Well not sure quite how I missed it but apparently an entire year has gone by since the Whaleoil Raceteam ventured out in the mighty Mustang for a week of doing skids down here on the Big Island. But time has definitely passed us by and here we are again, gearing up for nearly 2000 km of good old fashioned hoonery, starting on Labour Monday at the Great Lakes Centre in Taupo.
This year we will be leaving my car Bruce behind in the South Island and will be utilising his slightly younger sister, Bruchetta, a 1997 Ford Mustang Cobra, which just happens to belong to your very own Mod, HR.
This car was built as a zero car for Targa back in the day alongside my own car, so we are pretty lucky to have a choice of awesome V8’y goodness with which to help create our own little climate crisis. I asked Greta if she would like to come for a wee ride but she said, “How dare you!”
This year’s event starts in Taupo on Monday 28th with documentation and scrutineering and will finish up down the road in Palmerston North, after taking the long way round, via New Plymouth, Wanganui, Whangamomona etc. We will get to enjoy over 760 kilometres of closed road race stages including classics like ‘Cop Corner’ and the ‘Inglewood Jumps’, plus another 1200-odd km of touring.
A big change for us this year is we have been promoted from our usual position as one of the official midpoint cars in the non-competitive Tour part of the event, up to being a ‘double zero’ car for the competition.
This means that we will be the first car through at race speed and will enter the stages after the promo cars have gone in. Our job will be to ensure the course is clear, and as a warning to spectators that the racers will be with them about five minutes later.
You will find some maps below of the locations and stages for each day, and daily reports can be found on the Targa website or Facebook page.
So if you’re looking for something cool to do with the kids, whip them out of school for the day and come check out what good old capitalism can get you, because for sure there are some pretty flash rides out there.
And if you see the bright red and white Mustang be sure to give us a wave and stop by to say gidday during the lunch breaks etc.
