This Months Stories

New Deal with Thrifty

Mazda and Targa Join Forces

Hall of Fame

Time out Controls

Chatroom

Healthy Choice Lunch Options

Lunch Stops

New Staff

Overall Outright Postions

Presentation Brunch & Celebration Dinner

Strahan Special Offers

Freight Equalisation

Utes are IN!

Targa Tasmania Collection

Links for Compeitiors

Date Log

We are proud to announce the signing of new partner Thrifty Car Rental for the next two events as a Major Partner.  Thrifty are so excited about Targa Tasmania their Managing Director, Alan Evans is coming down to compete in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo.

Thrifty have great offers for Targa competitors to carry out recce and naturally for the event itself.  Click on the link below to download the form and support those who support you.

Mazda Australia, who are great supporters of Targa Tasmania have joined forces with us to provide the event with the all new Mazda 3 Diesel to carry out our course drives and checking to enable us to provide you with a fantastic course each year.

With the world becoming ever more conscience of energy use, we thought it was a great way to show the Tasmanian community that we are aware of this need and what better way to promote that then using a diesel powered car to complete the thousands of kilometres travelled each year to set up the course.

It has been a fantastic addition to the event with the car being surprisingly capable due to amazing levels of Torque and no one at Targa will be surprised to see Diesel powered cars such as this pushing for Showroom Competition wins in 2008 and the years ahead.

We would like to thank Mazda Australia for their amazing support of Targa Tasmania.

The event enters its 17th year in 2008 and we have been asking ourselves “Where do we go with Targa plate awards after the Platinum Diamond?”

The answer to this is ………nowhere? We have agreed that if you reach this milestone, you really deserve to be remembered forever and no one should ever surpass you.

Targa Tasmania set up a Hall of Fame in 2001, and to date only three people have had this honour bestowed upon them, John Large, Rhonda Matthews and Tom Snooks.

We are excited to announce that competitors will now be automatically admitted to the Hall of Fame on completion of 15 events, when they will also be awarded the John Large Memorial Award.

Further to this will be a ‘Targa Legends’ section within the Hall of Fame for those who win the ultimate Targa plate, the Platinum Diamond.

All Hall of Famer’s will be invited to the event every year as an annual reunion, attending both the Celebration Dinner and their own lunch.

All previous winners of both the John Large Memorial and Diamond Platinum awards will be inducted into the Hall of Fame at this year’s Celebration Dinner.

Hall of Fame

It will finally happen in 2008.  We are removing the time out controls on all stages meaning that you will only need to stop at the stop point at the end of each stage where your finish time will be recorded.

Touring stage times have been altered to utilise the stage finish time as the start time for the touring stage.

The ever increasing capabilities of our purpose-built, Aussie made electronic timing system have enabled us to implement this change for 2008.

It will mean less stopping, less work for navigators and eliminate the risk of `rotor warp’ at the end of long stages.

No doubt all competitors will welcome this innovation

Our chatroom is now fully operational and has been set up to give all competitors, service crews and those just interested in Targa and Tarmac Rallying a place where their views can be heard, cars & parts can be sold, navigators can be found and to stay in touch with the Targa community.

Log on now and become a member and have your say or use this forum to stay in touch

With the ever growing awareness about our health, Targa will be introducing a `Healthy Choice’ option for lunch this year.  The lunch will have a high energy focus to reduce fatigue, dehydration and the risk of cardiac arrest.

For a small additional cost, competitors will have their Healthy Choice lunch given to them at each Lunch Stop Time In Control.

Click here to obtain an order form and click the logo for more information.

With the short lunch breaks always being an area of concern, we have been analysing a number of ways to make the breaks more efficient. (Without running less stages!)

The reason our lunch breaks are often shorter than planned, especially on the long days is that this is the only time our Command Centre get an opportunity to close the field up.  The problems start when you have say, 100 cars pass through a stage and then there is a 15 minute delay due to an off for example.  The only time we can get that 15 minutes back and ensure all cars pass through each afternoon stage before the `road closure window’ finishes is by shortening the lunch break by some or all of this time.

You can imagine the stress if this delay becomes 45 minutes!!

With this in mind, we looked at the most important things you need at Lunch…….. food, drink and a toilet!  Due to the above potential problems, everything else is a bonus.

In 2008 we have carefully selected locations that will mean less time lost parking your car.  Added to this, there will be no scraggy little lunch tickets.  In fact, to get lunch you won’t even have to get out of the car!!!! 

Aside from the Temco Prologue at George Town, where there is plenty of time to sit down and relax, lunches will be made fresh daily and pre-packed.  The lunch distribution point will be at the Time In Control, where you need to stop anyway and lunch will simply be handed through the window to you.

This will remove the need to queue and order and wait etc etc.  Once you have parked, you will have lunch ready to go, there will be a toilet close by and those wanting coffee and additional snacks, there will be a well-stocked Coffee Van on site to sell you a Latte!!

We are hoping that this major change will make the lunch stops a little more relaxing and even give you a chance to sit down and chat to each other.

Like anything new we will see how this system pans out, but change is needed as the current set up has seen many complaints over the years.

If you have any special requirements - ie you are lactos intolerant, vegetarian, have allergies etc. Please email kylie.benson@octagon.com and let her know so that other arrangements can be made.

We are continuing to restructure our staffing in the office to provide better service and a better event.  Functions; an area that has long been handled outside the office has been brought inside with the appointment of Helen Coad as Functions Manager.

Helen has worked for Wrest Point, working on our functions, and brings a wealth of experience and freshness to this important area.  Joining Helen in the Functions area is Louise Calvert who worked on the `07 event as part of her Tourism course.  Louise will assist Helen in delivering our best functions program ever with loads of fresh ideas and streamlining to ensure you have a great time off the course as well as on it.

Our Finance Executive, Liz Burrows has decided to hang up her helmet at the end of the month and pursue other interests.  Liz and her very dry sense of humour will be sadly missed around the office and we wish her all the best.

Our new Finance Executive, Lilli Machielse started with us last week and is quickly getting up to speed in time for her first Targa and we welcome Lilli, Helen and Louise to the team in the Hobart office.

Helen	Lilli	Lou

It has been asked for forever.  Where would have I finished in the overall standings?  I wonder how my 60’s Muscle Car compare’s with today’s turbo’s?  And so it goes on.

Well, we are excited to announce that this year will see the publishing each night of an overall list encompassing all cars in all competitions from 1st to about 250th!!

It is sure to create plenty of discussion and its fair share of bragging.  How fast are the modern cars really going?  Where would the leading Classics really finish? We will soon know the answers.

Whilst no Targa awards will be given out, it will be these results that will determine the awarding of the prizemoney, which is being introduced and awarded for the first time in 2008 to ensure that everyone has an equal chance of winning the cash!!

The Presentation Brunch is the end of event function; ticket included in your entry fee.  This is on Monday 21st April at 10 for 10.30am.  You will still need to advise us of your attendance and who you would like to sit with as this will now be a seated function.  An email will be sent to all entrants shortly requesting this information.

The Celebration Dinner returns to its traditional Monday night slot at 6.30 for 7pm and we would like to remind you that this is now a normal ticketed function for all competitors and tickets are on sale now with discounts offered for tables of 10 and 12 and will be sold on a first in basis until sold out.

In order to assist you with your function selection if you don’t plan on attending both, the following awards will be presented at the Brunch and Dinner:

All targa plate and class plate awards will be available for collection from outside the Tasman Room from 10.30am on Monday 21st

Order Form

The whole West Coast is buzzing with excitement over the pending arrival of Targa Tasmania on 19th April. 

Strahan Village have special offers for those of you doing recce between 15th January and 29th February.  The rates are:

Hilltop Standard room                       $108.00
Hilltop Harbourview King Room         $156.00
Cottage                                            $156.00
Waterfront Executive room               $192.00
All subject to availability

Dinner Cruise
Click on the link below to book an exciting dinner on the water aboard the World Heritage Cruises Eagle, which is available now for booking on the night of the 19th.  Numbers are strictly limited so don’t delay.

Freight Equalisation will finally become a reality this year with the introduction of prize money to the event.

Don’t worry, we are not about to pay thousands of dollars to the winners, there will however be some prize money paid to three randomly selected finishing positions in the overall results to qualify the event for subsidy so many of you can claim your freight costs to come to Tassie to compete.

The winning positions will be announced at the Celebration Dinner.

For those of you who do not understand the Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme, Bass Strait is considered part of Highway 1 and in essence the subsidy is in place to ensure Tasmania has a level playing field and ensure than anyone doing business here is not disadvantaged.

In short, it means that if you live in Melbourne you should be able to go and work in Tasmania for the same price as Adelaide.

Now many of you may not qualify as it is a work related subsidy so please visit www.centrelink.gov.au and go to `A-Z Listing’ and click on `T’ for TFES for further information

All enquiries should be directed to Kylie Benson. kylie.benson@octagon.com

Yes, the great icon of Australian Motoring will be allowed to compete in Modern, Showroom, Rookie Modern or the Tour at Targa from this year forward.  Before some of you ask why, here’s why:

• There are many available cars built to the regs
• They are mechanically the same as the sedan version of the model, which has be eligible for some time
• We receive very few entries for sedan versions of HSV’s or SS’s and FPV’s or XR8’s
• They are extremely popular with the public and sound fantastic
• In this country at least, they form a very big part of the `cavalcade of motoring history’
• There are a number of V8 Utes being retired from circuit racing that can easily be modified to compete in Tarmac Rallying
• The precedent had been set 5 years ago with the entry of a Holden Ute and it shouldn’t really matter who owns it!

It’s not too late to enter one for this years event.  Please pass this great news on to anyone you know with an eligible Ute and all enquiries should be sent to Kylie at kylie.benson@octagon.com.  Simply download the enquiry form using the link below.  Applications close 18th February 5pm.

Enquiry Form

Single Malt Whisky Made in Tasmania!!

Many of you no doubt enjoy a fine whisky and most of you would choose fine Scottish Single Malt Whisky when buying this amazing liquid.

Well, Tasmania is fast establishing itself as the `other’ place in the world where high quality single malt whisky is made.

As Targa Tasmania receives an incredible amount of support from the Tasmanian community each year, we are always looking at opportunities to also support the Tasmanian community and economy.

One way we thought we could do this was to promote niche, high quality products made by small Tasmanian producers that would be of interest to all those involved in the event under the banner of the `Targa Tasmania Collection’.

The first of these products is the Sullivans Cove Single Malt Whisky which is already winning awards in Europe, including Scotland!!!

The Sullivans Cove Whisky story is an amazing one that encompasses many, many years of hard work to arrive at today.

If you are a whisky drinker or are looking for a high end gift for a client, friend or family we suggest you seriously consider this prestige and unique product made in small numbers, which increases is exclusivity.

Please click on the links below for the promotional flyer on the product and an order form

or full schedule please click here

Targa Tasmania is supported by the Tasmanian Government through Events Tasmania. 
Targa Tasmania is presented by Pure Tasmania

For more information visit www.targatasmania.com.au