TARGA: motoring's Megane crosses the line at Wrest Point

You only have to look back at our previous reports to understand what a topsy-turvy week the motoring.com.au Renault Sport team has had here at Targa Tasmania 2013.

On Sunday’s fifth and final leg, the crew’s commitment to the cause paid off and Mike Sinclair and Bill Hayes were able to cross the ceremonial finish line at Wrest Point in Hobart, finishing fifth in the Showroom category.

“Given the speed with which this project came together, Walkinshaw Performance did an incredible job to get us to the end,” explained Sinclair.

“We came into the event with a new car which had been through little in the way of testing. After some early electrical issues, the boys then had more work to do repairing the car after Leg Three, but they have been with us every step of the way.

“Today the car ran beautifully, and we were able to embarrass some supercars along the way. We knew the Renault Sport Megane RS 265 was the hot hatch benchmark, and it’s proven itself to be even more than that in this Targa Showroom specification.”

Co-driver Bill Hayes continued: “Getting to know the car and crew this week has been a great experience. As a group I think we have a lot of positives to look forward to in future events.”

Indeed, the pace of the factory Renault Sport squad was confirmed by teammates Grant Denyer and Dale Moscatt convincingly taking out the Showroom category, complete with a crushing third fastest OUTRIGHT stage time on the incomparable Mount Arrowsmith stage.

‘Our’ Megane -- Car 946-- was on the pace from the start of Leg Five, recording a consistent string of second-fastest stage times on each of the leg’s six stages.

In achieving this they overhauled the Mazda MX-5 of Finn/Harris to take fifth place in the Showroom category, despite losing over 20 minutes in penalties after their off in Leg Three.

With driver, co-driver, car and crew now fully dialled in, the combined efforts of motoring.com.au, Renault Sport Australia and Walkinshaw Performance are already looking towards building on these results in future events.