SUBSCRIBE TO THE
MAGAZINE NOW
Facebook-f Instagram

Targa New Zealand: Inkster and Winn back-to-back winners

2 November, 2015

 

For the second year in a row, Glenn Inkster and co-driver Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 8) have dominated the Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally. In addition, the 2015 winners have successfully bagged the trifecta by winning the Metalman Targa New Zealand Rally Sprint 2015 as well as the Targa Bambina 2015 earlier in the year.

The pair arrived at the finish line of this year’s event in Palmerston North with an impressive nine-and-a-half minute lead over five-time former winners Tony Quinn and his co-driver Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R35), and almost 20 minutes ahead of third-placed 2013 event winners Martin Dippie and Jona Grant in Dippie’s Porsche 911 GT3.

Final results:

Andrew Simms Allcomers 4WD

  1. Glenn Inkster / Spencer Winn (2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8) 07:27:03
  2. Tony Quinn / Naomi Tillett (2008 Nissan GT-R) 07:38:49
  3. Brian Green / Fleur Pedersen (2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 08:00:26
  4. David Rogers / Aidan Kelly (2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 08:06:07
  5. Graeme  Wong / Kim Blatchley (1998 Subaru Impreza Type R) 08:34:40
  6. Jeff McCandless / Marcella Mumm (2010 Subaru WRX STi) 08:47:00

Metalman Classic 2WD

  1. Bevan Claridge / Campbell Tannock (1992 Holden Commodore) 08:04:04
  2. Bruce Farley / Glen Warner (1986 BMW 325 325) 08:27:19
  3. Carl Kirk-Burnnand / Scott Hay (1991 BMW 325i) 08:28:06
  4. Ashton Wood / Chris Lancaster (1976 Ford Escort RS1800) 08:28:23
  5. Keith Callinan / Mary Anne Callinan (1977 Ford Escort) 08:40:09
  6. Bernie Hiestand / Jilly Hutson (1983 Ford Capri 2.8i) 08:42:40

Instra.com Modern 2WD

  1. Martin Dippie / Jona Grant (2007 Porsche GT3 RS) 07:46:27
  2. Steven Kirk-Burnnand / Mick Hay (1994 BMW 318ti) 07:54:35
  3. Robert Darrington / David Abetz (2002 BMW M3) 08:01:23
  4. Matt Todd / Dan Reichenbach (2008 BMW M3) 08:04:06
  5. Grant Aitken / Caroline Cullimore (2013 Toyota 86 RC) 08:07:34
  6. Chris Lewis / Kieran Anstis (2013 Toyota TR86) 08:22:15

Overall

  1. Glenn Inkster / Spencer Winn (2003 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 (07:27:03)
  2. Tony Quinn / Naomi Tillett (2008 Nissan GT-R) 07:38:49
  3. Martin Dippie / Jona Grant (2007 Porsche GT3 RS) 07:49:27
  4. Steven Kirk-Burnnand / Mick Hay (1994 BMW 318ti) 07:54:35
  5. Brian Green / Fleur Pedersen (2010 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 08:00:26
  6. Robert Darrington / David Abetz (2002 BMW M3) 08:01:23
  7. Bevan Claridge / Campbell Tannock (1992 Holden Commodore) 08:04:04
  8. Matt Todd / Dan Reichenbach (2008 BMW M3) 08:04:06
  9. David Rogers / Aidan Kelly (2009 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X RS) 08:06:07
  10. Grant Aitken / Caroline Cullimore (2013 Toyota 86 RC) 08:07:34

Targa 2015 winners Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 8) in action and celebrating their second event victory in as many years.

Winners of the Metalman Classic 2WD class, and first V8 pair home, were Bevan Claridge and Campbell Tannock (Holden Commodore V8).

Winner of the Instra.com Modern 2WD class and third overall were Martin Dippie and Jona Grant from Dunedin (Porsche 911 GT3).

2015 Targa New Zealand class winners from left Jona Grant and Martin Dippie (Instra.com Allcomers 2WD), Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn (Overall and Andrew Simms Allcomers 4WD), and Bevan Claridge and Campbell Tannock (Metalman Classic 2WD).

The writing on the wall

25 September, 2026

Deven, a digital content producer in his 20s, says it was the rear-drive Nissan and Toyota drift cars that fired his imagination in his not-so-distant youth and soon had him wanting one of his own. However, like most of us, he had to start in something less glamorous – in his case, a 1997 Mitsubishi Galant. After that, he bought a four-litre V8 1991 Toyota Soarer, a big change from the Mitsubishi.
“It was my daily driver, and it wasn’t that bad to run back when petrol was affordable,” he says.
When he got fed up with filling it up, Deven bought a 1989 Ford Laser sedan, a 1.3-litre five-speed manual, to be his daily driver. It’s in very good condition, bought from a careful older driver, and he still runs it – although he will occasionally also drive the latest in a series of Nissan Laurel sedans. His current one, from 1993, has done the lowest number of kilometres yet, at 183,000. It has the single-cam version of the engine in his Skyline.
“I’ve had four different versions of that car. It was just a car I always liked. It’s really comfortable, quite luxurious. I bought it from a 90-year-old in Hamilton. It’s in mint condition, and everything is standard.”

The actual Formula One

18 September, 2026

Seeing, in a shed in Hamilton, New Zealand, the Darracq 120 racer that Louis Wagner, also a pioneer aviator, drove to victory in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup race felt a little like finding a Rembrandt at a garage sale.
For historical significance, I’d say this car ranks with Ray Harroun’s Marmon Wasp, the first Indianapolis 500 winner. Unlike Harroun’s Wasp, which has been lovingly cared for at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum over the years, this historically pivotal machine wound up half a world away from its home in France and, to most of the motoring world, largely forgotten. Sadly, so is the story of how the car got to Aotearoa in the first place.
More often than not, a racing car that is a few years old is regarded as obsolete and relegated to a shed somewhere. As far as racing drivers and team owners at the cutting edge of the sport are concerned, the cars are virtually worthless at that point. They can’t be driven on the street; at best they can be reconfigured for lower levels of the sport, so few people care about them until their historical significance becomes more apparent.