Targa High Country's Classic Cars

 

Excitement building for second round of the CAMS Australia Targa Championship

The hills of Victoria’s north eastern high country will come alive this week as the second round of the CAMS Australia Targa Championship gets under way with more than 160 cars vying for a win in any one of 10 Targa categories.

Now in its fourth year, the Targa High Country will open with a closed-road stage on the streets in the country town of Mansfield on Friday November 8. The field will head for the hills on Saturday, climbing to the event’s headquarters in Mount Buller, then passing through Tolmie, Whitlands and Whitfield before stopping for lunch at Pizzini Wines and then returning to Mount Buller over the same stages, but in the reverse direction.

On Sunday, competitors will follow eight stages to Eildon before retuning once again to Mount Buller for an afternoon Champagne finish.

Although the event will include 10 different Targa categories, a lot of interest will focus on the highly popular Classics class, which is made up of cars built before 1986. The category will represent nearly 60 of the cars making up the entire field and will culminate with the winning class competitor taking the coveted Classic Outright title.

At the top of the Classics class presently is South Australia’s Simon Hoff, who took his 1975 Ford Escort RS2000 to victory in the first round of the series in Adelaide. But he will be followed closely by drivers including South Australian Craig Haysman in his 1981 Triumph TR7 V8 and Roger Paterson in his 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS.

Former touring car star Andrew Miedecke will be in the mix, driving a 1970 Ford Capri Perana, while the Australian V8 touring car flag will be flown Greg Garwood in his Holden Torana A9X, which is replica of the car Peter Brock drove to a Bathurst victory in 1978.

The 10 Targa categories making up the 160-strong field will include the outright-contending Modern section, as well Classics, Showroom cars and Muscle Cars.