Local heroes Glenn Inkster and co-driver Spencer Winn have kept their Targa record intact with another dominant victory, this time in the two-day Targa Bambina event at Pukekohe.
The defending and now two-time Targa New Zealand event winners from Patumahoe and Howick respectively made a clean sweep of the Targa Sprint, Targa North Island and Targa New Zealand events last year, and made no race of this year’s new two-day Bambina event over the weekend.
Together Inkster and Winn won nine of the 13 stages outright to lead home fellow Mitsubishi Evo driver Jason Gill and co-driver Duncan Mackenzie from Auckland’s North Shore who won three of the four other stages but ended up 38 seconds behind.
Third overall and in the AndrewSimms.co.nz Allcomers 4WD class was the other local Mitsubishi Evo pair of Malcolm Smith and Conrad Healy from Drury.
Fourth overall and first home in the Global Security Modern 2WD class was Targa regular Clark Proctor and co-driver Sue O’Neill, Proctor’s hybrid Nissan V6 turbo-engined Mk 1 Ford Escort the quickest 2WD Modern in eight of the 13 stages.
Second home in Global Security 2WD Modern was the Holden Torana A9X V8 of Hawera driver Ross Graham and co-driver Matthew Merwood, the pair one of four others who won stages in the class over the two days.
Popular winner, meanwhile of the Metalman Classic 2WD class and an impressive seventh overall was the 1971 Rover P6 V8 owned by Auckland classic car preparation specialist Mal Clark but driven by fellow Targa veteran Mark Parsons.
Together the pair won six of the seven stages on the first day and five of the six on Sunday. Second in Metalman Classic was former Targa NZ class winner Anton Tallott and co-driving son David in a Series 1 Mazda RX7 almost three minutes behind with fellow Aucklanders Rex McDonald and Daniel Prince third in a BMW 325i.
The two Honda Civics entered in the event by a Japanese University team ran faultlessly in the distinguished hands of former WRC and Dakar Rally class winner Kenjiro Shinozuka and co-driver Mitsuru Takagi and Masatoshi Kubo and co-driver Nagai Susumu, finishing ninth and tenth in class and 40th and 41st overall respectively.
Targa New Zealand events are organised with the support of sponsors AndrewSimms.co.nz, Chicane Racewear, Ecolight, Global Security, Kids In Cars, Metalman.co.nz, NZ Classic Car magazine, Race Brakes, Racetech, TeamTalk, TrackIt and VTNZ.
For more information go to www.targa.co.nz or you can find entrant details and stage maps in the latest issue of NZ Classic Car magazine.
