The Dunlop Targa tarmac rally is a tough event on cars, drivers, co-drivers and support teams. This year the 130+ cars competed over 760km of closed 'special stages' (plus another 1260km of non-racing 'touring stages') spread over the top half of New Zealand's North Island. A wide variety of sports and GT cars are catered for within the 9 different classes, and the field included classic marques like Abarth, Austin Healey, Lotus, and Alpine; exotics such as Ferrari, Porsche, De Tomaso, and Maserati; plus modern racing machinery from all over the globe. The driver line-up also had an international flavour with Teams from Great Britian, Japan, Canada, USA, and Australia competing. This year our SPR Race Team was competing in category 5 of the 'Cornerstone Modern Competition'.

2007 was our Team's sixth assault on the Dunlop Targa, and the third time running our Toyota V8 powered Almac Sabre S2. The Sabre had a major 'freshen up' prior to this year's event (click here to see the upgrades), and performed brilliantly over the 6 days.

We were also fortunate to pick up a great new sponsor for 2007 - Hubbell Premise Wiring - a big thanks to Simon Jaffe and his Team at J. A. Russell Ltd.

Summary of the event...

• Day 0 - Monday 22nd Oct - 2 Prologue Stages of approx 8km each:
  First real test of the numerous changes made to the car over the previous 4 months, and the Sabre S2 performed well, with two clean runs through the reversed prologue stages.
• Day 1 - Tuesday 23rd Oct - 9 Special Stages totaling 162km (with 352km of touring) passing through Northern Waikato, Otorohanga, Kawhia, Mokau, and Tarata areas:
  Wet slippery roads, but the Sabre was flying (literally)! The extra power from the rebuilt Toyota V8 meant higher speeds, while the new brakes were scrubbing off the speed far more effectively. However the Jaguar suspension (which hadn't been upgraded since our last Targa) was feeling the strain of all the extra performance! The result was two broken trailing links on the rear suspension. We still completed all 9 race stages, but the broken suspension arms had to be repaired in New Plymouth (thanks to Dean Rice at Simpsons Tyre Service Ltd for the 2.30am session at his workshop).
  
• Day 2 - Wednesday 24th Oct - 4 Special Stages totaling 117km (with 129km of touring) passing through Egmont Village, Inglewood, and Whangamomona areas:
  Two very undulating stages around Inglewood (which the Sabre suspension dislikes!), but followed by two fantastic 39km stages through to Whangamomona and back ... this included the best lunch stop of the event!
• Day 3 - Thursday 25th Oct - 9 Special Stages totaling 158km (with 311km of touring) passing through Inglewood, Stratford, Waitotara, Wanganui, Taihape, Kimbolton, and Feilding:
  Great day ... great roads! Highlight was finishing 18th on Special Stage 22 (Manfeild Racing Circuit). Unfortunately we had to replace a gearbox seal in Fielding (thanks go to Chris Worboys at McVerry Crawford Mitsubishi).
• Day 4 - Friday 26th Oct - 9 Special Stages totaling 144km (with 218km of touring) passing through Woodville, Pahiatua, Dannevirke, Wimbledon, Waipukurau, and Waipawa areas:
  Another great day. The roads were getting smoother (after the undulating roads in Taranaki), and the Sabre was going faster!
• Day 5 - Saturday 27th Oct - 8 Special Stages totaling 168km (with 251km of touring) covering Te Mata, Waipukurau, Dannevirke, and Hastings areas:
  Best day of the rally. The smoother roads were suiting the Sabre, and we were regularly passing one or two cars on each of the special stages.
  
  Final Result : Officially finished 37th overall and 5th in class ... although this result looks rather suspicious as many cars that didn't complete all race stages, and some that didn't even finish the rally, were placed higher in the final results!
  

Images courtesy of Ground Sky Photography. Check out their work at www.groundsky.co.nz. Click on each thumbnail below to view a larger image.