Lotus Club Queensland
Dedicated to the promotion and enhancement of the Lotus experience
Login
Register
  • Home
  • About Us
  • Membership
    • Member Login
  • Events
    • Calendar
  • Motorsport
    • Lakeside DTC Timed Laps
    • LAKESIDE DTC RESULTS
  • Magazine
  • For Sale
    • Merchandise
    • Classifieds
  • Posts
  • Galleries
  • Directory
    • Suppliers & Parts
    • Advertisers
  • Archives
Sweeney-targa

Targa Tasmania 2016

Targa Tasmania this year was the largest tarmac rally ever held with over 350 cars taking part in what was the 25th anniversary running of the event. This is a mega meeting of car enthusiasts.

By John Barram. Photos by Andrew Graham.

There were five Lotus entered in Targa this year and I was lucky to be part of it. My mate Graham Vaughan (now resident in Tasmania) had completed seven Targas to date and asked me to co-drive with him this year in his S4 Lotus Elan.

Arriving in Launceston for the start, it was like a baby boomer’s convention as some rude person said, with lots of car people obviously out for a good time with their cars. Not everyone had grey hair!! There were all sorts and shapes of cars. Ferraris, Lamborghinis, acres of Porsches old and new, Aston Martin DB4, as well as Alfas, Toranas and Datsuns, an Austin A30, and lots of modern cars such as BMW, Subarus and Mitsubishi EVOs.

Patrick Mewing from Queensland was having another run, with navigator Gezim Bashi, in his well modified Elan. Modern Lotus were represented by the 2013 Exige of Martin Duursma and Richard Woodhams from Sydney with backing from Simply Sports Cars. Brian and Kerryn Coates from Tasmania were driving their blue, 2003 Elise 111S and from Victoria was the red 2004 Elise owned and navigated by Victor Sweeney being driven by his son Mathew who had come from the USA for the event.

Car 313 on the bend While Patrick was bravely taking on a strong field in the Classic class section, the rest of us ended up in the GT Sports Trophy class where you did not require a full roll cage and were limited to 130kph while competing. So we had four Lotus in 26 cars in our class. And to add to the interest Grahame has some good mates from the Brisbane Citroen scene, Alec Lowe and Lance Collins, who were running their incredible 1955 Citroen Light 15 also in our class.

It was important that we beat the Citroen!

After day one the Exige was running third in GT Sports and we were dead last. Patrick was also in third place in Classic, behind a Jensen CV8 and Aston Martin DB4.

Day two saw the Exige pushed back to fourth, we rose to only fifth last with the two Elises about mid field. Then half- way through the day Patrick had a failure in his drive shaft. So it was back to Launceston and some great help from local Lotus and small Ford people who got the tail shaft rebuilt and Patrick ready to go by next morning.

Day three saw the Exige regain third spot, we crept up to only ninth last, and over in Classic class, Patrick began the task of climbing back up the field. Then the Coates’ 111S Elise had a failure with its through-out bearing so they could not use the clutch. Rather than miss a days competition sorting the problem Brian decided to continue the drive making clutch-less starts and gear-changes. And he continued that way till the end. What a hero!

The GT Sports class was in two sections, pre 1985 cars and later cars. So in the Elan our real competition was a TR4a, Triumph Stag, 427c.i. Ford Thunderbolt Coup, Datsun 280Z, Renault Alpine A 110 S, Alpha Spider, MGB roadster, Citroen Light 15, Lancia Beta Coupe S4, and a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. What a collection! By this time we were third of these cars.

Day four saw the Exige retain third but there was less than two seconds between second and fourth. They had a good tussle on their hands. We retained third in our section and the two Elises were locked together at 13th and 14th. Patrick was flying now and cleaned two stages but the delay had left him well down the field. On day five Patrick cleaned another stage, the Exige retained third under tight competition, and we sneaked up to second of the older cars when the Lancia DNF’d. The Coates’ soldiered on without clutch in 12th.

To this point we had enjoyed a dry Targa, a bit unusual. Day six saw wet and slippery added to what had so far been only narrow, twisty and bumpy roads lined by trees and cliffs and drop-offs! But by now the focus was on finishing the last day. Patrick had a close call with lightish contact with an Armco fence on his front guard. We tip-toed through the wet and made it to the finish still second behind the Porsche in the older cars. The Exige maintained third to the finish.

I particularly enjoyed being part of the Lotus presence at such a large and mixed event. There were a few other Lotus owners known to us competing in “other” cars with whom we kept in touch. But also an amazing number of Lotus owners and old acquaintances popped up during the event. It is that sort of an event. If you have a chance, do it!

Car 151 on track
Car 151
Car 176
Car 194
Car 313 on the bend
Car 313 on track
Car 313
Graham & John
Martin Duursma and Richard Wodhams
Mathew and Victor Sweeney
Patrick

[Show slideshow]
2016 Track & Driver Training Day David Hack Classic – May 2016

Related Posts

mp-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Morgan Park Sprints R4

duratec-banner

Articles, Homepage, Technical

Duratec Elise – better late than never

gold-rush-banner

Events, Gallery 2022, Homepage, Racing

Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022

Random images

Elan-crew robyn-at-kenilworth Mick, Daryl and Rob Peter with Dana dtc-competitors-ready-to-challenge dtc-cats-at-the-ready Car 313 Zaid _MG_4783 as Smart Object-1 Cootha-Map Liam and Ken - Oil Everywhere Event-organisers-Paul,-Garry-&-Chris 12-Rear-end-rear-wheel Penny_farthing_man_at_Beechworth_Festival Chris_and_Greg_Bray IMG_0021 122_2234_IMG 003 118_1813_IMG IMG_8796 Group-3.2-0 Pat-Richards Josh-George-in-Lotus-Seven Photo-28-11-20-8-29-28-pm Mt-Cotton-1975 Shane-Murphy Pauls-hot-lap From-Targa-to-short-course-daryl Lotus-crews-enjoying-the-scenery-by-Fergal-Murphy IMG_0476-5 IMG_0324 Clive, Darryl, Joe 20180415_135132 20180415_135036 Mick Sorrell 2016 Ford Focus New Wheels and Rubber Martin and Syd Having a serious chat, Shane & Giles Forming queue for dinner Jason-and-Joe P1050432 P1020820 Cane_field_run_3 IMG_8041 IMG_8009 image_203 image_045 main-6 main-0 IMG_7661 At-The-Exclusive-Auto-Centre-3 main-10 main-8a IMG_4882 2006_08_27_Gympie_Skid_Pan0062 F1000024 Settin_off_in_seach_of_adventures IMG_0308 Wade_s_M100 IMG_8889 119_1947_IMG 119_1968_IMG 23_Clive_attempting_to_get_Garry_started IMG_7756 image_171 IMG_7925a IMG_6871 IMG_8414 IMG_1366 IMG_8435 IMG_3901 IMG_6504 Club_Lotus_Dec_08_029 P1060262 003_3 002_2 first-alight Lotus-Elan2H Club-Elise IMG_4549 tonys-eleven-2 Enjoying-morning-coffee-gw John and Debbie's Evora 2 _MG_1766_gw Getting-ready-for-the-home-run Patron_Vs_Pastry_2 20200815_143825 1-Trevor-Doyle Volvo-P1800 shooting brake MG_3929 Lotus-visiting-the-brewery_GW IMG_8209 main-9 GT-Cortina-Mk2 in dock IMAG5981 IMG_9103 _MG_9695 as Smart Object-1 Transport-Museum-Jag-1951 main-48 Railway-Museum-Flat-Wagon

Recent Articles

  • Morgan Park Sprints R4
  • Kev’s Big Day Out
  • Duratec Elise – better late than never
  • Gold Rush Hill Sprint – 2022
  • Marburg Pub Run – 4 Sept 2022
  • Unique +2 Road Trip to Brisbane
  • Leyburn 2022
  • August 2022 DTC

Latest Gallery Images

20220220_093834 20220220_093818 20220220_093827 20220220_093743 20220220_093812 20220220_093730

Search articles by category

Archived articles

Lotus Club Queensland
© Lotus Club Queensland   |   Site by Black Eye Studios