Photo: Crowd-favourite Mark Parsons and co-driver Sean Jackson (Triumph TR8)Targa time is fast approaching with the fourth annual two-day Targa Bambina tarmac road race event being run in the Franklin, north Waikato and Coromandel regions over the March 17-18 weekend.
Targa Bambina is one of three Targa events now run each year with the three-day Targa Rotorua event set to run between Friday June 8 and Sunday June 10, and the six-day Targa New Zealand between Monday October 22 (Labour Day) and Saturday October 27.
This year's Targa Bambina starts in Drury south of Auckland on Saturday morning and finishes at Onewhero in the northern Waikato on Sunday afternoon with an overnight stop in Whitianga on Saturday night.
There will be 15 special stages covering a total distance of 253.3km with the shortest stage Hikutaia near Paeroa at just 8.38km, and the longest, Rotongaro/Glenmurray in the northern Waikato (which will be run twice towards the end of the second day), at 35.70kms.
This year's Bambina event sees a couple of changes to the way the field is split with the traditional Instra.com Modern and Metalman Classic categories joined by a new one, Allcomers four-wheel-drive.
Changes have also been made to the way the overall Targa event 'series' - the Seria Campione - competition is structured.
'In both cases," says Event Director Peter Martin, "we listened to our customers. In the first instance we recognised that the 4WDs needed a competition category of their own. There was also a feeling that 4WD is very much a 'modern' phenomenon and that though some early models are now eligible in terms of year of manufacture, there really wasn't a place for them in the Classic category.
"From feedback we received from our competitors we also applied through MotorSport New Zealand for official 'sanctioned series' status for our Seria Campione series. There was nothing wrong with the idea, it's been running successfully across the three events for the past four years, it's just that outside the Targa environment it didn't have any official standing. Now it does and from this year on the winners and placegetters in each category - Instra.com Modern 2WD, Metalman Classic 2WD and Allcomers 4WD - will enjoy the same status as the winners and placegetters of all other Motorsport New Zealand-sanctioned circuit and rally championship series."
Targa events are as popular with the public as they are with the teams who regularly compete in them, with entertainment - for both parties - high on the list of priorities.
To that end Martin has teamed up with one of the country's top Drifters, Pukekohe's Cam Vernon, to drift selected stages of the 2012 Bambina event - the main one being SS8 from Coromandel on the west coast of the peninsula to Te Rerenga on the east.
Though today it is a high profile, high-octane closed course sport, Drifting has its roots on roads in Japan just like the one which crosses the Moehau Range, over which SS8 will be run.
In Japan the name for tight, twisty canyon or mountain pass roads is 'Touge,' hence the name Martin and Vernon have given to the innovation, T4T (Targa 4 Touge). To follow Vernon's build-up to the T4T demos go to Targa NZ's facebook page at www.facebook.com/TargaNZ.
In terms of entries so far received, 2011 Targa New Zealand winners Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett (Nissan GT-R25) remain firm favourites for overall and Allcomers 4WD victory - with competition looking set to come from fellow Nissan GT-R35 pairing Clark Proctor and Gary Callaghan, and 2011 Targa Rotorua winner, Subaru Impreza driver Leigh Hopper (yet to name a co-driver for this year's Bambina event).
With the GT-R 35 Nissans of Quinn and Tillett, Proctor and Callaghan and Harry Dodson and Glenn Cupit now contesting the Allcomers 4WD category Instra.com Modern is now harder to pick, though Targa regulars Gary Murphy and Terry Rouse look set to lead the two-wheel-drive charge in their BMW M3 while another event regular Allan Lewis (another who has yet to name a co-driver) is the dark horse thanks to the impressive performance of his late model Chev V8-engine Datsun 240Z.
Metalman Classic is a little easier to predict thanks to the move by Cameron Young and Steven Fisher and their giant-killing Mitsubishi Lancer 4WD to the Allcomers 4WD class.
The Opotiki pair won the Metalman Classic class at the Targa Rotorua event last year, but by moving to Allcomers 4WD they make way for members of the BMW-driving Kirk-Burnnand family to resume their role as class pace-setters.
Mark and Chris finished second to Young and Fisher in Targa Rotorua in June last year but in the Mitsubishi pair's absence it was Mark and his co-driver Dave O'Carroll who won the class at the Targa New Zealand event from Barry and Stephen Kirk-Burnnand.
Both combinations have entered Targa Bambina with competition now expected to come from perennial crowd-pleaser Mark Parsons and his co-driver Sean Jackson in Parson's V8-engined Triumph TR8, and Geoff and James Harriman in their Toyota Levin.
