Serious Fun

Targa Tasmania 2006

The leg name suggests that the second day of multi-stage competition of the 2006 15th anniversary PureTasmania Targa Tasmania was a leisurely drive down the east coast. But while the open road touring sections give the crews time to take in the stunning vistas, the nine competitive stages were fast and furious.

Leg Two started with the infamous Sideling: a 13.97km stage that climbs up and over the range to the east of Launceston. Shrouded in thick fog for the first half of the field or so, the road, while not wet, was damp enough to claim a couple of victims even before our Team MINI CarPoint Cooper S JCW fronted the starter.

The sign read "Car off at 1.2km, car on roof 1.9km". It was proof positive that the Sideling and the Targa course in general take no prisoners and that disaster literally lurks around almost every corner.

Thus our enthusiasm was tempered just a touch and it was a slow and steady start for the first few kilometres for the Team MINI CarPoint #989 Cooper. About 5km in the road dried, the sun burned through the mist and the misfortunes of our competitors (who were unhurt, BTW) were forgotten and the business of serious fun begun.

There's arguably no better car in which to tackle Targa for the first time than our JCW-equipped Cooper S. Handling is vice-free and there's more than enough go and stop to keep things interesting. With around 1000km under our car's wheels now, it's starting to loosen up nicely, the torque-rich supercharged 1.6-litre four pulling taller gears with more verve and spinning more freely every stage.

Leg Two saw the tyres and suspension start to work better too and the massive JCW Challenge brakes really come into their own on the big downhill runs of Sideling, Weldborough Pass and the day's last stage, Grasstree Hill into Hobart. In fact, the cars are amazingly quick on the downhill stages -- even the very open fast charges. It's in this sort of open country that you can quite literally hold the car wide open and roll from corner to corner, the little blown engine wailing in delight. Great stuff.

Professional racers Tim Leahey and Spencer Lowndes have posted some amazing times and embarrassed some fairly serious all-wheel drive and thoroughbred machinery and it's only leg two! Even yours truly has held his end up with solid times that improved as the day went on.

There were big smiles for myself and co-driver Justin Hunt after the wide-open 7.7km Cranbrook stage just after lunch (which was taken at the impossibly picturesque seaside village of Bicheno). With Shannons Classic competition fast ‘guys' Len and Gayle Cattlin starting behind us in the big (MINI-munching) Boss Mustang we were expecting to be chewed up and spat out. But we held our own (just!) on the fastest stage of the event (so far).

Triabunna's town stage was a hoot in the MINI (we still can't get our heads around racing past people's front yards) but the absolute highlight was the 7.7km Grasstree Hill stage into the overnight stop at Hobart. What the #989 Cooper lost up the hill we made up down the other side -- corner after corner taken at full tilt, co-driver giggling as he read the pace notes and driver grinning from ear-to-ear. We managed to stay within 10sec of both the fast boys on the stage. Serious fun!

AT THE POINTY END
Up at the front of the field, at the completion of today's nine competitive stages, seven-times Targa champ Jim Richards and navigator Barry Oliver had taken the lead.

The experienced pairing's consistently fast stage times saw their Porsche 911 GT2 CS gradually pull away from overnight co-leader, Steve Glenney and Bernie Webb (Subaru WRX) to secure a 15sec lead in the drivetravel.com Modern Competition.

"Our car's great, but the other guys are going well too," said Jim Richards. "We're going as hard as we can but tomorrow will probably suit the smaller cars, but I think we'll do alright, hopefully."

Glenney for his part was happy to continue to shadow Richards' and is confident that he can better his position tomorrow.

"We're looking forward to tomorrow because those big hills today killed us, we'll just keep plugging away and hopefully not let them get too far in front, and maybe get a bit of rain."

Queensland pairing of Ray Vandersee and navigator Jahmeil Taylor jumped to third in their 2004 Skelta G-Force. The Skelta finished 41sec behind Glenney and his navigator Bernie Webb.

"I am very pleased to be in third place," said Vandersee. "Today's stages suited us more and we had a ball. I am pretty confident that I can stay on the pace tomorrow as day three is traditionally a bit bumpier and the Skelta has great suspension."

Leg two saw both Lamborghini Gallardos strike trouble, one catching fire and the other, defending champs Jason and John White's with clutch woes.

South Australian Kevin Weeks and his navigator Rebecca Crunkhorn escaped injury when their ex-Appelby Lambo caught fire just 4km short of Bicheno. White meanwhile was forced to contest one entire stage in fifth gear.

"Our clutch is completely knackered," said White. "We've had a fear that this might happen from the first day, but we've just persevered with it and it has cost us a bit of time today. We can put another one in exactly the same but we've always known that was the car's weak link, so there's no guarantee the new one is going to be any better."

White finished today's second day of competition in eighth position, a significant 1-minute 34-seconds behind Richards. Overnight work on the Italian beast will decide the Tasmanian team's fate.

Adding to today's dramas was factory Mitsubishi driver Warwick Rooklyn. Rooklyn and his navigator Linda Long missed entry into the day's third stage, the 6.33km Winnaleah stage. An unrecorded time placing him at the bottom of today's results pole which has unofficially dropped him from contention.

Finishing in fourth position was Subaru's Dean Herridge and Bill Hayes.

New South Wales Porsche driver Bill Pye resumed the top-spot in the Shannons Classic Competition today from Jensen CV8 driver Peter Ullrich, of New South Wales. Ullrich currently sits 61sec behind the leading 1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3. Rounding out the top three in the Classic Competition is Peter Eames.

Tomorrow's Leg Three commences with the Official Hobart City Start in Salamanca Place and loops south of Hobart through the picturesque Huon Valley covering eight competitive stages before overnighting in Hobart once more.

TARGA TASMANIA LEG TWO PROGRESSIVE SCORES (END OF DAY TWO, OF FIVE)

Driver/Navigator     Car    Gap

Team MINI
37. Tim Leahey, NSW  – Paul Flintoft , Vic  Mini Cooper S JCW
48. Spencer Lowndes, Vic  – Chris Randell, Vic  Mini Cooper S JCW
=65. Mike Sinclair, Vic – Justin Hunt, Vic   Mini Cooper S JCW