Targa’s 28 years of cars and stars

A field of 272 cars and their crews are applying the finishing touches for the 28th running of Targa starting in Launceston tomorrow.

YOU could be forgiven if, over the past 27 years, you’ve done a double-take about this time of year looking at the cars on Tasmanian roads.

In that time some of the world’s finest, most expensive and rarest cars have touched down in Tassie to compete in the world’s premier tarmac rally — Targa Tasmania.

As a field of 272 cars and their crews apply the finishing touches for the 28th running of the event starting in Launceston tomorrow, Targa Tasmania has attracted thousands of cars, tens of thousands of competitors and crew, Formula One champions, sports stars and even movie stars.

It has injected an estimated $60 million into the Tasmanian economy, with this year’s field worth an estimated $20 million.

The cars and stars over the years have included Australia’s three-time world F1 champion Sir Jack Brabham, who loved Targa, competing in the inaugural event aboard a Honda NSX.

His friend and grand prix rival Denny Hulme, the 1967 world F1 champion, also did Targa only a few months before his death of a heart attack during the Bathurst 1000.

Among the more notable racers over the years are Le Mans champion Bob Wollek, of France, Phil Anderson, the first Australian to wear the yellow jersey in the famous Tour de France cycle race, and actor Eric Bana, star of movies like Black Hawk Down and Troy, in his immaculately restored 1974 Ford XB Coupe, which met an untimely end in the bush on the infamous Cethana stage.

British Formula One hero Stirling Moss described Targa as “the best classic car drive in the world”.

Targa Tasmania 2006 Peter Brock and the Daytona Coupe

Former F1 world champion Sir Jack Brabham promoting the 1999 Targa Tasmania rally Picture: F/L MOTOR RACING

German F1 driver Jochen Mass drove a rare $1 million Spyder from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

Australia’s five-times motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan, Scottish rally legend Alister McRae, Germany’s two-time world rally champion Walter Rohrl, and Britain’s three-time world motorcycle champion Barry Sheene all competed in Targa.

Supercar legend Dick Johnson also had a taste, but for event director one driver beats them all. “You can’t go past Peter Brock being at Targa, because here in Australia he was way bigger than any of them,” Mark Perry said.

“His contribution to Targa was immense because when he was at Targa, the event went to another level.

“There were huge numbers of people out watching it, were engaged by it, following it, because he was the king.”

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Brock drove a Holden ute, several Holden Monaros, and a limited edition Daytona Coupe in Targa, his last one being in 2006.

In 2003, he was running second to eight-time Targa king Jim Richards and his Tasmanian navigator Barry Oliver when his bright red Monaro ran out of fuel at Longford.

Brock jumped out, hurdled a fence and borrowed a can of lawnmower fuel from a local, topped up his Holden and made it to the finish.

“They are all great names but they never had the impact on Targa that Brocky had when he started coming,” Perry said.

“There were lines of people waiting to see him everywhere he went and we will never see it again because unfortunately there will never be another Peter Brock.”

Targa Tasmania’s 28th event consists of 33 stages, starting at Holwell, Kayena and George Town tomorrow and ending with five stages south of Hobart on Saturday.

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