Targa Rally kicks off in Southland
The roads around Southland will be taken over by Targa Rally competitors and rally enthusiasts this week.
One car in particular was getting a lot of attention, a 1935 Ford Coupe.
Owner Joe Gillman said the car had many onlookers while at an opening event in Queens Park yesterday afternoon.
He brought the car 61 years ago at the age of 18 and had been racing it ever since.
At one stage it was the fastest car on the West Coast and had won ‘‘pretty much everything it could’’ since its first race along Tahuna beach near Nelson, Gillman said.
‘‘It just goes. It might look old but it’s not a slow car.’’
Gillman, now retired, said he was happy he was able to come along and race in the rally in the same car he’d been working on for over 60 years.
‘‘It’s a bit like Burt [Munro] was with his motorbikes. This has been my life really.’’
The racing veteran drives his Ford Coupe to every event he attends. Often he said he would pull up and be the only driver who drove his race car to the event.
‘‘When I’m away racing I’m the only car that drove there.’’
His nephew John Gillman is his co-driver. Once he was gone the responsibility to continue racing would go to John, Joe said.
‘‘I’ll be gone well before the car gives up.’’
The Ultimate Road Race event has returned to the South Island for the second time in its 24-year history for five days of racing.
Targa Rally media liaison Paul Shanahan said it was great to hold the rally in the the south, where they had been receiving a lot of local support.
‘‘Our hope is we will find a convincing reason to come back, and so far we have.
‘‘One thing we noticed with bringing things to Invercargill was we get so much support.’’
About 130 racers had registered for various categories in the rally event. The entries had made for a strong competition and rally, Shanahan said.
By bringing on board big names in racing, like New Zealand rally racing icon Hayden Paddon and the racing legend Greg Murphy, it had added weight to the events.
Paddon, said he was looking forward to racing his Hyundai up the Crown Range later in the week. The Crown Range stage was the ‘king of the tour’ and was a stage he was excited to be a part of, he said.
‘‘That one stage actually is why I really wanted to come do this.’’ He would be racing in the same car he won the New Zealand Rally Championship in.
‘‘It’ll still have the rally tyres on it and we’ll try and go sideways over the Crown Range.’’
The first day kicked off with anofficial opening of the rally at Queens Park yesterday afternoon, with racing set to begin this morning.