If Targa charity man Nigel Karl has his way they’ll be standing room only on Rotorua’s Village Green when the Targa Rotorua tarmac motor rally event comes to town this weekend.

Karl is the man behind Kids In Cars, the Targa organisation’s new charity, and he has issued an open invitation to the people of Rotorua and surrounding districts to come down and check out the Kids In Cars Family Fun Zone on the Green.

“People love to wander down and have a nosey when something new is in town but you know what it’s like if you’ve got kids, you’ve got to keep them entertained. What we’re saying is come along, check out the cars then let the kids blow off steam in our Family Fun Zone. We’ve got four Bouncy Castles, a face painter, the Kids In Cars Falcon, and best of all it’s free!”

Karl, an Account Manager for Placemakers Pakuranga in Auckland, set up Kids In Cars nine years ago to run gala ride days at Pukekohe Park Raceway for child cancer charity Camp Quality.

Since then its brief has widened to the point where it now offers a complete range of motorsport-based activities and fund-raising opportunities for five different children’s charity groups, Camp Quality, Ronald McDonald House, Make a Wish Foundation, Kidney Kids and Cure Kids.

Before the tie-up with the Targa organisation, Karl and his fellow trustees and volunteers raised money to run their events and support their charity partners  by selling raffle tickets and  food and drink at events.

Now they will be able to supplement that with the proceeds from selling special, limited edition Kids In Cars decals to Targa competitors.

Purchase is not compulsory – though most competitors proudly run at least one, often two or three charity decals on their cars – with prices ranging from $100 per decal to $1000.

It’s a simple, practical, heartfelt way for them to ‘give something back’ and it works – in the ten years from 2002 to 2012 Targa competitors raised over $500,000 for the event’s previous charity partner, Cure Kids.

This year’s Targa Rotorua is being run a month earlier than in previous years as part of a re-jig of Targa events and dates and comprises 353 kms of closed road special stages ranging in length from the 7.13 kms of Paradise Valley to the 26 kms of  the Temiro/Buckland stage east of Cambridge.

It has attracted just on 60 entries across the three – Instra.com 4WD, Instra.com 2WD and Metalman Classic 2WD – competition classes and 17 for the associated but non-competitive Targa Tour.

Event HQ is at the Novotel Rotorua on Tutanekai Street with parc ferme (where competing vehicles are parked before and after each day’s stages) on the Village Green opposite the hotel. The field is set to leave the Village Green on Friday at 11.40am and return by 3.40pm while on Saturday and Sunday the field will leave the Village Green between 7 and 8am and be back each afternoon just before 5pm.

Sharing joint favourite status heading into the event are 2012 Targa Rotorua event winner Glen Inkster and his co-driver Spencer Winn in their new Ecolight Mitsubishi Evo8 and five-time Targa New Zealand winner Tony Quinn and his co-driver Naomi Tillett in a Nissan GT-R35

The 2013 Targa Rotorua event is organised and will be run with the support of sponsors Britz, NZ Classic Car magazine, Ecolight, Federal motorsport tyres, Instra Corporation, Metalman, Mobil1, TeamTalk, Trackit, VTNZ and Woolrest Biomag.

More information including an entry list and stage maps is available in the latest issue of New Zealand Classic Car magazine.