Tilting at Targa too

Australia's most famous tarmac rally, Targa Tasmania kicks off with the George Town prologue on Tuesday. It is the 16th running of the event and the second Far South outing for Team MINI.

Once again the team, this year sponsored by MINI Financial Services, will field three cars. Though the new R56 MINI is just around the corner, we're campaigning three R53 John Cooper Works fettled Mini Cooper S -- the same cars, in fact, that faced the starter last year after barely turning a wheel.

Over the 2500km (approx) of Targa in 2006 (more here), the cars performed almost faultlessly -- despite no pre-event shakedown. This year they arrive with a season of events under their Dunlop-shod wheels including the Mt Buller and Lake Mountain Sprints.

And they front the starter this year with some of the most talked about livery in the event. In fact our trio has gone feral -- bringing a snake, cheetah and Tassie Tiger (of course) to the road rally (see images).

Under the skin there's been some changes too -- though not as many as you might expect after a hard season of motorsport. Touch wood, the MINIs had a 100 per cent finishing record in 2006. This year the engines remain untouched save for regular maintenance and the brakes are also as-raced last season -- save for fresh pads (a precaution). This is a far cry from some of the 'performance' cars running in Targa Tasmania last year that need new disc rotors each day!

The main change has been to the suspension department. Gone is the circuit-focussed MINI Challenge set-up, replaced by a bespoke, tarmac rally specific Bilstein set-up. The MINIs were never short on corner speed but this new set-up should make the cars faster point to point, more predictable when pushing on and best of all, even easier to drive.

Yep, with luck, we'll be going giant-killing again.

Indeed, it's this suspension upgrade and a few more horsepower freed up after a thorough running-in through 2006 that Team MINI's fast guys, Paul Stokell and Grant Denyer hope to use to their advantage.

Stokell is one of Australia's most under-rated steerers and is a wiz at car set-up -- he's led Targa before. Though better known for his television profile, Denyer is a regular V8 development series driver and has multiple years of motorsport under his belt. He's no Johnny-cum-Lately and takes his motorsport seriously -- well, as seriously as any MINI driver! Coming straight from an outing at the Bathurst 12 Hour, Grant's expectations are also high.

And they've got the right guys in the left seats too. Co-driving for Paul and Grant are Peter Burrey and Dale Moscatt. Burrey has competed in almost every Targa Tasmania and brings a wealth of event-specific experience. Moscatt is one of the country's leading gravel rally co-drivers with Australian Rally Championship, Asia Pacific Rally Championship and other international experience. He may be three foot taller than his 'compact' teammate but the two have now competed in a number of events to date and work together well.

With much less lofty expectations, the Carsales Network's connection comes via the third car in the Team MINI outfit, driven by yours truly.

A relative newcomer to tarmac rallying, Targa Tas 2007 will see me 'breaking in' a new co-driver. Regular readers will know that I laughed my way through a number of events in 2006 thanks to my ever-patient and thoroughly-professional left-seater, bon vivant Justin Hunt. With Justin now a fulltime exec of Targa promoter Octagon and Event Director of this August's Australian Safari, workload meant it was impossible for him to compete in the 2007 event.

Thus we had to ask for volunteers... And when the dust cleared, top ARC co-driver Bill Hayes hadn't got out of the room quick enough and was lumbered with me!

Bill's normal driver is Maximum Motorsport Subaru ARC frontrunner, Dean Herridge. Hopefully, some of Dean's ability may find its way into our car via Bill. Already, he's raised the bar on that bloke Hunt -- Hayes made me go to the gymnasium after each day of our recce!

See also
Targa Tasmania - Day Five
Targa Tasmania - Day Four
Targa Tasmania - Day Three
Targa Tasmania - Day Two
Targa Tasmania - Day One
Targa Tasmania Prologue
The team behind Team MINI
Pace notes - perfect preparation

Bill Hayes: Co-driver's View

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Event updates at targatasmania.com.au

Follow the link to Team MINI's news and results from the 2006 Targa Tasmania event here