2011 Targa Wrest Point Day 2

Tasmanians Dominate Targa Wrest Point

Armed with the same Perana which he used to dominate the Porsches in Targa High Country, Andrew Miedecke started Targa Wrest Point with four crushing stage performances, pulling out up to 30 secs a stage on the Porsche RSR of Peter Eames. Then, on the second run down the twisting forest road to the Tahune Airwalk, the Perana cried enough. What broke?  The Miedecke camp are keeping quiet about the details, but car 434 was parked and going nowhere.
 
The Classic field is somewhat depleted with only 40 starters, compared to 64 last year and 89 in Targa High Country and the HTCAV pre-73 field is only 14 starters; before the Miedecke Perana DNF, there were five DNS all from Ford V8's including the Catlin's Mustang when Gayle was hit by illness and stand in Jamie Vandenberg had to cry off to navigate a works Mazda. Gayle will be right for Big Targa, she promises. The lower entry is likely partly due to the recent new Victorian Targa High Country and the early (pre-Easter) dates for the monster 20th anniversary running of Targa Tasmania starting in only 9 weeks. 
 
With Len and Gayle not running and Andy Miedecke out on the first day, the  Devonport based Kent family seized their chances and put in a bunch a very consistent times on some tricky, bumpy and hairy little roads to win the third running of the two day Targa Wrest Point, which finished today in Hobart with four Tasmanian crews leading the HTCAV Championship – and out of the 14 pre-73 starters, no less than 9 were Tasmanians. 
 
Scott and son Wayne Kent in the 65 Mustang kept narrowly ahead of brother Drew Kent in the 71 Falcon GT navigated by Paul Krawczyk, followed a bit further back by Group N racer Mick Cross in his racing Torana complete with drum brakes and 13" wheels, navigated by Leigh Chaplin.  The Cross / Chaplin Holden was all that separated Drew's Ford from the two more following GT's – the Large / Dredge car in 4th and Edwards / Wright in 5th.
 
After a smooth run at last, our own Chris Ralph and  his neighbour John Winterburn brought the  innocuous looking little silver BMW 2002 into 6th, only 10 secs behind the V8 Falcons. Chris and John are very happy with a result at last and are talking already about going quicker – this is a good sign and no doubt we'll all be able to read Ralphy's story elsewhere.
 
But the heartbreak of the event was the collapsed fuel line which stopped Peter and wife Roslyn Killick on the very last stage when they were an amazing 15th overall and 5th in our Championship, as well as second in the Early Classic handicap in the 1965 Ford Cortina. Peter paid tribute to Roslyn prowess with the notes in only their third event in the car and was understandably devastated that the brand new lines he had fitted last week failed. But of course, as we all know, that's motor sport.
 
Taking out the Early Classic handicap was oil executive and UAE resident Andy Bryson – this not inconsiderable Scotsman has been competing in the little Ecurie Ecosse blue Imp for close to 30 years and in the now defunct Classic Adelaide was known for matching the V8's on the very fast Gorge Road. Andy and studious speed junkie Jason Rowley came 8th pre-73 cars, pipped on the last few stages by Wayne Pfingst and John Loth in the scary yellow 'XU4' – a four door XU1 replica with 5 speeds, so running as MS.
 
Next round of the Championship is  'Big Targa ' – running early in the first week of April this year.  Based on last year's results, there is no reason to expect that the Kents + their Ford V8s won't hang on to their championship lead
 
Provisional results below:

Leg 2 Provisional

O/R	Pos	No.	Class	Driver		Co-Driver	Car	Car	Time
1	5	351	3MSF	Scott	Kent	Wayne	Kent	1965 Ford Mustang	18.47
2	8	405	4LMSH	Drew	Kent	Paul	Krawczyk	1971 Ford Falcon GT	19.02
3	10	429	4LMSE	Mick	Cross	Leigh	Chaplin	1971 Holden Torana XUI	21.29
4	12	501	5MSH	Ray	Large	David	Dredge	1972 Ford Falcon GT	23.16
5	18	420	4MSG	Bob	Edwards	Craig	Wright	1971 Ford Falcon GT	28.09
6	20	484	4LMSB	Chris	Ralph	John	Winterburn	1971 BMW 2002	28.19
7	22	408	4MSE	Wayne	Pfingst	John	Loth	1971 Holden Torana	31.35
8	24	301	3LMSA	Andrew	Bryson	Jason	Rowley	1964 Hillman Imp Rallye	32.08
9	28	472	4LMSD	Peter	Manning	Phil	Richardson	1971 Ford Capri GT	33.35
10	31	316	3MSA	David	White	Deena	White	1963 Austin Mini Cooper	39.26
11	32	389	3LMSC	Russell	Clark	Melanie	Clark	1965 Ford Cortina	40.17
12	33	210	2LMSA	Jack	Waldron	Vin	Gregory	1955 Fiat Abarth 750	42.17
13	DNF	388	3LMSC	Peter	Killick	Roslyn	Killick	1965 Ford Cortina
14	DNF	434	4MSH	Andrew	Miedecke	Daniel	Wilson	1970 Ford Perana