TARGA ON THE MOVE

Rally stages planned on Cassowary Coast

THE Targa Great Barrier Reef tarmac rally expands to the Cassowary Coast for the first time later this year.

It is the biggest route change since the maiden Targa in 2018. Nine stages will be held on the Cassowary Coast but they have yet to be finalised.

Targa chief executive Mark Perry said including the Cassowary Coast would result in the total competitive distance of the event jumping to 230.97km, an increase of 25 per cent, while the total number of timed stages increased to 20, up by four.

“While the whole course remains provisional at the moment, the plan sees nine stages on the Cassowary Coast on the middle of the three-day event, Saturday, September 5,” he said.

“We have identified provisional stages and will be issuing letters to all residents who may be impacted by the event and encourage anyone with questions to contact Targa direct.”

Mr Perry said Targa was aware of operating in areas with “precious wildlife populations” and had enlisted the advice of a world leading veterinarian specialising in cassowaries, Dr Graham Lauridsen, to mitigate any risk to the region’s population.

“I’m pleased to know that in designing this course Targa officials are considering the habitats of local wildlife and will engage a mitigation strategy to ensure all due care is put into place for this event,” the vet said. “Among those strategies will be considerations of time of day that particular roads will be used for the course to avoid cassowary interactions and spotting marshals as an added safety mechanism.”

Mr Perry said last year’s Targa injected $3 million into the region’s economy.

He said as well as the event’s economic benefit to local businesses, Targa’s major digital campaigns and television package “would showcase the region’s majesty to a national and international audience through the Nine Network in HD and distributed to a potential global audience of two billion”.