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4th May 2009
This year’s Targa Tasmania saw Tony, finally achieve his goal of an outright win in the modern category. To add the icing to the cake, Klark managed to post an impressive 4th place racing in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo to ensure team VIP was highly prominent during the event.
Tony driving the latest Nissan GTR, set the early pace holding a narrow lead at the end of the opening day, which included nine testing stages in the state’s north.
The northern loop of Targa Tasmania saw dry clear conditions, and at this stage of the race Tony believed he was perfectly positioned, particularly with the weather forecast for rain to impact the race later in the week, a prediction that came true and assured the 4WD advantage of the GTR wasn’t wasted.
Tony’s comment on his day one performance to the local press:
“Our strategy was to keep with the leaders until the rain comes, and then to see what we can do. If we are within cooee of the leaders, or about 20-25 seconds behind, we'll be fine, hard to beat. If it doesn't rain, we'll just have to press a bit harder."
On day two of Targa the pace of the leading cars increased significantly as the cars headed to the west coast of Tasmania for a further nine stages.
At the halfway mark of day two Tony was still in the lead but comfortable to allow the gap to shrink from six seconds to two after five stages and by the end of the day he was sharing the lead with South Australian Kevin Weeks, driving a 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo Super Leggera to put him into second place followed by Jim Richards in third place.
Tony’s comment on his day two performance to the local press:
"I think it's good for the event that it’s so close,” Quinn said. “There's some good cars, some good drivers and a few surprises, It's the old troopers up the front who are pumping out times that are much quicker than last year. We all made it through and we're ready to fight another day."
Day three of Targa saw Kevin Weeks and Jason White moving slightly ahead of Tony who was sticking to his game plan of staying in touch but not over-extending the car while waiting for the wet weather that was forecast as the event moved from Launceston to Strahan on Saturday, before the final day into Hobart on Sunday.
Tony’s comment on his day three performance to the local press:
"I think Kevin (Weeks) is pushing on, and he's welcome to it. If he goes much harder than he's going he's going to invite excitement! If he feels comfortable then he can press on, but we are just going to hold station. We're happy where we are. The car was a wee bit skittish in the damp stuff, and we had a problem with the traction control, but I'm not making a big deal of it. I think we're pushing the cars as fast they can go. It's never been this competitive. I'm still happy to keep going at our pace, it's a good pace, and we should be there at the end."
Day four of Targa saw the cars make their way from Launceston to Penguin, taking in four competitive stages including the grueling 37.5 km Cethana stage.
Tony began his charge to take the modern section honours and made a large amount of ground on the field with Kevin Weeks and both cars cleared out from the field, with only the final leg from Strahan to Hobart remaining.
After leaving Launceston the first four stages of the day were held in dry conditions. But once the event reached the Hellyer Gorge, light rain followed the crews down the West coast
Tony’s charge for victory was held back with brake problems early in the day seeing him drop time after the Nissan GTR’s brakes overheated and the car cut out, forcing him to restart the engine before continuing.
Tony’s comment on his day four performance to the local press:
"In Cethana we had a fantastic run and we were really going. The car was great, but the brakes just faded to nothing. I've never had that before; just all of a sudden we got nothing. Then we went around a tight corner and the car just cut out. Whether it was the brakes were too hot or if it was the traction control, who knows. We had to stop the car and restart it again, and away we went. I drove the last three kilometers using just the gears and the handbrake, it was incredible. The boys reckon the brake fluid probably boiled. This car is 400kg heavier than anything else, so it's an area that we're obviously going to have to do some development in. The Lambos have all got ceramic brakes, and it might be what we have to do, but I'm going to have to sell more pet food to do it!"
The final day of Targa Tasmania left the west coast town of Strahan in wet and damp conditions, with Kevin Weeks holding a slender eight second advantage over Tony.
Tony dropped the hammer on the GTR on the first stage just outside Strahan, beating Weeks by 11 seconds to reclaim the lead.
Weeks set off in pursuit, but he crashed his Lamborghini into trees near the end of the Queenstown stage which then extended Tony’s lead to nearly four minutes ahead of the next competitor.
Tony cruised into Hobart to deservedly claim the checkered flag with a buffer of over six-minutes to the 2nd place-getter Jason White.
It was Tony’s first victory from 10 starts in the tarmac classic, with second and third positions going to Jason White, and Jamie Vandenberg. Klark’s performance was also a major highlight for team VIP taking outright fourth place and signaling an appetite to compete at the top end of tarmac rallies in the future.
Tony’s comment on his final day performance to the local press:
“Our strategy was always to keep up with the others and if we got the wet weather over the last day or two, just to have a lunge for it,” Quinn said. “I’ve always been bridesmaid to Jim (Richards) or the Whites or somebody else, and we’re very pleased to finally win it. It hasn’t sunk in yet and it feels like it’s been the toughest and most competitive week there’s ever been in Targa.
“The top five or six guys have just been going hard at it. The proof in that is that Jimmy (Richards), for the first time ever, had a crash.”
The entire team at VIP Petfoods are very proud of Tony and his first place position in an event that he has been passionately competing in for over a decade.
