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Leading up to Targa Hawke’s Bay’s new two day format

11 May, 2017

The Hawke’s Bay leg has proved a popular staging post and end point for Targa New Zealand events over the last several years; so when Event Director Peter Martin was casting around for a second two day event to slot in between Targa Rotorua in March, and Targa New Zealand in October, his first preference was of course the ‘Bay (May 20-21)
 
“For a start there are the roads,” Martin said, “The roads in the ‘Bay are fantastic. You couldn’t ask for better for an event like ours. There’s also a strong and very active motorsport fraternity and some very supportive councils with which we have an excellent working relationship with.”

Things will kick off, and wrap up, in in Havelock North (at the Village Green) and the event incorporates 15 closed special stages covering 378.5 km and a total of 585.2km of touring stages across Hawke’s Bay.

Over 90 entries have been spread over the main competition field (50), concurrent but non-competitive Targa Tour (30), and Hawke’s Bay Car Club Rally of Hawke’s Bay (10).

Sharing joint favourite status after impressing at the Targa Rotorua event in May are Leigh Hopper and co-driver Michael Goudie from Orewa, north of Auckland, and Jason Gill and Mark Robinson from Auckland. Hopper and Goudie led the field on the first day of the Rotorua event in Hopper’s newly-built Subaru WRX Impreza, only to crash out of the event on the first stage on Sunday morning.
 
Gill and Robinson, in the Mitsubishi Evo 9, were never far behind on the first day — the gap overnight was just 36 seconds — and took over a lead they would never lose when Hopper went off the road. With work rebuilding the Subaru still going on, Hopper and Goudie will contest the Hawke’s Bay event in a leased Mitsubishi Evo 10.
 

The Rotorua event also saw the Targa debut of a second new Porsche GT3 RS in the hands of five-time Targa NZ winner Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillett. The pair spent most of that event in a pitched battles for third, then second, place with former Targa NZ winners, Martin Dippie and co-driver Jona Grant from Dunedin, in Dippie’s own Porsche GT3 RS.
 
Circuit-owning entrepreneur Quinn won a stage on Sunday but Dippie and Grant were ultimately quicker over the two days, setting the scene for a return match in the Hawke’s Bay this month.

Quinn and Tillett, and Dippie and Grant, are expected to set the pace in the Global Security Production 2WD class; while the new Global Securities Allcomers 2WD class is set to be a battle between the BMW M3 of Perth-based expat Robert Darrington and co-driver Dave Abetz, the Holden Torana A9X of New Plymouth husband and wife Ross and Carmel Graham, and the giant-killing Toyota Starlet of Auckland brothers Tom and Ben Grooten.

 The Hopper and Goudie and Gill and Robinson pairings are also, obviously, joint favourites to take class honours in the AndrewSimms.co.nz Allcomers 4WD class; while Aucklanders Joe Kouwenhoven and Carl Hannaford have the car — in the Nissan GT-R (R35) — to make the new AndrewSimms.co.nz Production 4WD class their own.
 
The Metalman Classic 2WD class remains a cornerstone of any Targa event, with Mark and father Chris Kirk-Burnnand from Wellington in a BMW M3; Bevan Claridge and Campbell Tannock from the Horowhenua in a Holden Commodore V8; and Nelson duos, Bruce Farley and Glen Warner in a BMW 325i, and Peter Jones and Mike Lea in a Ford Escort; all pairings to look out for.

Motorman: Blame it on Rio!

22 May, 2025

Following the third polite advisory, I figured there had to be a fair degree of substance to the warning. “If this is your first visit to Rio de Janeiro, please be careful,” came the personal hushed dialogue from the pleasant hostesses on a far from crowded Varig flight from Los Angeles to the famous Brazilian seaside city.
The previous evening I had flown into LA from Auckland en route to the 1985 international launch of the Fiat Uno Turbo. I was prepared for another long haul of just under 12 hours across Mexico, central America, Colombia, and central Brazil to that nation’s third largest city. Surprisingly the 10,500km run from Los Angeles to Rio is actually longer than the 8800km LA-London air route.
With the journey including a brief stopover in Honolulu I expected to travel just under 44,000km for the return journey to sample what was to be a low-volume version of a popular Italian car that would sell in even lower numbers in New Zealand. I like to think this shows nothing more than my deep commitment to my craft. In fact, even though I became lost on the homeward journey my total air miles would be little different.

Pinnacle Porsche

15 May, 2025

We were stopped at the side of the road, setting up the next photograph, when a faded Toyota slowed alongside and stopped. The window was already down to give the driver a good look.
“That’s my dream car,” he said, speaking for more than a few of us.
He drank in the gleaming red paint, shining in the sun, and the car’s purposeful swoops and curves. He exhaled half a lungful of cigarette smoke, gave a hang 10–style thumbs up and drove off.
On the side of the road, against a clear blue background, the Porsche stood out in all its stark red glory. It’s the classic 911 shape on steroids. It has the fat, even pouty, front lip of the G series 911s, added to comply with 5mph bumper restrictions in the US. It also has the oversized haunches to accommodate the wider rear wheels and tyres – a first for Porsche, which also confirmed its supercar credentials – and, most noticeably of all, that enormous whale-tail spoiler. They made it look as if Porsche had abandoned its restraint.