Targa Bambina

Greg Paul and Daryl Narain in the Fiat 124 Sport swept to an impressive victory in Category 1, a full minute and a half of Kevin and Carol Mills in their Ford Escort RS1600. A strong showing in C1 from the other Fiat crews saw Phillip Pearce and Steve Scott come home 4th in their 124 Sport, while Mark McCaughen and Gilles Aubrey were in 5th at the wheel of a 125.

In the hotly-contested Category 2, Maurice and Alan Thompson finished an excellent 4th in the TM-built Fiat 131S, just two minutes adrift of the overall class winners, and one place behind another Fiat-mounted crew, Jason and Aaron Nicholls in their 131R.

Peter Drake and Lindsay Lyons had a great run in their Fiat X1/9 to 6th place in Category 3, finishing just behind three Mazda RX7s and the class-winning Porsche 944. Blair Thomson and Ian Robertson came home a superb 9th in C3, beating a Porsche 911 Carrera and 944S, as well as a Mazda RX7 to the line. Excellent giant-killing performances from both crews who were pitted against bigger, faster machines.

Mike Lowe and Phil Sutton stormed to victory in Category 0 in the little Fiat 500 Abarth Belina Corse, beating Stewart and Matt Martel's Jaguar E-Type, with another Jaguar, this time a MkII, finishing third.

It was another really great drive from Mike and Phil who always defy the odds and cemented their position as perennial crowd favourites'.

Blair Thomson rally report

"I was to be the 12th car away from the start of about 100 cars," recounts Blair. "In Targa the slowest cars start at the front of the field which meant that me and my Uno had been underestimated by the officials, but it is better to be catching cars than getting caught by them. Jim Cameron was going to be my co-driver for this event until he hurt his back in the week leading up to the event. So Ian Robertson stepped up to co-drive for me at the last minute. Ian is an experienced co-driver and driver; he has shared the driving and co-driving in several Targa events with his brother Campbell in their 124 Spider.

"Stage one was very wet and I was slow getting back into the grove after a long period between events. I took my time to get to grips with the event but finished with a respectable time and catching a car but not passing it.

"The morning stages went well doing, some competitive times in my group and catching and passing the Peugeot 106 that started in front of me. In the next stage I was flying and had caught up to the 106 about 1/3 of the stage and he then went over a jump and landed on the nose of his car. I then followed him over the jump and landed with a thud to see his car in the ditch on the side of the road. We then had to Stop and check that the drivers were all right as they were not out of the car yet. They were fine but I lost one minute in the stage due to having to stop. We got my minute back after Ian talked to the CRO’s.

"At the lunch break I caught up with Dad and all the other Fiat Club Members, and at this stage everything was going fine with no problems. The first stage after lunch was 20km long and I had a small spin on the only corner that my family went to watch on but I still had a really good time.

"The rest of the afternoon went well I tried to chase down Phillip in his 124 but we were doing very similar times so I could not catch him, until the last stage were he was having oil pressure problems. I finished the day in 79th overall beating around 40 cars and winding up 9th in my class. I’m happy with that result and looking to be further up the field in the next event I do. We finished at Cooks Landing which is a Winery, and excellent venue to finish a Brilliant day," concludes Blair.