Targa Tasmania
April 27 to May 2, 1999

Much has been written about Targa Tasmania since its inception. And, indeed, much as been written about this year=s event, which is now some two months ago. Channel 10 have done their bit and featured the event as part of RPM and indeed devoted an hour to the event on a recent Saturday afternoon. There is therefore no need for me to give you a description of the event ... so I thought you might be interested in learning of some of the highlights in 1999.

The boat trip this year, as has been the case for the last couple of years, was preceded by the >farewell luncheon= at The Swallows, which has rapidly become a meeting place of note prior to Targa and similar events. This year the past >heroes= who were not participating in this year=s event, came to bid farewell to those who were once again venturing south. The withdrawal symptoms from Targa seem to get to you just before the boat leaves. Prominent among the faces were Des Dillon, Andrew Ogg, Mike Mier, Chris & Dee Stephen, Geoff Petherbridge, John Bryson, Ross Warren and many others.

Compared to previous years the boat trip over was a somewhat tame affair ... maybe I=m showing my age. Nonetheless the absence of Andrew Ogg, Mike Mier, D=Arcy Russell, Ross Warren and a few others meant I got to bed early for the first time on the crossing. The arrival went smoothly as usual with Brian Reed doing his bit on the PA and the usual large crowd of >Devonport-ites= was there to greet us. I must admit that when I arrived in Devonport I missed the breakfast the Rotary Club used to turn on ... I guess that=s progress.

Registration, scrutineering all went along smoothly. There was no rain, so there was no queue to get into the Silverdome this year. Thank God for that ... in 1998 we sat for four hours outside in the rain on the Saturday waiting for cars to get chamoised off so could get inside. A feature of this year=s event was the relative speed with which registration etc occurred. The highlight was we were given the Road Books and >dry=, >intermediate= and >wet= Targa Stages. A good move!

At the competitor briefing on Monday, John Large confirmed the speculation and announced his >retirement= only to add that he and Rhonda were being retained by the event as consultants, with particular emphasis on the design of the Targa Stages for 2000 when the event will go to six days. Tom Snooks did his usual superb job with the Driver Briefing, however the replacement spokesman for the Tasmanian Police was less than startling by way of comparison to his counterpart in 1998 who began, ANow listen up you bastards!@ Notwithstanding the lack of humour it all went along swimmingly until Tom announced the numbers of some 21 or more cars that were required to report to the scrutineers. My number just happened to be one of them. I had thought everything had gone smoothly.

1999 it appears is the AYear of the Roll Cage@. CAMS in their wisdom had elected at the beginning of the year, starting at Albert Park to conduct a roll cage survey. Surprise, Surprise, the walls on my cage were too thin. Problem is the cage is made of Chrome Moly and as that is not in the handbook a special certification is required. Now the cage has been in the car since the 1995 Targa ... no matter an appropriate entry was made in the Log Book and the certification problem fixed after the event. But there were 20 others in the same boat. The consulting engineers obviously have done well! If you have a similar cage and plan to run in an FIA event, then you will need to get certification ... see Peter Lawrence at CAMS.

Soon it was Tuesday and Georgetown and the Prologue beckoned. The Prologue was basically unchanged except they had managed to put a concrete median strip in the centre of the road through the shopping centre, which meant the left hander via the roundabout into the main street had a much narrower exit than previously. One or two had a problem, but for most it was more the sudden surprise than anything else. Star of the day was Warwick Freemantle in the GTR who put in the FTD about two seconds ahead of Jim Richards and Peter Fitzgerald who were tied for second. The star of the show was undoubtedly, in the crowd=s mind at least, Peter Brock. In fact it was a wonder he even made to the start line in view of the number of autograph stops he made en route and then the thousands he signed once there.

With the Prologue behind us it was back to the Silverdome and on with the event. One aspect of great significance I thought was the presence, since our arrival on Saturday, of Ron Coenan=s van near the entrance to the Silverdome. Ron had been anointed by Targa as the unofficial provider of pace notes for the event. At around $500 a throw, they were not cheap, but business seemed to be brisk. It=s a fact of life that as human beings we are constantly searching for some form of performance improvement in not only our work pursuits but also in our leisure activities, whether its improving the golf handicap or one=s lap time at Sandown getting better, or getting quicker (in this case) is almost a primal urge. As I remarked recently concerning Rally Tasmania/Lactos Heritage Rally, those without Pace Notes were the exception. This year I felt Targa had certainly reached the same position. Very few drivers it appeared started the event without them. The fact that Targa, albeit >unofficially= has recognised the widespread usage of notes and its advocacy of Ron Coenan, is statement enough!

Relative to 1998, Day One had a few >new= stages. Latrobe was back, but with a difference. The first part of the stage including the road that forks to the right had been cleared of some trees and totally remade, making it safer and certainly faster. They tell me Targa had a boat standing by just in case though! There were a couple of cars on the downhill part of Sheffield who were obviously caught out by the tight right-handers, but no real damage. There was a new stage called >Mole Creek= which apart from a very tight right hander with a wooden bridge to follow was actually a very quick stage. With 9 stages on the first day, by day=s end you knew you were back in the event.

Nothing much had changed on Day 2. The weather was better than last year, though the Passes were judged >intermediate=. The lunch stop was again unbelievably short and the wait at GrassTree Hill was once again quite long! Last year the hold-up was the guy who was looking to get his ducks out onto the stage as his personal protest against the event. This year, believe it or not, it was the same guy, protesting again, who drove a rather large truck onto the stage and was dead-set ready to ram the officials and the police who were trying to extricate him and the truck. Fortunately damage was slight and the police succeeded in removing this somewhat hardened protester without too much of a delay. The incident brought a bit of humour to what is always a great but fairly long day. The locals confided that they felt Targa should send the >protester=, who is apparently well known to local police, on a long paid-holiday during the event next year.

Day 3 got underway with the fine weather persisting. There were quite a few off. In fact, we lost two club members before lunch! Both were OK but both cars would require extensive remodelling, forcing both from the event. I=m not sure why there were so many >offs=, but the absence of rain, higher speeds and the bumpy roads may have had something to do with it. The lunch stop this year was unbelievably short. We got 7 minutes. You were almost due out as soon as you clocked in. It was a bit disappointing as they provide terrific soup. After lunch it was on to Longley which had been shortened a bit at the beginning this year due to roadworks. Didn=t make much difference - it was still a great stage. Then finally onto Ridgway Park. I thought about Bruce Jessup and his attempt to put the Ferrari up the tree last year. We got through OK, but there was still a lot of excitement at that infamous spot near the hospitality village, as you would have noted if you saw the video.

Day 4 got off to a great start. Apart from the morning fog, the weather was perfect, which was great, because it=s a long way to Burnie. Hobart was quick, though the sun can be a bit of a problem in some spots. It was then on to Colebrook where someone managed to drop some oil over most of the stage, then the long trip up through the fog to Ross. It was lights on, low visibility at Ross but everyone succeeded in >flying= over the hump at the railway line. We did a great job and apparently scared the living daylights out of the photographer. Pity that, I was rather hoping he would take a good photograph. Cressy was real quick and then it was on to lunch. This time, we got a fully 20 to 30 minutes, which was great considering that the event really =s track) and then to Gunn=s Plains. Gunn=s had quite a bit of loose gravel on it and it seemed managed to capture a few cars. But the real challenge lay ahead with Rianna. We got going on Rianna, but were forced to stop early in the stage just past the safety relay point which had its red light going. There had been an accident ahead of us, which ultimately forced the closure of the stage. (The guys involved, Norman Henry and Anthony Stoner in an Alfa, were out of hospital in mid-May and are now up and around again). We enjoyed sitting in the sun having a bit of a chat with Jack Klaver and Robert White enjoying the views on Rianna outside the car for a change.

The downgrading of Rianna meant that the final stage (a new one) in Burnie - a planned drag around the town flashing up the back way to Wellers Inn then down to the right over the bridge and left down toward the beach - had to be cancelled following a few demonstration runs. Apparently some of the locals were not too keen on this and fuelled up with a bit of alcohol made things difficult for everyone, particularly the police who were trying to keep the stage clear.. We were still sitting out at Rianna, so we missed all the >action=.

The incident at Rianna was of course the major topic of conversation. Some competitors have never actually competed on the stage. Other have only made it once or twice. It is a brilliant stage, not without its dangers obviously. From the standpoint of the event it is arguably the most difficult stage presenting as it does significant driver challenges. For this reason it has been important to the event in terms of sorting out the order at the sharp end of the field. Whilst there is pressure to can the stage because of its accident record and now perhaps because there is a PR and sponsor benefit in getting the Burnie stage off the ground, I hope it is retained. Sure it=s difficult, narrow roads, the sun and being at the end of a long day doesn=t help concentration, but it is a feature of the event for those who make it through.

Day 5 of the event dawned. There been some heavy overnight rain and the prospect of a relatively dry west coast faded. Although it wasn=t raining the morning stages were judged to be >wet=, except Strahan which was >Intermediate=. Hellyer Gorge was the slipperiest I have ever seen it. Mt Black was partially fogbound like last year. Queenstown after lunch, however was dry as a bone. The challenge for the afternoon was Mount Arrowsmith.

Peter Brock driving son James= Torana had been busy throughout the event signing autographs. For Tasmanians it was really a case of making the best of the opportunity to give Brock a farewell he would remember, the opportunity for which had unfortunately been denied them in his last year in the V8's. So throughout the first four days of the event at all the schools and in all the towns and hamlets and in even the most isolated settlements en-route there were the AGo Brock@ AGoodbye Peter@ signs. There were also a few ABrock you Wanker@ signs up from the not to be out-done Ford fans. The man certainly captured the attention of everyone! Well, he failed to maintain his APeter Perfect@ reputation on Mount Arrowsmith and understeered off into a bank on the side of the road, putting an end to his Targa plate chances. Undeterred the organizers managed to get him out of the stage and back to Hobart for the presentations at the finish line at the Hobart Casino - leaving son James with the bent Torana on Arrowsmith. Now that=s motorsport (?).

How to end the event in New Norfolk has been a problem for the organisers for some time. This year it was back into New Norfolk for a town stage. At this point in the event, the last thing you want to do is hit a kerb and ruin your chances of a plate. Nonetheless, much of that wisdom is forgotten when the flag drops (this year they actually did raise a flag from your windscreen to signal you when to GO for each stage). Sympathies were extended to one unfortunate soul who in the last few hundred metres of the stage managed to hit a bump on the exit to an off-camber corner just before the finish and terminally damage the vehicle. This succeeded in holding up the stage, but more importantly robbed our luckless friend of his targa plate. Now that=s motorsport!

So what were the highlights? Well there were many. In the Modern category: Warwick Freemantle=s dogged pursuit of Peter Fitzgerald for second place. Paul Stokell=s magnificent drive for third in the very standard 1998 Lotus Elise. Gary Scott and Richard Franke=s fourth place in the Mazda RX7 SP. Jeff Beables 9^th place with a turbo-less car for four days.

In the Classic Competition: Robert White=s drive in the Sunbeam Tiger to win ahead of Henry Draper and Paul Freestone. Mike Batten & Kim Martin in the Volvo PV544 to finish 4^th ... God is that a quick car! A great performance by Geoff Taylor and Lane O=Donoghue to finish 9^th and line themselves up to be one of only very few contenders for Platinum next year.

In the Historic Competition: Leigh Mundy & Guy Dunstan winning with the 1926 Chrysler Van den Plas . Though one of the hard-luck stories must rest with Martin Utber and Nick Langford in Robert Shannon=s 1930 Invicta >S= who lead for almost the entire event until mechanical problems forced them into second place.