Targa New Zealand’s new one-day Rallysprint event on Saturday was well-received with 50 crews taking the opportunity to spend the day running through a 9.9km stage on Kohekohe-Kariotahi Road near Waiuku south-west of Auckland.

The fastest pair through the stage were Targa event regulars Harry Dodson and Glen Cupit in their Dodson Motorsport Nissan GT-R35 Supercar with a best time of 0:04:44. Fellow Aucklander Jason Gill (who took the opportunity afforded by the new event to put several different people in the co-driver’s seat) was next best just two seconds slower in his Mitsubishi Evo 9.

The field was split into fives classes, with Dodson and Cupit winning Group 5 for Allcomer 4WD cars, Tony Butler (Holden Cheetah) winning the 4200cc + Group 4, Melbourne-based Kiwi expat Richard Scoular (Mazda RX7) the 3001-4200cc Group 3, and Auckland women Gina Fabrello (BMW E36) the 2001-3000cc Group 2 and Carol Liston (Honda CRX) 0-2000cc Group 1.

Traditionally, Targa events are run over a minimum of two days with timed special stages over closed roads linked by long transport sections on public roads.

By closing one, shorter, stage and running crews to and from it via a central parc ferme in Waiuku, Targa New Zealand Event Director Peter Martin says he was trying to achieve two things.

One was to give Targa regulars a chance to test and tune their cars under typical Targa conditions before the season’s multi-day events.

The other was to give those interested in competing in an event like this years’ three-day Targa Rotorua in May or four-day Targa New Zealand in October a chance to see what tarmac road rallying is all about.

Harry Dodson and Jason Gill certainly liked the idea.

“It’s definitely good for us,” Dodson said during a break between runs.”We’re here to test some new components for the car so an event like this gives us a chance to come back, download our data, make some changes then go back out again. The stage here is good too, not too long, not too short, just right!

Like Dodson and Cupit, Gill was also enjoying just being back in his Targa car.

“For me,” he said, “it’s more of a chance to get my eye in again, and take some people who ordinarily would never get the chance, to see what an event like Targa is all about.”

One of Gill’s guests was visiting Englishman James Caldwell who said the ride was ‘right up my street.

“It was exactly what I expected,” he said, “definitely a ‘hold-on-tight’ sort or ride. It’s got me hooked!”

The Rallysprint event was also a first for Targa New Zealand’s new official charity, Kids In Cars, and charity spokesman Nigel Karl says he couldn’t be happier with how the day went.

“It was absolutely fantastic,” he said.”We had people from all over the place, Waiuku, Pukekohe, we even had a family that had come from Helensville. We had our car and we had our free family fun zone. It was full-on all day.”

The focus for Targa competitors now turns to the three-day Targa Rotorua between May 10 and 12 and the the four-day Targa New Zealand event between October 31 and November 03.