AN OVERVIEW 1992 to 2003 TARGA TASMANIA by Tom Snooks Operations Consultant 1993 Clerk of Course 1994-2003
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Cartoons by AN OVERVIEW 1992 to 2003 TARGA TASMANIA By Tom Snooks Operations Consultant 1993 Clerk of Course 1994-2003 Acknowledgement of the major references I used to research the information from which I have taken direct quotes, and photographs, are: • Targa Tasmania – ‘The Ultimate Tarmac Rally – 1992 to 2001 The First 10 Years’ produced by Octagon Motorsports edited by Michael Browning; • ‘The Legend’ published by Media Productions Pty Ltd, covering the 1992 to 1995 events. • ‘Targa Tasmania 1992-1993’, Clipper Press, Hobart; • Targa Tasmania Official Programs, 1992 to 2003; • Internal event documents from 1993 to 2003 that I have in my possession. I take full responsibility for the information listed and I apologise for any errors made by me and will be most pleased to hear from anyone seeking to correct any issue – [email protected] 1 Jump to List of Contents THE PASSION OF TARGA FLORIO, SICILY – THE INSPIRATION FOR TARGA TASMANIA NAME Italia 35/40HP in action in Targa Florio in 1907 Driven by Alessandro Umberto Cagno (below) who won the event in this car in the inaugural 1906 event 2 Jump to List of Contents JOHN LARGE AOM The Persona behind Targa Tasmania THE MISSION STATEMENT To conduct a unique, competitive international motor rally as Tasmania’s ultimate tourist attraction. THE PRINCIPLES: 1. To organise and conduct a unique, world standard and collectors of sporting automobiles. seriously challenging international motorsport competition on 5. To increase national and international awareness of bitumen roads in the Australia state of Tasmania. Tasmania and in particular, to enhance Tasmania’s status as a 2. To bring together an exclusive field of Sports Cars, Grand quality tourist destination. Touring Cars and other cars of distinction, representing the 6. To ensure the continuing enthusiasm and support for the evolution of the sporting automotive from 1900 to the event from the Tasmanian community. present. 7. To generate sufficient revenue to meet the expenditure 3. To use the competition as a focal point for a festival of needed to stage the event in accordance with these functions, entertainment and associated activities to create principles, and sufficient accumulated surplus to secure its an overall event attractive to all audiences. long-term viability. 4. To develop the events into a high prestige occasion 8. To ensure that all involved in staging the event derive recognised throughout the world of automobile competition. optimum satisfaction and enjoyment from their involvement. as an essential annual activity for owners and serious 3 Jump to List of Contents TO ENHANCE TASMANIA’S STATUS AS A QUALITY TOURIST DESTINATION BY CONDUCTING ANNUALLY A UNIQUE COMPETITIVE INTERNATIONAL MOTOR RALLY WHICH COMPRISES A PASSING PARADE OF ROAD-GOING VEHICLES OF DISTINCTION REPRESENTING THE EVOLUTION OF THE SPORTING AUTOMOBILE FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT DAY. TARGA TASMANIA CO-FOUNDERS John Large OAM Max Stahl Ronda Matthews 4 Jump to List of Contents Michael Browning - editor of ‘Targa Tasmania - The Ultimate Tarmac Rally 1992-2001’ which provided so much material for this Overview. (Bob Watson on left) 5 Jump to List of Contents LIST OF CONTENTS 1: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN LARGE AND TOM SNOOKS 2: BEGINNINGS OF TARGA TASMANIA 3: TARGA TASMANIA - MORE THAN A MOTORING COMPETITION 4: COMPETITOR PUBLICITY - ‘TARGA NEWS’ - ‘TARGA TIMES’ - ‘EVENT PROGRAM’ 5: TARGA TASMANIA SPECIAL NUMBER PLATES 6: TARGA TASMANIA WINNERS 1992 - 2003 7: COMPETITORS 1992 - 2003 8: WOMEN COMPETITORS IN TARGA TASMANIA 9: THE COMPETITION 10: THE FLAG CAR - PART OF THE TARGA TASMANIA TRADITION 11: HOW TARGA TASMANIA FUNCTIONED 12: THE HANDICAP SYSTEM FOR HISTORIC AND CLASSIC COMPETITIONS 13: TROPHIES AND AWARDS 14: INSPECTION OF TARGA TASMANIA BY FIA OBSERVER IN 2001 15: COMPETITION MANAGEMENT DIVISION 16: ROLE OF THE CLERK OF THE COURSE OF TARGA TASMANIA 17: SAFETY FOR TARGA TASMANIA 18: TARGA TASMANIA SENIOR VOLUNTEER OFFICIALS 19: TARGA TASMANIA VOLUNTEER OFFICIALS 20: VEHICLE TECHNICAL ISSUES OF TARGA TASMANIA 21: CET / TTT - COMMUNICATIONS AND EQUIPMENT TRANSPORT 22: RESULTS 23: HOSPITALITY VILLAS AND VEHICLE EXPOS 24: TARGA TASMANIA PRESENTATION 25: WORDS FROM MURRAY WALKER - COMPETITOR IN 2003 26: KLAUS BICHOF 27: TARGA TASMANIA WON TOURISM AWARDS 28: FINALE BY TOM SNOOKS 6 Jump to List of Contents John Large and Ronda Matthews were inducted into the Targa Tasmania Hall of Fame in 2001. They were the inaugural inductees 1. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN JOHN LARGE AND TOM SNOOKS A Chemist, John Large was born (1938) in the Tasmanian northwest town of Burnie and grew up in Launceston. He moved to Perth in the early sixties and set up a pharmacy in Hamilton Hill, a suburb out from Fremantle. A Production Planner and Controller, Tom Snooks was born (1940) in Western Australia (Perth). In the mid-sixties Snooks had three very young children and this meant fairly regular trips to a pharmacy – the Hamilton Hill Pharmacy as it turned out. Large then owned a red Alfa Romeo Spyder which he parked in front to the pharmacy so he could keep an eye on it and shoo away kids when they “put their sticky fingers over it”! Large and Snooks (then a member of the West Australian Car Club – WACC - and involved in rallying, known as trialing in those days) got chatting and it wasn’t long before Large also joined the WACC. Over the next five years they spent much time coming across each other – socially and in events and of course Large showed great talent as a navigator, which subsequently netted him six West Australian Rally Championships, and the 1975 Australian Rally Championship. In mid-1970 Snooks organised the Perth start of the Captain Cook Bi-Centennial Trial. This event involved starts in each capital city on the mainland and a drive to Port Augusta, followed by a further drive (including a Prologue) to Alice Springs from where the Trial started in earnest. It then traveled through the three Eastern States and finished in Sydney at the end of June. Large competed in the event with Bob Bullock and Laurie Guglalti in a Volvo 142S and finished 85th out of 112 finishers. Snooks flew from Perth to Sydney for the end of the Trial and thereafter stayed on in Sydney and joined the Australian Sporting Car Club (ASCC) and became involved in the Dulux and Southern Cross International Rallies, as well as being Secretary of the ASCC. But that is another story! 7 Jump to List of Contents Large, in 1972, became the West Australian Confederation of Australian Motor Sport (CAMS) National Councillor and thereafter travelled to the Eastern States numerous times each year during the seventies. This was coupled with competing in the Australian Rally Championship and Southern Cross International Rallies and he met with Snooks on many occasions. John Large in a West Australian Car Club (WACC) motorkhana in 1967 driving his red Alfa Romeo Spyder when he first became involved in the sport. – just another average competitor before his climb up the ladder to motor sport fame. In late 1972 Large married in Melbourne and Snooks was his Best Man. Fast forward to the early eighties. Snooks joined CAMS Head Office in Melbourne in 1982 as a National Administrator and stayed for a number of years. Large was elected President of CAMS in 1983 and this was the start of the longest period for this position for a CAMS President, retiring in 1994. A man of many ideas, Large headed the production of the ‘CAMS Five-Year Program for the Development of Motor Sport in Australia 1983-1988’, with the first edition appearing in April 1983. It was, as one would expect from Large, a formidable document of 20 proposed strategies and plans to attain the Program’s objectives ………… but the progress of the Program is another story. The Program included a plan to develop special events in appropriate parts of Australia, and two such events that evolved from the Program were the Wynn’s (later Australian) Safari, with Snooks leaving CAMS in mid-1984 to organise that event with adventurer Hans Tholstrup, and Targa Tasmania. At this time the Australian Grand Prix incorporated the FIA Formula One World Championship in Adelaide, and the World Rally Championship was being mooted to be conducted in Perth from 1988. 2. BEGINNINGS OF TARGA TASMANIA Initially the Targa Tasmania tagline was ‘The Ultimate Tourist Trophy’. After a few years John Large was convinced by his Team to rename the tagline ‘Ultimate Tarmac Rally’. Text in italics are quotes from ‘Targa Tasmania The Ultimate Tarmac Rally 1992-2001 The First Ten Years’: In 1988 South Australian enthusiast John Blanden created the Grand Prix Rally, which gave owners of sporting cars a unique opportunity to exercise them in a tarmac event comprising a mixture of closed road venue driving events and public road navigation. It ran from Melbourne to Adelaide, where it took in the Australian World Grand Prix event. Max Stahl saw a further development of the Grand Prix Rally into a sort of tarmac rally over closed public roads and considered that Tasmania could be the venue. On a flight to Perth for Rally Australia in 1990 Stahl conversed with Bruce Keys (at that time CAMS Manager for rallies) who advised Stahl of John Large’s Five Year Plan for the development of motorsport in Australia and his attempts to get a hallmark event set up in Tasmania. As Large then lived in Perth Keys managed to get Stahl and Large together during the rally and what followed has been described by Keys: ‘’As the red wine flowed, so did the ideas and the evening turned into an almost spontaneous combustion, with two people bringing their common ideas together.