MOTORSPORT: Long celebration for Targa Tassie's 21st

Favourites forced to make late engine change
Targa Tasmania, well established now as one of the world's great tarmac rallies, is celebrating its 21st birthday this week -- with its longest, and a largely new, course.Competitors in 240 cars face about 600km of competition -- almost 120km more than ever before -- over the week.

Only 40 per cent of stages are unchanged from last year. There are new stages and others being run in the opposite direction to the past. The changes promise to negate the advantage of long-time Targa Tasmania participants in knowing the stages well. They also place even greater importance on pacenotes.Another change this year allows competitors to use eight tyres through the course of the Targa rather than the previous six. And, in a week in Tasmania, there is always the prospect of some rain.

Event favourite, Tasmanian Jason White, had dramas on the eve of the event, blowing the new engine in the Lamborghini Gallardo he is to drive with co-driver uncle John, during some pre-event activity at the Symmons Plains circuit.

"I was taking a few punters for an exciting lap or two and I heard a rattling noise and thought it might have been a drive-line problem," White said. "Back in the garage we discovered there was a hole blown in the side of the block... All the data suggested the oil pressure was fine, so we've got no idea what caused it and we won't know until after the event now.

"The engine had basically only done 120km. We drove it from Devonport [White's base] to Symmons Plains and only did three or four laps... The spare engine is a bit smokey, but we won Targa High Country [in Victoria in November] and Targa Wrest Point [in southern Tasmania in January] with it -- but we had our fingers crossed towards the end of Targa Wrest Point, so we don't really know how it will go.

"Other than that we've been pretty happy with the car -- it's pretty kind on tyres... But this year's Targa is more of an endurance event than in previous years, so it's going to be tough -- just getting to the finish will be the key to success."

It's the prologue today, with a new warm-up stage at Lilydale north-east of Launceston before the traditional start through the streets of Georgetown at the mouth of the Tamar River.

The opening leg from Launceston tomorrow starts in reverse to the past, with Quamby Brook and Deloraine the first two stages, then on to Sheffield and back to Launceston in the afternoon.

Wednesday the field heads to the state's east but, in a big reverse, it's the tight, twisting Rossarden stage in the opposite direction to normal, the Elephant Pass stage near St Marys, before St Helens, and the Sidling near Scottsdale downhill, requiring drivers to nurse their tyres, with the day's final stage at Longford -- Tasmania's spiritual home of motorsport near Launceston.

Friday the field heads for the west coast, via Mole Creek, then Cethana, the new Castra stage, Braddon's Lookout and Devonport, then the extended Hellyer Gorge stage and the new Plimsoll on the Anthony Highway before the first of two overnight stops at Strahan.

Saturday is Targa's biggest day, with several of the longest stages of the event -- including the full length of Gunns Plains and the 38km Riana stage in the afternoon.

The final leg on Sunday has been stretched too, starting with the classic Queenstown and Mount Arrowsmith stages and the addition of the tricky Woodside at Bothwell after the lunch break before the finish in Hobart.

The Whites have won twice previously -- in a Lambo and a Nissan Skyline -- and apart from wanting another win, are out to clinch the Australian Targa Championship.

Having won the earlier two rounds of the series, accumulating 500 points, they are in the box seat for the title that West Australian Dean Herridge took last year, but the double points for Targa Tasmania could be a double-edged sword.

"If we were to not finish then Matt Close [a Victorian in an Audi TT RS who, with his wife Casey, was second in Targa Wrest Point and is 60 points behind] would only have to finish somewhere in the top five to win the championship," Jason White said. "And there's a couple of other guys that are in the running as well.

"Targa Tasmania is the big prize for us, so we won't be focussed too much on the championship during the event."

White said the course changes largely negated any home ground advantage he and his uncle could be perceived to have.

"And guys like Jimmy Richards [veteran of all 20 previous Targa Tasmania events and eight-time winner, in a Porsche GT2 RS with long-time Tasmanian co-driver Barry Oliver] and a few others have as much local knowledge as I have of these events," he said. "I think the one thing that everyone has found with the new course is that, while you would think doing the same stages in reverse would be quite familiar, to turn the east coast section on its head and run that in the reverse has been incredible.

"To drive through those stages it just seems like a completely different part of the world to driving them in the opposite direction."

Queenslander Tony Quinn has won the event twice in the past three years and is back in his Nissan GT-R; South Australian Matt Simms is another contender in a GT-R, while Dean Herridge missed the two shorter rounds of the Targa championship but returns in his title-winning Subaru WRX.

Young Victorian international rally driver Brendan Reeves and his co-driver sister Rhianon Smyth in a Mazda RX-8 SP won't have the outright speed of some rivals, but -- unlike the Whites -- they have the advantage of much more regular competition, including the World Rally Championship Academy.

Matt Rickards is making his competitive debut for Mazda Motorsport, with vastly experienced co-driver Bernie Webb, in another of the turbo rotary RX-8 SPs after impressing with fourth place at Targa Wrest Point, behind Reeves and ahead of Jim Richards.

Four-time Australian gravel rally champions, husband and wife Simon and Sue Evans, are having another crack at the Tasmanian classic in a showroom-specification Mazda3 MPS after class wins in the two earlier rounds of the Targa championship.

In the classic division another Victorian Rex Broadbent is chasing his sixth straight victory in his 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS. Targa Tasmania is the only event he contests each year.

"To me it is the pinnacle of tarmac rallying," said Broadbent, 63, who anticipates fierce opposition from a couple of Ford Capri Peranas. His Porsche will start with "absolutely nothing" different to last year.

"I gave it a wash and replaced a leaking master cylinder in the brakes and replaced a shock absorber," he said. "Other than that all I've done is return it to A1 competitive condition."

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