Targett is this year competing in Carrera Cup Australia following victory in the second-tier Porsche Sprint Challenge last season.
The Queenslander has been part of the Grove stable since 2022 and receives partial funding from the Supercars squad for his Porsche campaign.
Targett’s test laps, however, came via relationships with Cam McLeod and Bradley Neill, who allowed him to drive their respective cars during a ride day on Monday.
“It really just happened because I’m quite good friends with Camy and his whole family. His dad Ryan rang up and said, ‘do you want to have a go?’” Targett explained to Speedcafe.
“I thought at first it was just going to be Camy’s car and just a few laps. With the rules you’re allowed to do three warm-up laps before passenger rides.
“Then Bradley Neill, who I’ve also gotten to know quite well around the race tracks, said, ‘if I get bored you can jump in mine as well’. It was all very cruisey and not really planned.”
With Carrera Cup having competed at the weekend’s Ipswich Super440, the Super2 laps gave Targett a fairly direct comparison between the distinctly different machinery.
“For me it’s just another race car,” Targett said of the Supercar.
“It’s obviously very cool because it’s got the big gear lever in it and you heel-and-toe and it sounds cool, but it had more traction than I’d thought, especially for the tyre that we were on.
“Everyone had told me it’s hard to get out of the corner because you have no drive with such a small rear tyre, but it felt quite good. Obviously not as good as a Cup car with a Michelin that’s about a metre wide, but it was still quite good.
“Other than that, the body roll was really the biggest thing for me, how much the car would pitch around the suspension was just so much more than anything I’ve driven.
“I’m used to the Cup car being so stiff, it basically sits flat the whole time, where the Supercar really rolls over both laterally and in the braking.”
Whether Targett makes the leap from Carrera Cup to Super2 will undoubtedly be influenced by Grove’s plans for the youngster.
While it would be logical for the squad to slot Targett into Super2 alongside a Supercars co-drive at some stage, the youngster said there’s currently no plans in place beyond the current season.
“It’s definitely an option,” he said of Super2, “but if it’s next year or a few years down the line, I’m not really sure yet.
“The international GT scene really interests me, but from a financial point of view it’s quite difficult.
“Whilst Super2 is also very expensive, for me here in Australia it’s a lot easier to get sponsors and backing, because everyone I know is here.
“Trying to go to America or Europe doing a Carrera Cup series again would be quite difficult, so I’m sure at some point [Super2 will be] in my career path, but when, I’m not really sure.”
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