Dunlop Wins Targa Tas Again

Congratulations to Jamie Vandenberg who, with co-driver Dennis Sims, nursed their Nissan GT-R home to victory; a chronically sick engine constantly threatening to end their run to the finish line and their dream of winning the event.

For most of the final day Matt Close was second in his Audi TT RS and ready to pounce should Vandenberg’s engine fail. But the Victorian crashed out on Ellendale, the event’s penultimate stage, allowing the Nissan GT-R to limp to the finish line with a plume of smoke following his failing car.

Targa veteran and past winner, Tony Quinn, finished modern in second place, four minutes 44 seconds behind.

All three of these leading drivers were on DUNLOP rubber, the popular choice for this event.

But there were other sorry tales as well; Richards and co-driver Barry Oliver crashed out on day 4 after they had dominated the first three days of the new Showroom Sports category. “We came around the corner a bit wide and just grazed the fence. It’s holed the radiator and leaked the water out. We just turned the car off and parked it,” the eight-time Targa Tasmania winner said.“We came around the corner a bit wide and just grazed the fence. It’s holed the radiator and leaked the water out. We just turned the car off and parked it,” the eight-time Targa Tasmania winner said. It’s just the second time in 22 years the Targa’s pair has crashed out. Jim and Barry were using the new DUNLOP Sport Maxx Race tyre on their new Porsche.

Leigh Achterberg and co-driver Greg Fitzgerald were almost eight minutes ahead in the Late Classic category and looking for a smooth ride to Hobart in their Porsche 944, when they hit trouble about a kilometre from the end of TS29 Riana.“The corner was slippery; others had gone off. We didn’t go into it that fast but the road surface must have been different and we had no grip,” Achterberg said.

In total, DUNLOP tyres were used by 5 different class winners including Modern, Early Classic, late Classic, 4WD Showroom and Showroom Sports.