TARGA: Day Five – Whites make it five

Tasmanians Jason and John White have claimed their fifth Targa Tasmania victory behind the wheel of a Lamborghini Gallardo Squadra Corse.

In near-perfect conditions for the majority of the event, the White Hot team endured a small fire and assorted mechanical niggles over the event’s course to finish in Hobart with a 26-second break over the second-placed Steve Glenney/Bernie Webb Nissan GT-R, after almost 500km and six days of rallying.

If the Whites’ fifth Targa Tasmania victory sounds predictable, the intensity with which 2007 winners Steve Glenney/Bernie Webb chased the Lamborghini after first-day problems was purely captivating.

After falling to more than three minutes behind on Day One’s George Town stage with clutch issues, Glenney set about closing the gap.

He commenced the final day 1: 34 behind the Lamborghini but was able to take 17 seconds off the gap in the 11.75km Oyster Cove stage. This was followed up with a further 16-second grab on Woodbridge.

Glenney once more gained time on the 14.72km Cygnet, however, White was only six seconds away.

In the end, the GT-R ran out of kilometres. Though it went through Longley 10 seconds faster, the Whites deservedly returned to Hobart as outright winners.

Third place went to the GT-R of reigning champions Jamie Vandenberg/Dennis Sims, 2:06 behind the Lambo. Eddie Maguire/Michael Potter finished fourth, with the Showroom-class McLaren 650S of Tony Quinn/Naomi Tillett in fifth overall.

At the finish line, relief was the perfect description of Jason’s face: “We had a slipping clutch this morning, so I just had to back off a bit and manage it,” he said.

“It was fairly bad and we almost thought that was the end of our Targa. We were pretty sure we weren’t going to make it.

“It was just terrible – we managed to bleed off a bit of time on each stage, but that wasn’t plan for the final day.

“It was a massive relief to get to the finish – I’ve never come so close to thinking it was all over. We needed every bit of the lead we had at the start of the day.

“That’s five Targa wins now – that’s awesome.”

The winning gap in Classic Outright was a little looser with Haysman/Hughes steering their Triumph TR7 V8 to victory by 3:22.

Faux/Mihajlovic finshed second in their 1985 Mazda RX-7, taking the spot on the very last stage from Ulrich/Ulrich in their Jensen CV8, the latter missing out by six seconds. Sutton/Smart finished fourth in class in another 1985 RX-7, with the Freestones’ Holden 48-215 fifth.

In Early Modern it was a Skyline GT-R battle up front, with the Howarths’ 1995 Vspec taking victory from earlier leaders Hendy/Winton-Monet aboard a 2003 Z-Tune.

The final gap was 56 seconds, with the Fords’ finishing third in their 2002 Subaru Impreza STi, though more than five minutes behind.

Another close-fought battle was resolved in 4WD Showroom. The Kennard/Wheeler STi edged out the Perinis’ Mercedes-Benz A 45 AMG by only 19 seconds with the Nortons’ third in another STi, 2:13 behind the class victors.

On the final day the Renault Megane of Denyer/Gelsomino closed the gap to the dominant McLaren 650S of Quinn/Tillett, though the final gap was 1:42. The Shelby GT500 Mustang of Dean/Cole finished third, 38 seconds behind the Renault.

Big congratulations should also go to the 1938 Dodge Speedster Special of Clark/Berriman, the oldest car finishing Targa 2915 in fine style.

At the ceremonial finish by the Hobart docks, champagne was the order of the day as service crews were happily soaked. For the Whites in particular, it was a fitting finale. Jason’s fifth outright win moves him one closer to Jim Richards’ eight on the all-time Targa winners’ list.

Full coverage of 2015 Targa Tasmania on motoring.com.au

Images: Angryman Photography