True to his word, five-time Targa New Zealand winner Tony Quinn is returning with co-driver Naomi Tillet to contest the 20th anniversary Targa South Island event from Christchurch to Queenstown later this month.
The Gold Coast, Queensland-based Scot is doing it in style too – in what he believes is the first of Lamborghini’s new Huracan supercar models delivered to – not to mention raced by – a private customer.
“It’s certainly the first in this neck of the woods, and as far as I know, the world,” says the 57-year-old businessman behind top Australian consumer brands, VIP Pet Foods, and Darrell Lea confectionary.
Quinn and wife Christina also have a home near Queenstown and it was Quinn who took over and recently opened the Highlands Motorsport Park near Cromwell.
Before he did that he and co-driver Naomi Tillet, from Adelaide in South Australia, won four consecutive Targa New Zealand events. However with the official opening of Highlands Park just a week after last year’s Targa New Zealand event he was forced to pull out of it at the last minute.
At the time he vowed he would be back for the 20th annual event ‘come hell or high water’ and he confirmed his and Tillet’s entry – and the world-wide competition debut – of Lamborghini’s hi-tech new Huracan (the Spanish word for Hurricane) this week.
“I was always going to do it, because as I said last year, Naomi and I won the 20th anniversary Australian event (Targa Tasmania) and my goal is to try and win the New Zealand one as well, but I wanted to make 100 per cent sure the car was going to be ready,” Quinn said.
As it turned out work done by a specialist engineer under the direction of New Zealand Lamborghini representative, Independent Prestige, to meet competition safety standards (primarily a comprehensive roll cage, fire extinguisher etc) for the six-day October 27-Nov 01 Targa South Island event was completed late last week.
After it was photographed in its Targa South Island livery the car was then shipped to Christchurch this week for a Lamborghini function and for Quinn to take delivery.
The aluminium/carbon fibre composite-bodied, all-wheel-drive Huracan is the first all-new model from Italian supercar specialist Lamborghini in eleven years.
The 5.2-litre V10-powered two-seater has a top speed of 325km/h and the ability to accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in just 3.2 seconds and went head-to-head in the luxury supercar market with McLaren’s MP4-12C when it officially went on sale around the world this month.
“I’ve always wanted a Lamborghini and the Huracan, I think, is a good choice for an event like Targa,” said Quinn. “I don’t think it’s going to be as quick as the Nissan (the twin-turbo GT-R35 he and Tillet used to win the New Zealand event from 2010 to 2013) but I think it’s going to be better in the long run. I won’t mind if I’m in the top 3 to 5 for the first couple of days but as the week goes by I’d like to think that we’d be getting closer to the front.”
Like every other Targa New Zealand regular Quinn says he is ‘counting down the days’ to the start of the first ever South Island event. And not just because he will get to drive the car round his own circuit.
“There is that ” he laughs. “But no, what I’m really looking forward to is getting the Lambo on some of the great roads down there, like the Crown Range and the road to Glenorchy. I think Peter and the team at Targa should be congratulated for taking the step that they did in taking the event to the South Island for the first time. I think it is awesome and I think it is going to be a really fantastic event.”
Quinn and Tillet’s entry is one of just on 120 in the competition section and another 70 entered in the concurrent but non-competitive Targa Tour this year.
The 20th anniversary Targa South Island event starts at Christchurch’s Addington Raceway on Monday October 27 before a prologue stage in the Port Hills and afternoon at Mike Pero Motorsport Park.
On Tuesday the field heads south for stages in mid-Canterbury, before the first of two overnight stays in Dunedin where the cars will be housed overnight in the Forsyth Barr stadium.
After a day full of stages in the North Otago hinterland (and lunch and service stop in Oamaru’s historical precinct) on Wednesday the field returns to Dunedin before heading south on Thursday to Invercargill – and a day’s end stage at Teretonga Park.
Friday October 31 is then spent completing stages through Eastern Southland, West and Central Otago before finishing at Cromwell’s Highlands Motorsport Park.
Competitors then spend the final day (Saturday November 01) in the Lakes County with stages to and from Glenorchy and across the Crown Range before the official finish in downtown Queenstown and the prize giving function the next day.
All told, competitors will contest 807kms over 34 closed special stages linked by 1828km of open road transport stages.
