Lotus Cars Australia achieved great success on and off the road at the 2018 Targa Tasmania event. On the tarmac their Exige and Elise sports cars secured podium places in all categories. Off the tarmac the Lotus Tour that accompanied that the competitors celebrated a 50th birthday and a wedding proposal!
The Targa Tasmania covers 500kms of competitive driving over 33 special stages across six days. All twelve Lotus sports cars completed all stages in a field that had over 140 vehicles entered with 24 DNF’s and over 50 cars more than one minute behind the leaders. An absolute testament to the great driving skills displayed by the teams, supported with the performance and reliability from the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora platforms.
Martin Duursma and Richard Wodhams secured their maiden victory in GT Sports Trophy driving a Lotus Exige S V6, backing up their 3rd place from last year in the speed limited class, with a commanding win by over three minutes. A wonderful achievement for their hard work during the last four years at the event with a number of personal best stage times set.
There was no catching Jeff Morton and Steve Fisher in their Lotus Exige Sport 350 beating the competition by more than 13 minutes in Jeff’s second attempt at Targa. Even more encouraging, the result was a strong 13th place overall, in just his second Tasmania event versus many competitors with over 10 year’s experience.Jeff’s story is made even more remarkable by the fact he has overcome a life threatening brain tumor which nearly ended his ability to drive. His racing efforts now help raise funds in the fight against brain cancer.
Co driver Erin Kelly in the Lotus Exige V6.
Paul Stokell and Erin Kelly finished a strong 3rd in the GT2 class driving their Lotus Exige V6. They were narrowly beaten by cars worth many times the purchase price of the Exige.
“Although the icing on the cake for us is to see all class victories and such strong outright finishing positions it’s truly brilliant and a great accomplishment for our teams. It just proves how quick and reliable these cars really are,” said Lee Knappett, CEO, Lotus Cars Australia.
Sara and Brendan.
You don’t need to compete in the Targa Tasmania to experience all of the action. Lotus also had a spectator tour following the event over the six days. Brendan and Sara were part of this group and it was life changing for them as well with Brendan asking Sara to marry him on Cradle Mountain and she said yes!
Do you want to be part of the action in 2019? Entries for the 2019 Targa Tasmania are already open with the event to be held from 29th April to 4th May 2019.
Photograph credit: Lotus Cars Australia.
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