miss time on one stage you don't get a plate. We missed last year as we had a slight off on one stage, but we managed it this year. A lot of crews know they can't win the event or even podium but aim for a Targa plate each year. The times can be hard to achieve as the event gets towards the end, I kknow one year the last stage we only achieved the time by 1 sec and had to go flatout to achieve it.

There are also Handicaps for the Late and Early Classic events, the handicap is worked out on the power, weight, age of car, also tyre width is a factor. Levels of modification also come into play with our car being in LMS (limited modification) getting a better handicap than the same model in MS(Modified) The guy who won Late Classic was running his Porsche 944 in LMS but worked out that if he changed things back to standard he would be in SS(Showroom) with a much better handicap.

Targa Tasmania is one of those iconic events that is a must do one day.

Cheers

Ray
ps watch out for a possible new tarmac event in Canberra next year!

[Zeakiwi]

How much tarmac road has been added to the Canberra area since the days of the Castrol Rally - 79,80, 81 ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUkI9w07R7Q (Would a Temora 1000 style event be less difficult to organise than a tarmac rally? Could the sprint be webstreamed ? A less boganish version of summer nats)
Does Canberra have an event like the 'ashburton street sprints' or Waimate 50 ?" there are a few vids of each on Ytube.

Has Wakefield Park hosted a single venue - tarmac stage rally like has been held at Taupo race circuit in NZ? Don't need to close roads. Build up competitor skill/ cars of gravel crews to tarmac conversion before letting them loose on a public road tarmac rally, or for Targa competiotors to use the event as a shakedown/ warm up.

[raybak]

Plenty of tarmac roads in Canberra. We have all the old Space tracking station roads. Paddy's River rd, Orroral Rd, Apollo Rd, Brindabella Rd as well as Cotter Rd. These roads make some awesome Tarmac rally roads.

Wakefield hasn't held any single venue stages, but they do hold the Tarmac Rallysprint at Eastern Creek dragway.

I think we are poised for a great new event here in Canberra. Tarmac stages are the way to go seeing as we are losing more and more forest to the Greens every year.

Ray

[journeyman racer]

This event flies under the radar here. It's kind of annoying.

[Zeakiwi]

For the Canberra Tarmac Rally are you encouraging Targa crews to enter and to treat the Rally as a one day outing rather than the big committment of a week long Targa?