The Lamborghini of local favourites Jason and John White has made a clean sweep of the Australian Targa Championship with an outright victory at the series’ toughest and most iconic event, Targa Tasmania, on April 17 – 22.
The six-day, five-leg event is renowned for inclement weather and unpredictable results, and this year put man and machine to the test with the largest, longest course ever run in the event’s 21-year history. But despite 600 competitive kilometres and 1800km of touring, and nearly 60 per cent of the course being either reversed or totally new, the top steps of many category podiums produced some familiar faces.
In another dominating clean sweep, the Classic Outright class was won for the sixth year in a row by Rex Broadbent, who led all six days of competition. The charging 1970 Datsun 240Z of Jon Siddins/Darren Ferguson took second, with the Carrera 3 of John Ireland and Michael Ribot in third.
The insane Capri Perana of Donn Todd and Dean Tighe secured the Classic Outright and Early Classic championship titles despite fuel pump dramas that saw him drop down the Targa Tasmania order, while Ireland secured the Late Classic Championship.
Targa veterans Jeff and Nerida Beable in a Skyline R34 GTR won Early Modern, Burnie locals Jamie Vandenberg and Eddie Maguire took out the 4WD Showroom category, while the Mazda3 MPS of Australian Rally Champions Simon and Sue Evans won the 2WD Showroom category by nearly 20 minutes.
