Jason White and his co-driver and uncle John White have taken out the 2017 Targa Tasmania for the sixth time, negotiating the notoriously challenging course in their Dodge Viper ACR Extreme. The pair was some 34 seconds faster than second place finisher Michael Prichard and co-driver Gary Mourant (Dodge Viper ACR). The Viper proved to be an impressive machine on the tight Targa course, with the 8.4litre V10 blasting its way around the luscious Tasmanian countryside to become the first American car to take out the prestigious event. However, as impressive as the top two teams were, naturally our attention moves to the classic cars that once again set the tarmac alight.
When you run your eyes down the Top 10 outright finishes, the usual suspects appear; Vipers, Porsche GT3’s, a Nissan GTR and a BMW M3. However, slotted into 9th outright, something a little more surprising; a 1970 Datsun 240Z driven by John Siddins and co-driven by Gina Siddins. Not only was Siddins’ time good enough for an impressive outright finish, it was enough to win the Shannons GT class by over 9 minutes over a score of incredible classics including Craig Haysman’s 1979 Triumph TR7 V8.
Taking out the Shannons Classics class was Peter Ullrich and co-driver Sari Ullrich in their 1963 Jensen CV8 by an impressive 6 minute and 18 second margin over a tight 2nd place battle between an Italian masterpiece and an Australian icon. Eventually, it was David Gilliver and his 1979 Ferrari 308 GTS that were able to take home the chocolates over Richard Woodward and his 1969 Holden Monaro GTS by only 15 seconds.
A category of some interest to us is the TSD Trophy class, in which competitors aim to achieve a set average speed without breaking 130km/h, thus opening up the class to a wide array of vehicles. Taking out the class for the second year in a row were brothers Darryl and Peter Marshall in their Ford Falcon Ute ahead of Christopher Waldock and Christine Kirby in their 2016 Jaguar F-Type as well as Peter Lucas and Angela Coradine and their stunning 1984 Porsche Carrera.
After another successful running, the Targa Tasmania continues to go from strength to strength, and at Rare Spares we look forward to an even bigger year next year!
If you could race in the Targa, what would be your weapon of choice? Head over to the comments section on the Rare Spares Facebook page and let us know!
