TARGA TASMANIA IS BACK

Australia’s best-known tarmac rally, Targa Tasmania, will recommence in 2025 after a three-year layoff dealing with coronial inquests and issues with Motorsport Australia, with changes to the event aimed at making it more interesting and popular, as well as safer. 

Targa Australia CEO, Mark Perry says a new course for Targa Tasmania will see the event start in Hobart and conclude in Launceston and also now run in November, which should help it to embrace the best of Tasmania’s weather. 

The conclusion of the recent coronial inquest into deaths in the 2021 and 2022 Targa events has allowed the organisers to take a deep dive into the event and its future – Perry says it was impossible to comment on the report or its implications until it was handed down. 

Perry has been adamant all along that the rally would continue, and while it would be his preference to stay with Motorsport Australia, the event will run with or without MA sanctioning, as do many events of its ilk around the world.

He says they will implement in full the recommendations from the Coroner’s report, without impacting the integrity of the event. 

“Slow moving Porsches are more important than fast running Skodas,” he told Auto Action prior to announcing the new date, saying there were ways to control the safety of the event that don’t involve throwing away the cars that make it special.

At the same time, the event will proceed either under MA sanction, or independently. 

Targa CEO Mark Perry.

“We’re not hiding from the fact that we can run independently, and we will if that is what is right for the event,” he said. 

“This event is big enough to run independently and there’s plenty of motorsport events around the world that do, in fact most of the big ones do. If you look at what happens in the US and Isle of Man, most of this sort of competition that goes on around the world happens outside the FIA.”

Perry agreed that being forced to sit back and take a good look has allowed it to re-envision the event, including looking at the course that incorporates Hobart and part of the south of the island. 

“The reality of having time is that you’ve got to make the most of it. There’s no doubt we’ve been through some pretty dark times and there’s been plenty of times where we’ve wondered it is worth the effort. 

“It’s always been a competitive event – we can’t shy away from that – but it will look and feel different while still being exactly what it’s always been, which is an amazing event around Tasmania.

The 2025 event will get underway in Hobart with a Ceremonial Start and various stages across the south to give locals to see the cars in action. 

The event will then head to Devonport for a first-ever overnight stop on Monday 17 November before heading to Launceston on 18 November, where it will remain until the finish and a first-time Official Finish to be held in Launceston on the evening of Friday 21 November, bringing a whole new Targa experience to the northern city.

The new event dates and course layout will remain in place for at least the next five years as part of the varied five-year funding agreement with the State Government – all of which will see one of the world’s iconic motorsport events continue to at least 2029.

For more on Targa’s return, and all the very latest from the motorsport world, including our huge VAILO Adelaide 5000 preview and national/international news and opinion, check out this week’s issue of AUTO ACTION – available free online later this morning (via autoction.com.au) or at newsagents in printed form from Thursday morning.

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