Mazda and MINI join Targa tilt

Mazda and MINI are again set to take on the exotic sports and performance car marques at this year’s Targa Tasmania. The two small car marques announced they would each field multi-car teams in the iconic tarmac rally this week -- Mazda with two cars and the BMW-owned MINI marque with a factory-backed squad of three.

Mazda will enter a two-car team for the first time in six years. In addition to the Mazda 6 MPS it campaigned in the 2006 event, it will also field a Mazda3 MPS.

Well-known wheelman and rally ace Rick Bates will spearhead the Mazda Targa Team in the front-wheel drive 3 MPS. Promising rally up and comer Melinda Both will pilot the all-wheel drive Mazda6 MPS. Both cars will be campaign in the showroom stock class.

Bates and Both's co-drivers will be Anthony McLoughlin, and The Car Show presenter and Wheels contributor Samantha Stevens, respectively.

The Mazda team will be watched over by long-time motorsport identity and Mazda Motorsport stalwart, Allan Horsley.

"We always have a lot riding on competitive outings of this intensity, but I selected Rick and Melinda based on their raw driving ability knowing they would do the Mazda brand justice," said Horsley.

"This year's event will be a good testing ground for the Mazda3 MPS as it will give the public an opportunity to see how it stacks up."

Team MINI meantime has confirmed it will campaign three identical MINI Cooper S JCWs in the round-Tasmania event. The second Targa Tasmania for the team, the Coopers return for 2007 with a year of tarmac events under their wheels.

In addition to Targa Tasmania, the team's 2007 program will include Targa West and the Mt Buller Sprint and will be sponsored by MINI Financial Services. Once again the Carsales Network will also be lending its support to the MINI squad.

Targa will see the Team MINI entries headed up by Grant Denyer paired with Australian rally champion navigator, Dale Moscatt. The Channel 7 host of "Australia's Got Talent" is a very keen and experienced racer and says he and Moscat are aiming for a giant-killing top-ten overall finish in the five-day event.

A part-time driver for MINI in 2006 (see below), multi-time Australian champ Paul Stokell will also be pulling on the Team MINI overalls for Targa teamed with 15-time Targa veteran, Peter Burrey. Stokell has raced Lamborghinis and Lotus in Targa previously and Burrey finished fifth outright last year co-driving with Russell Kempnich in a Porsche GT3.

In 2006 Stockell won the Alphera Dutton Rally Victoria for MINI and kept his MINI Cooper S ahead of a Porsche Carrera Cup car at the Lexmark 300 Indycar Speed Comparison on the Gold Coast last October.

The final Team MINI entry will be driven by Carsales Network's Editor-in-chief Mike Sinclair, also returning after a full season with the squad in 2006. Sinclair will be paired with leading ARC privateer team co-driver, Bill Hayes.

Though the all-new R56 MINI Cooper S is currently hitting the streets (more here), Team MINI will continue to campaign the supercharged R53 models in 2007 ahead of the debut of the John Cooper Works fettled new generation cars later this year.

Looking forward to 2008, MINI is planning to introduce a one-make race series for the turbo Coopers Down Under. Look out for more information on this initiative here soon.

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