TARGA TASMANIA 1996 - POLICE ENTRY 7TH OUTRIGHT
Constables Farrel White (Driver) and Nick Watchorn (Navigator) took their V8 Commodore sedan to 7th outright in the 1996 Targa Tasmania and in the process, surprised many people with their performance.
The field of competitors this year was made up of over 230 high performance, exotic and classic cars with a significant number of prominent drivers and crews competing.
Last year proved to be very successful for Farrel and Nick in their standard V6 Commodore with no problems, no near misses, 21st outright and smiles all round. This year has proven an outstanding success.
The Tickford modified Ford XR6 of Constable Hedley Browning and ex-Sergeant Paul Smith also finished high in the rankings at 26th outright. The positive P.R. from both results has given the department a lot of attention and respect from competitors, public and officials.
Nick the 'Nav' had this to say;
The event this year read like a 'whos who' of motorsport. There were race drivers and teams, celebrities everywhere and if you didn't have a Porsche, BMW, Mazda RX7 or Celica GT4, you just weren't in the race. Many played hard and came to win.
For example, Jim Richards wasn't the only one with a $300,000 twin turbo 4WD Porsche that has light weight carbon fibre panels fitted and when Neil Bates & Coral Taylor stop, their team of colour co-ordinated service crew would surround the car and fine tune the on-board computer with their laptop. Rusty French even bought his spare $200,000 Porsche 911 (obviously his shopping car) to use as parts if his race car broke!
The event this year was predominantly wet and that meant that driver and navigator skill became more important that outright speed and performance. There were a significant number of crashes during the event where crews simply did not drive to the conditions. It was wet and the roads were quite slippery in places. They all know this, but many don't plan it as a five day - 2000 km event and on occasions, just push too hard.
The prologue for Farrel and I had us 66th outright. Just not enough grunt or grip for a street circuit like Georgetown.
Day 1 - Out of Launceston, no dramas and a surprising 27th outright at the end of the day. Just a problem with the front disk rotors warping, making braking and shaking go hand in hand. A new set on overnight.
Day 2 - Woops...slept in and late to the start. Another wet day down the East Coast and cars were still dropping off the black stuff. Did have a Porsche see us in his mirror and instead of letting us past as we caught him, he almost came to a stop right in front of us on a quick section. The rain just poured the rest of the day and Grass Tree Hill was almost in darkness. Yep, the disk rotors went wobbly again. Another set overnight and sitting in 23rd outright.
Day 3 - The Huon is a short day but very demanding on the crew. The roads are broken up, the surface slippery, dips and crests everywhere and water running across the surface in places. Perhaps our biggest concern was that we were following a Japanese pair in a very fast Nissan GTR who had successfully destroyed 4 cars in 4 years. Wonder which blind corner they've crashed around...and how quick will we be going into it?
Waiting at the Longley stage, a competitor starting 30 seconds behind us asked the official to tell us..."watch your mirrors boys...the car behind will be coming through". Cheeky for a little Mazda soft-top! He was quite embarrassed later when we were all stopped and a good laugh was had.
Oh...and the disk rotors...yep...another set overnight. We made up some time over the day but due to a error by one of the officials when checking our road card, we were one of the competitors hit with an incorrect 20 minute time penalty. 17th to 134th outright (unofficial) in one foul swoop.
Day 4 - The long day back up to Burnie. This was dry and with everyone trying to make up time, there were still more crashes. The new town stage of Ross was tight and nearly everyone was airborne over that railway line. Some of the hardest stages in the event were next. The disc rotors gave up two thirds into the demanding Cethana stage and we just had to back off, slowing mostly on the gearbox. Those V8s sure can rev sometimes. (Good thing it was under warranty!)
The car shook so much under brakes you could hardly hold the steering wheel, so a new set of disc rotors fell on the car in an impressive 8 minute stop at Ulverstone and the warning..."That's the last set we got."
The last stage of the day, Rianna, was downgraded after one of the cars hit a power pole that tragically resulted in the death of one of the competitors. It's a risk we all face on the road everyday - we just never want to have it, or see it happen.
Most of the evening for us was spent replacing the front tyres that the front brake shudder had destroyed on Cethana, tightening the engine mounts and sway-bar mounts that hadn't quite fallen out and praying for rain on the West Coast trip home. 134th to 99th but without the penalty we were 9th.
Day 5 - Rain was on the way - easier on the brakes and the quick cars advantage in outright speed wasn't as great. The times on each stage this year for us were clearly better than in 1995 an that's motivating. On the second last stage, Rusty French in his $200,000 Porsche slid off the road and got bogged (Guess he should've paid another 100 grand and got the 4WD version!).
He was in front of us at the start of the day so things were still looking good for our outright placing. New Norfolk was very slippery and crews were still putting themselves out of the event. Emotions driving sanity?
We got over the finish line without drama and then later to the Casino for the official finish, applause and support of everyone there.
Calculations were made, times compared, the 20 minute mistake lifted and a provisional placing of 7th.
Many people commented that they had a greater respect for Tasmania Police officers. An engineer from Sydney was also overheard to say 'he would never speed in Tassie again because over here...pigs could fly'.
It is a fantastic experience to participate in an event like this and so rewarding to do well but we could not compete if it wasn't for our sponsors, Andrew Walter Construction, Motors Pty Ltd, A.I.M. Insurance, Winning Post Productions, Dunlop, Hog's Breath Cafe, Tas Suspension and Exhaust and the help from mechanics Simon Rowlands of Motors and Ian Paton of the Police garage. These guys helped heaps and in their own time. Also, the support of the department enables us to proudly compete under the Police banner and attract more publicity and sponsorship.
Motors also apparently have several sets of front discs if anyone is looking for a cheap set. The real reason behind that problem is a combination of special brake pads, fluid and ducting used. It all generated more heat that the standard discs could cope with. A lesson for 97.
A sincere thanks to all those who supported us. Now about our 97 entry boss...
Cheers, Nick Watchorn
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