High-profile Targa event regular – and this this time main sponsor – Clark Proctor reckons he has a point to prove at the Metalman Targa Rally Sprint at Ardmore in south-east Auckland on Sunday.
Proctor and co-driver Sue O’Neill topped the time sheets in the Instra.com 2WD modern class early on in last year’s 20th anniversary Targa South Island event in late October.
But just as Proctor’s unique and much-modified Nissan V6-engined Ford Escort looked like a serious threat to the Porsche GT3s of Martin Dippie and Gavin Riches, the new input shaft in the car’s freshly rebuilt gearbox failed.
“So, yes, ” said Proctor this week. You could say that Sue and I have some unfinished business on Sunday. It felt like we were only getting into our stride when the gearbox broke.”
Proctor and O’Neill head a strong entry for the season-opening one-day Targa event which like the two previous one-day sprint events run in Waiuku and Pukekohe, has a central base – the Conference Centre at Ardmore Airport – with two stages repeated four times in the morning and four times in the afternoon with a lunch break in-between.
Entries are spread evenly over the three class categories in Instra Corporation Modern 2WD, Instra Corporation Allcomers 4WD, Metalman Classic 2WD.
Included in the lineup are 2014 Targa South Island winners Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn in their Ecolight Mitsubishi Evo 8, Leigh Hopper and Simon Kirkpatrick in a Subaru Impreza WRX and Andy and Abby Mygind (Datsun 240Z).
During the day, good viewing opportunities of the cars will be available at the Ardmore Airport or off Creightons Rd.
Road maps and more information can be found at www.targa.co.nz
Targa New Zealand events are organised with the support of sponsors Ecolight, Federal tyres, Global Security, Instra Corporation, Kids In Cars, Metalman, NZ Classic Car magazine, Race Brakes, TeamTalk, TrackIt, VTNZ. and Woolrest Biomag.
