TARGA: Team motoring eases into it

The motoring.com.au Renault Sport Megane RS 265 of Mike Sinclair and Julia Barkley has enjoyed a solid start to the 25th Targa Tasmania.

Leg One is traditionally used to ease competitors into the rigours of Targa week, the organisers setting comfortably achievable base times, however, an incident on only the second competitive stage – Holwell – saw it downgraded to a transport section.

That left only three competitive stages for the 265-strong competition field to partake, totalling around 17km and including the famous George Town special stage.

Sinclair and Barkley were able to ‘clean’ both Legana and Kayena, but with a 3:00 base time for George Town they joined the rest of the GT2 category in taking penalty time (crews are ‘penalised’ for every second over the base), finishing the stage in 3:34.

The time was good enough for ninth in the category, behind a long list of heavy hitters including Jason White’s Dodge Viper ACR, Matt Close’s Porsche 991 911 GT3 and Michael Pritchard’s Viper ACR, who filled the top three positions overnight. The Megane is, however, the first of three front-drivers in the category.

The overnight GT2 lead, however, fell to Close as White was penalised on the opening Legana stage. A minimum time was set for the stage that the Viper beat by 0.8sec. White incurred a one-minute penalty as a result.

This left Sinclair and Barkley in a strong eighth in GT2 overnight.

"Day one at Targa is about familiarisation," said Sinclair.

“We’re familiar with the car, and each other, but it’s about getting back into the swing of things. A couple of times I reached for some (gearshift] paddles that weren’t there! But we’re past that and now looking at how I want the car to work.

“The car’s on the same (suspension) settings we finished with last year. After today I have some small tweaks I want to make with suspension and ride height, as our aim is to be quicker than last year.”

Sinclair is looking forward to Leg Two, which opens with perhaps his favourite Targa stage of all.

“Usually the morning of Leg Two has some comfortable stages. Not this time. We’re heading straight into The Sideling, a stage I love,” he said.

After The Sideling crews head towards the St Helens lunch stop on the east coast of Tasmania, before winding back inland via the infamous Elephant Pass to reassemble at Launceston.

Images: Angryman Photography