Day one pace-setters Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 8) extended their early lead in this year’s Targa NZ event on a long and tough second day from Hamilton to New Plymouth today.
Despite losing turbo boost – and time – when an intercooler pipe burst in the first stage just outside Te Awamutu in the morning the pair not only made up the 19 seconds they lost, they added a further three full minutes to their margin over five-time previous event winner Tony Quinn and his co-driver Naomi Tillett (Nissan GTR-35) despite one of the eight scheduled stages being cancelled.
Included in the stage line-up were the 47km Kawhia and 35 km Marakopa marathons which linked the King Country and Taranaki.
In the other classes, former Metalman Classic 2WD class winners Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand caught and passed Day 1 winners Bevan Claridge and Campbell Tannock (Holden Commodore V8) and runners-up Jason Easton and Campbell Ward (Ford Mustang) to wrest back the class lead by 11 seconds on time.
Claridge and Tannock remain second but Easton and Ward slipped down the order after running off the road, elevating Bruce Farley and Glen Warner (BMW 325i) to third.
Another crash saw Andrew Simms Allcomers 4WD fast men Nic de Waal and Guy Hodgson (Subaru WRX) end their event early, while mechanical issues saw fellow class contenders Jason Gill and Mark Robinson in their Mitsubishi Evo 9 (gearbox) and Instra.com Modern 2WD class husband and wife duo Ross and Carmel Graham in their Holden A9X (fuel pump) slip down the order in their respective classes.
Taking a little time, meanwhile, to settle into a car 50 years newer than the one he has driven in the past 20 events, was Mike Lowe and co-driver Philip Sutton who finished the day 15th in the Instra.com Modern 2WD standings in Lowe’s new Fiat Abarth Assetto Corse.
“Juts settling in and finding out what the new car likes and doesn’t like, and yes I have found myself missing the old car at times,” Lowe said “At one stage today I found myself throwing it around like the old car which was obviously not the right thing to do because we’ve run out of brakes which is something we’ve obviously got to sort out tonight.”
The event now spends a full day in Taranaki with six stages north, east and south of New Plymouth and an end-of-day motor show in the city centre.
It then heads east to Palmerston North on Thursday then on to Havelock North on Friday before returning west for the finish at Palmerston North (at the city’s Square) on Saturday October 31.
Information on both the main (six-day) 2015 Targa New Zealand and two-day Targa Regional Rally events is available on the event website www.targa.co.nz or in the latest copy of NZ Classic Car magazine.
Targa New Zealand events are organised with the support of sponsors Chicane, Ecolight, Federal tyres, Global Security, Kids In Cars, Metalman, NZ Classic Car magazine, Race Brakes, Racetech, TeamTalk, TrackIt and VTNZ.
