Targa Tassie: One week to go
This year's Targa Tasmania will bring together internationally-renowned drivers, race-prepared utes and an exotic sweep car that can outpace most of the competitorsMazda will be supporting two teams in this year's Targa Tasmania, Australia's premier bitumen rally event.
Both crews will be running in the Mazda3 MPS. Car 988 will be driven by Rick Bates and co-driven by bitumen event novice -- but well versed in rallies of the gravel variety -- Rhianon Smyth (pictured).
The other car, number 989, has been prepared for Alister McRae (pictured) and co-driver Iain Stewart. To understate the obvious, both are well established names in rallying and can boast past participation in WRC events.
The Mazdas are turbocharged front-wheel drive models mustering 190kW of power and 380Nm of torque.
This year's event has attracted a record number of entries, many of them from the USA, the United Kingdom, Japan, United Arab Emirates and Hong Kong. The field will be a diverse one, with the event opened up this year to utes for the first time since Peter Brock campaigned a Holden Ute in 2001 under special dispensation.
In addition to the utes, there'll be the usual gamut of Porsches, Mitsubishi Evos and Subarus (including an all-girl team in a pink Subaru WRX STi), historic cars like the extremely rare Bizzarini GT America, and the bizarre but potent Skelta G Force.
And to follow the route, there's a Pagani Zonda C12S -- the AMG-powered supercar that develops 487kW of power.
Targa Tasmania commences from April 15 and concludes April 20.
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