TARGA: West Coast jewels cleared for Team motoring

As ever, the run from Strahan on Tasmania’s west coast to Hobart has thrown up a surprise or two.

This time last year the Buckby Motorsport-prepared motoring.com.au Renault Sport Megane was effectively out of the event with mechanical trouble. In 2016, another key competitor arrived in Hobart on a tow truck as Jason White’s event-leading Dodge Viper ACR blew its engine on the 53km Mt Arrowsmith stage.

As a result Mike Sinclair and Julia Barkley have risen to fourth in the GT2 category with one day of Targa competition remaining.

They are the leading front-wheel drive crew and trail Matt Close’s Porsche 911 991 GT3, Michael Pritchard’s Dodge Viper ACR and Jim Richards in his Porsche Cayman GT4.

“Strahan and Mt Arrowsmith are epic stages,” said Sinclair.

“At one point in Arrowsmith I thought something was wrong, as there was a large vibration coming through. It cleared up; we think it was something the tyres picked up.

“In between, Queenstown was very dicey, even though it was dry. We had a couple of big slides there. Overall though, we’re going pretty hard and the car is working well. It’s a pity Jason went out, though,” he concluded.

The Renault’s best stage finish was third on the 8.76km Tarraleah, the crew never dropping below sixth-fastest on the day.

For Leg Six, crews stay relatively close to Hobart and explore some of the southern stages that formed the backbone of Targa in its early days.

With 64km competitive remaining, crews may see it as a relaxed finale, but it’s often when you relax on Targa that things go wrong…