Jason White has won his second Targa High Country title, steering his Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera to victory after two days and 200 kilometres of stages in Victoria’s north east.
The reigning CAMS Australian Targa Champion took maximum points in round two of the series, finishing well clear of Victorian Matt Close (Audi TT RS Plus), and WA’s Matt Searcy in a Nissan GT-R.
The fourth running of Targa High Country started in Mansfield on Friday evening with a street stage around the centre of the township. From there competitors faced 16 closed road tarmac stages over two days, culminating in the podium finish on Mt Buller on Sunday afternoon.
After finishing second in round one of the championship, Jason White was determined to get back on the winner’s list, but it looked in doubt on day one when he trailed Targa Adelaide winner Steve Glenney. However, in treacherous conditions, Glenney crashed his Nissan GT-R on the final stage of the first day, giving White a handy buffer.
On day two’s stages he was able to control his pace and preserve his car enough to become the only multiple winner of the event.
“We’re really happy to get the win here, although we were a little bit nervous when we got to the top of the final stage as there was nothing but smoke coming out the back of the car, but it was just some coolant coming out of the header tank,” White said.
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“We had a handy lead, but I just couldn’t resist the chance to go up Mt Buller flat out on the last stage, so we held nothing back.
“The car’s been good all weekend and we haven’t any dramas with it whatsoever.
“It’s good to be leading the championship at the moment, but all these Targa events are worth winning on their own merit.”
Port Macquarie motorsport identity, Andrew Miedecke, took a hard-fought Classic Outright win in his 1970 Ford Capri Perana, while Subaru driver, Angus Kennard, won the 4WD Showroom competition after holding off a fast finishing Clinton Arentz in a Mitsubishi.
Another nail biting finish saw Angus Kennard secure victory in the 4WD Showroom class in his brand new Subaru WRX. Kennard temporarily lost the lead, but survived an intense final day contest with the Mitsubishi Lancer of Clinton Arentz. Round one winner, Ben Newman, was third in a Subaru.
Tim Hendy (Nissan Skyline GT-R) took a narrow 10 second victory in Early Modern, Adam Spence drove his Renault Megane to a victory of six and a half minutes in Showroom, and Michael Minshall (Audi TT RS) and Craig Dean (Ford Mustang) won the Showroom Sports and Modern Muscle Car classes respectively.
The handicap classes also provided plenty of close racing. Peter Ullrich won the Early Classic section by 40 seconds in his 1963 Jensen CV8, while Matthew Cardinaels took out the Late Classic competition by over one and a half minutes.
Reigning national champions, Philip and David Frith, again teamed perfectly to win the Regularity competition in the Porsche Boxster S.
The third round of the CAMS Australian Targa Championship is the Hobart-based Targa Wrest Point, to be held on the first weekend in February.
VIDEO Highlights of LEG 2 of Targa High Country
