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Local hope Jason White has secured his
second Targa Tasmania title in three years,
taking his Lamborghini Gallardo to victory
in Hobart on Sunday afternoon after
controlling the five day Australian event
from the front of the field. |
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Local
hope Jason White has secured his second Targa Tasmania
title in three years, taking his Lamborghini Gallardo to
victory in Hobart on Sunday afternoon after controlling
the five day Australian event from the front of the
field.
The win has given White and co-driver – uncle John White
– a clean sweep of the CAMS Australian Targa
Championship, the pair having already won Targa High
Country in Victoria and Targa Wrest Point earlier this
series.
White had electrical problems early on the run from
Strahan to Queenstown, losing 30 seconds and creating
some drama on the final morning. But with that problem
fixed he charged across the event’s longest stage, the
51km Mt Arrowsmith, to take 50 seconds from his rivals
and re-establish his buffer.
It was then a matter of nursing his Lamborghini home
across the final three stages to the finish two minutes
and 27 seconds clear of 2011 winner, Tony Quinn, in his
Nissan GT-R.
Eight-time Targa Tasmania winner, Jim Richards, was back
on the podium in third, a reward for setting consistent
times in his Porsche 911 GT2 RS while others faltered.
Classic Outright leader Rex Broadbent survived a scare
on Mt Arrowsmith as well when he finished up in a
gutter. Fortunately, his co-driver, Chris Randell, was
able to push him back onto the road, minimising the time
loss to a minute.
But in the end the Targa veteran cruised to victory in
Classic Outright, his 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera securing
a sixth straight title having led the field across the
entire five days of competition.
Second was Jon Siddins in his 1970 Datsun 240Z, who put
up a dogged fight with Broadbent, finishing just one
minute, two seconds behind.
Simon Evans, with co-driver wife Sue, cruised to top
Showroom honours in their Mazda3 MPS by 20 minutes and
the four-time Australian Rally Champions added their
first Targa Championship prize to the family trophy
cabinet.
The Whites were thrilled with their event, despite the
scare early on the last day. “This is definitely the
toughest Targa we’ve ever done,” White said. “We had a
missfire through Strahan and it was a bit un-nerving
because we dropped a bit of time, but we thought it was
more than it actually was. So when we got to Mount
Arrowsmith, we decided to go for broke. It was a pretty
exciting stage and to get to the end and realise we’d
cleaned it and pulled back 52 seconds got us back into
our comfort zone. I think it was a record through
Arrowsmith. This is a really satisfying win because
we’ve put a massive amount of work into this event with
the course changes. Losing this year was not an option
for us. We wanted to win at all costs.
Broadbent has become the dominant classic driver of this
era and was pleased to extend his record. “I’m thrilled
to win it – six in row is great. It’s been undoubtedly
the most difficult Targa that I’ve ever been in,
absolutely exhausting. Targa is a challenge – every
single one. Every time you enter, your past record in
the event means nothing. There would be no guarantees
if I came back next year that I’d even get in the top 10
– it’s that difficult now.”
In the handicap events, Jon Siddins pipped Northern
Territory driver Andrew White by one second to be top in
Early Classic, Drew Kent won Classic Florio and
Broadbent added a second title with Late Classic honours.
John Ireland scored points in three of the four Targas
to secure the Late Classic championship. Queenslander
Donn Todd secured the Classic Outright and Early Classic
championship titles despite a troubled time in Tasmania.
Burnie driver Jamie Vandenberg finished just 16 seconds
ahead of Dean Evans in Showroom 4WD, both in a
Mitsubishi Lancer. Evans’ result was enough to secure
him the CAMS series win for his class. Victorian Jeff
Beable was quickest in Early Modern, while third placed
Samantha Stevens-Lemish took the series top award for
the class. The Vintage cars remain crowd favourites.
Wayne Clarke with Trevor Berriman, in their 1938 Dodge
Speedster Special, were first of class home. Philip and
David Frith were winners in Regularity with Bill Gill
taking that championship class honour.
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