TARGA: Day One - A Close-run thing

The 25th anniversary Targa Tasmania has had a fraught start with one of the pre-race favourites being docked a minute and another taking a slender lead.

Tasmanian Jason White showed the speed potential of his new Dodge Viper ACR by undercutting the minimum time set for the very first stage of the event, Legana. As a consequence he was docked 60 seconds.

With the second stage – Holwell – downgraded due to an incident, and the following Kayena offering a generous base time, it took until the George Town street stage before White was able to claw any time back, finishing the final test of day one three seconds ahead of the pack.

As a result, Matt Close takes an overnight GT2 lead as crews returned to the Launceston Silverdome. He leads from the Viper ACR of Michael Pritchard and the surprising HSV GTS of Toby Gill.

Having won the 2015 Targa High Country in debuting his Porsche 991 911 GT3, Victorian Close was considered in his comments.

“I know it sounds like a terrible cliché, but we’re really focused on what we are doing and letting the results take care of themselves,” Close said.

“Since we won Targa High Country (in November), we made a few wheel alignment and other adjustments to manage our tyre wear a bit better, but there’s not much else you can do with the new rules.”

The GT4 category appears to be a Nissan GT-R benefit, with Joshua Hilton and Adam Spence tying post-George Town.

Like Close, they’ll figuratively be looking in their mirrors for the rest of the event as multiple Targa winner Tony Quinn looks to gain time in his new Lamborghini Huracan. Quinn currently sits in a tie for fourth with motoring.com.au ‘teammate’ from Buckby Motorsport, Ben Newman, in his 2008 Subaru STI.

Simon Cliento’s 2005 Porsche 911 Turbo S leads the Modern category. The all-paw turbo beast leads the naturally-aspirated, rear-wheel drive 2004 Porsche 911 GT3 of Kerry Luck by four seconds. Roderick Neville’s Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII and Greg Burrowes’ Evolution X share second with Luck.

In the popular Early Modern category, Alan Roe has a five-second advantage in his rapid 2000 Mitsubishi Evolution VI Tommi Makinen Edition. Roe leads Stephen Thatcher’s popular 1995 model Nissan Skyline GT-R-based ATTKD Select R SP by five seconds. Liam Howarth’s 1995 GT-R V-spec lies another two seconds back.

The hotly-contested Classic GT category has Matt Cardinaels leading after the first day, his 1972 Datsun 240Z heading Peter Nunn’s 1985 Porsche 944 Turbo by two seconds. Kim Barwick's incredible 485kW (that’s at the wheels) 1984 VK Commodore Group C Brock replica lies only six seconds off the class lead.

Staying with that old-school flavour, the Classic category (unlike Classic GT, which is an ‘outright class’, Classic times use individually-set base times, known as handicaps, to ‘manage potential performance variations’) is led overnight by Peter Ulrich’s Chrysler V8-powered 1963 Jensen CV8. He maintains a five-second advantage.

“We won Early Classic last year and the new combined handicaps are evolving very nicely for us – it will be interesting to see how we go against the late cars over the course of the event,” said Ulrich.

He leads over Patrick Mewing’s 1965 Lotus Elan S3 (a stark contrast to the Jensen, trading power for light weight). Andrew White’s 1961 Volvo 122S sits third, a second further back.

Sadly the two entries into the Vintage category have been whittled to one, Graham Copeland’s 1936 DeSoto Special returning to Launceston on a truck and leaving Wayne Clark’s 1938 Dodge Speedster alone on the Vintage leaderboard. Fingers are crossed that the DeSoto returns later in the week.

Opening day was marred by an accident in the Classic category that caused Holwell – slated as the second stage – to be downgraded.

Robert van Wegen and son Ben were taken to Launceston General Hospital after their 1968 BMW 2002 Ti went off the road. Both sustained leg injuries and although Ben was released later in the day with a broken leg his father remained in hospital as we went to press.

Crews now turn their attention to the north east loop of Leg Two, which hosts 70km competitive stage time.

This starts with the legendary stage, The Sideling. From there, they head to St Helens for lunch before winding back to Launceston via Elephant Pass and the tricky Rossarden stage before regrouping at the Silverdome for the final time in 2016.

Images: Angryman Photography