Targa Mechanical Failure Frustrations

Targa Tasmania 2016 was an important milestone for the team.  It was Adam’s 10th Targa in a row and the 25th for the event as a whole.  It was also Ross Hynd’s first with the team.  The team spent many hours prior to the event testing and preparing the car for the event.

The first day of the event started extremely well with Adam and Ross tied in the lead of the GT4 category after missing a win in the street stage by 2 tenths of a second!

Days 2 and 3 saw the pairing finding their feet but always running in the top 5 or 6 cars consistently which landed them in 5th place.  Then on day 4 with some tuning changed done to the car the team start challenging for stage wins with a couple of 2nd’s and clawing towards 4th place with still around 50% of racing distance still in front of them.

Unfortunately, a podium finish was not going to happen at this event with the team halfway through a stage the gearbox failed and went into limp mode which meant the car was still mobile but not competitive in stages. With a lack of spares available in Tasmania for this specialized vehicle, it also meant a premature end to the event for the team.

A devastating result for the team that had so much bad luck previously and who were so well positioned at this event.

That being said there are many positive outcomes from this event that the team will bring into their next rally.

Finally, a big thank you to Ross Hynd who traveled from Scotland and swapped his normal seat in a WRC Hyundai in the Scottish Rally Championship to the teams GTR in Tasmania and proved more than capable of the switch.