Images thanks to Lotus Cars Australia
A belated ‘Welcome home!’ to the lucky group of Lotus travellers who took part in the 2018 Targa Tasmania, and a huge congratulations to everyone involved in the competition as well as Lotus Cars Australia and Simply Sports Cars for another unforgettable event. Targa Tasmania 2018 was a big one for Lotus, with 12 cars entered, podiums in every category entered and the return of the awesome Lotus Tour.
Paul D’Ambra has put together a great wrap-up on the Simply Sports Cars website, which you can find right here. Or, read on for some highlights and images thanks to Paul D’Ambra and Lotus Cars Australia.
After an excellent third place in 2017, long-time Targa competitors Martin Duursma and Richard Wodhams were able to go two spots better this year and win the Country Club GT Sports Trophy in their Lotus Exige S V6.
Jeff Morton and Steve Fisher were similarly successful, driving their Lotus Exige Sport 350 to a thirteen minute class lead in Rookie GT and claiming lucky 13th overall. Jeff follows up his 2017 Country Club GT Sports Trophy win with co-driver Dennis Neagle.
Playing at the very pointy end of competition, Paul Stokell and Erin Kelly contested the Outright and Wrest Point GT2 classes in their 2014 Lotus Exige V6. They climbed onto the podium in third GT2 just behind a 2016 Porsche 911 GT3 RS and the monster 2016 Dodge Viper ACR Extreme of Jason and John White. The effort put them in an impressive fourth overall, beating out the likes of a Nissan GT-R R35 and 2017 Dodge Viper ACR amongst many others.
Taking a more relaxed approach to proceedings, father and son team Peter and Tristan Taylor drove their 2013 Lotus Elise S to second in the Budget TSD Trophy.
One of the most impressive stats to come out of the event is that after six tough days of competition and 33 stages, all of the cars supported by Simply Sports Cars finished every stage and completed the rally – no mean feat when you consider the rate of attrition of the event and just how tough every stage is.
Class-leading motorsport performance wasn’t all we had to celebrate in Tasmania. We have a huge congratulations to send to Brendan & Sara, who got engaged during the event and Bruce, who celebrated his 50th birthday and very kindly allowed us to join in the party.
Targa Great Barrier Reef is up next, and Simply Sports Cars have prepared an utterly magic tour to go along with it. Hit this link to head to Simply Sports Cars’ website and read all about it.
Images with great thanks to Paul D’Ambra and Lotus Cars Australia
