Sunday was a busy morning for documentation, scrutineering and briefings for drivers, co-drivers and service crew at the Telstra Clear Pacific Events Centre in Manukau City.
In fact it was a busy place as part of the cities Full Throttle Weekend where there were other car gymkhanas on seal and on grass. Car Club displays all over the place as well as the off-road fraternity showing the skills in a particular muddy gully.
The first Dunlop Targa Rally cars left at 1.30pm to run what is known as the Prologue Stage. It’s a shakedown stage for the 20 cars in the Targa Tour and the 87 cars that will be racing against the clock.
Heading the field before the final safety cars was Neil Tolich in his 2009 Aston Martin V8 Vantage. Neil is a regular Targa participant and took over the reins of driving the Targa guests when Chris Amon pulled out last week with a minor health issue.
Neil’s first guest to tour a stage was the Minister of Police and Member for Papakura, the Rt Hon Judith Collins. The Minister is something of a car ‘buff’ and owns a 1979 Porsche 911SC as well as a 1974 MGB.
The Prologue stage was the Ardmore Quarry Road which Neil is familiar with. The Minister opted to read the instructions from the route book for Neil and according to Neil, “Never missed a beat.”
“I loved it – just fabulous” the Minister exclaimed. When interviewed for television she said it was great to see cars racing under such strictly controlled conditions and said she would be back.
Keep up to date with results at: http://targa.tvd.co.nz/targa/public/results.aspx
Photo Caption:
Left to right: Peter Martin, Rt Hon Judith Collins, Neil Tolich, Vicki Martin, Clark Proctor and Robert van Gisbergen (who is driving the Green Ford at the right with his son Shane who raced at Surfers Paradise over the weekend.)
No comments:
Post a Comment