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QUIT Targa West 2010: Nissan GT-Rs Take Out Top Honors Again!
For the third year running the Nissan GT-R has taken out top honors in Western Australia’s QUIT Targa West Tarmac rally as Peter Major scores the win in the Competition Modern class and outright first for 2010. His R35 GT-R sped him to a 51 second victory over tarmac legend Jim Richards in his formidable Porsche GT2 which finished second. A tough position for Richards though as he was sandwhiched in by another GT-R of Peter Rullo and Simon Iseppi who were just 25 seconds behind by the end of the rally in third place.
“We’re over the moon the car was fantastic it did everything we wanted it to do. It was great racing against Jimmy (Jim Richards), you know he’s going to come hard and no matter what he does he’s going to be fast. You never know how hard he’s pushing so we just tried to stay on it and stay as quick as we could, luckily we were able to keep that gap we gained in the first leg”
– Peter Major
Back in the Modern Challenge class the GT-R is also proving it’s the tarmac rally weapon of choice as Mark and Andrew Conacher took their R35 to a class victory while Robert Darrington and David Abetz in their R35 followed them up by just 1 minute. Both GT-R’s were 8.5 minutes in front of the nearest, third place competitor in the class.
Major victorious at QUIT Targa West 2010
Peter Major has won his first QUIT Targa West Competition Modern crown holding off Jim Richards to take the outright rally win in Perth today.Major and his co-driver Kim Screaigh (Nissan GTR 35) took top spot on the timing sheets from Richards midway into Leg 1 and continued to stretch their advantage across the final two Leg’s of the tarmac rally, ultimately taking victory by 51 seconds.
Dunlop Targa NZ: Nissan GT-R Leading After First Day of Racing
After finishing fifth outright in the Dunlop Targa New Zealand in 2008, Tony Quinn has campaigned the VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R across the pond in Australia to much success.
Second place in the Targa Wrest Point and first place in Rally Tasmania in February 09. First in Targa Tasmania 2009 in April and second in the Quit Targa West in August. It’s easy to see that Tony is going places in the GT-R.
The Dunlop Targa NZ kicked off today and at the end of the first day Tony is leading the pack in the GT-R making a determined effort to improve over last year.
The Targa NZ runs for 6 days, finally wrapping up on the 31st of this month. Good luck to Tony and the VIP Petfoods GT-R team.
Link: Targa NZ Website
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland In Car Footage Now Online
Just got the heads up from STILLEN on these being posted to Youtube. Some really great videos from the action at Targa Newfoundland 2009. The guys finished first in the Modern Class in the rally which has some suprisingly large number of suburban stages. In the wet they seem pretty hairy.
Great driving from Steve in these, check the rest out after the jump below…
Link: STILLEN Website
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland: Winners of Targa Newfoundland Modern Division 2009
Legs 3, 4 and 5 have wrapped up and after 2,200 km of targa the team STILLEN Nissan GT-R driven by Steve Millen and Mike Monticello has finished first in the modern class for 2009. The team incurred just 1:20 of penalties through the course of the five days of racing which placed them sixth in the overall standings.
The car itself seems to have held up extremely well suffering really only a tiny CV boot failure which was patched and then finally replaced for day 4. Considering the rules requiring a maximum average speed of 135km/h over each leg, maybe it was even too fast as the guys had to consider backing off for stages.
Congratulations to team STILLEN and big thanks to the guys manning the STILLEN blog and taking photos / video for Road & Track for keeping us in the loop through the rally.
Link: Targa Newfoundland Results
Link: STILLEN Blog
Link: Road & Track STILLEN Site
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland: Still Leading Modern Division After Leg 2
No major problems to report as the team STILLEN GT-R held up great through the 7 stages of Leg 2 in the 2009 Targa Newfoundland. The schedule called for 8 stages originally but one was canceled. The CV boot repair is still holding up to punishment and has not leaked.
Steve has managed to pilot every stage without penalty except for the last of the day where they actually caught up to the competitor in front. The inability to pass caused them to be held up and incur a 6 second penalty for the stage.
The overall results for day 2 leave STILLEN in fourth position but first in the Modern Division.
Head on over to the STILLEN blog and the Road & Track STILLEN microsite for more images and videos of the days racing.
Images: Formulaphoto and Marc Urbano (R&T)
Link: STILLEN Blog
Link: Road & Track STILLEN Site
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland: Competitive Day 1 of Racing – Photos and Wrapup
A fairly ordinary weather outlook greeted team STILLEN this morning for the kickoff of competitive racing for Targa Newfoundland 2009. Fortunately it didn’t manage to dampen their spirits too much and they laid into the first 8 stages of day 1 of 5 total days of racing.
Today they scored zero penalties for each stage, meaning they finished each inside the goal time and consequently, are in equal first position with three other top teams. That is, amongst two Subaru STis and a Porsche GT3RS in the Modern division.
It was not all rainbows however as the team spotted a micro hole in one of the CV boots that could cause a lubrication failure. When changing out the CV boot they found the part they received was the wrong type. They plugged the hole and the boot has so far been ok the entire day so fingers crossed they either receive the right boot and change it out or it holds together in a plugged state. No doubt they’ll be keeping a close eye on it.
Thanks to Kyle Millen for keeping us up to date, follow the STILLEN twitter to get more regular updates and head over to the STILLEN blog for a more detailed update including more photos and video from the Road & Track team…
Link: STILLEN Blog
Twitter: Follow STILLEN
Link: Road & Track Magazine
Link: Targa Newfoundland – Day 1 Results
STILLEN Targa Newfoundland Coverage: Tech Inspection Day
Well can you believe it’s mid-September already? I can’t but it is so that must mean team STILLEN are in Newfoundland prepping for Targa. The car spent today on the lifts / hoists having it’s suspension worked on. Steve was not happy with the ride height and softness settings on their GT-R’s Penske/STILLEN suspension so they’ve adjusted the height and stiffness and put the car back together for tech inspection.
Head over to STILLEN’s blog to check the video and other info from Kyle Millen who’ll be live-blogging from Newfoundland throughout the race.
Sunday’s leg is the Prologue so we shall see how the GT-R fares!
Update from Targa Newfoundland – Prologue leg: The car went well today and the team is satisfied with the pace, reaching 196km/h at one point. The prologue event does not count towards the Targa itself so Steve did not push it to the limit today.
Competitive racing begins tomorrow so stay tuned for Leg 1 of racing updates soon…
STILLEN: Final Specs and Targa Teaser Video for Targa Newfoundland GT-R
Zero to Sixty in 2.9 seconds with cornering and stopping performance to match sound like fun? Well thrashing the STILLEN GT-R targa car around Targa Newfoundland is going to be one hell of an experience.
The car is now completed including pre-race testing and tuning and is shipped out. Now it’s fully cooked the guys at STILLEN have photographed it and put a teaser video together.
Getting so close now, hit up the STILLEN blog for more details and pics…
Link: STILLEN Blog
- Horsepower: ~620 @ 15psi (91 Octane Pump Gas)
- 0-60mph: 2.9 seconds **
- 1/4 Mile: 11.0 seconds at 127.9mph **
- 0-130mph: 11.4 seconds **
- Lateral Grip: 1.1G+ **
** (as tested by Road & Track)
Performance
- STILLEN Downpipes
- STILLEN Secondary Cat-Delete Y-Pipe
- STILLEN Race Exhaust w/Center Rear Exit
- STILLEN Intake System w/K&N Filters
- Turbosmart e-Boost Street 2-Stage Electronic Boost Controller
- Turbosmart Dual Port Blow Off Valves
- COBB Tuning AccessPORT
- Dodson Motorsports Transmission Cooler
- Red Line High Performance Synthetic Motor Oil – 0W40
- Red Line High Performance Synthetic Gear Oil – 75W140
- Red Line WaterWetter
Quit Targa West 2009: Back to Back Wins for Steve Jones in the GT-R
An amazing result for the Nissan GT-R camp as Steve Jones and Ruari Souter-Dawson take the outright win for the 2009 Quit Targa West held over the weekend in Western Australia. Jones took the lead over rival Nissan GT-R pilot Tony Quinn during Leg 2 of racing and maintained it for the entire third day of racing. Quinn ended up finishing in second place overall for the event but was then excluded from the final results in post race inspection due to an exhaust “irregularity”.
Steve Jones was the youngest winner ever for the Quit Targa West in 2008 so to pull off back to back wins is a damn good effort. Congrats to the team!
In the Modern Challenge class, the GT-R also came away victorious as brothers Mark and Andrew Conacher beat out their next fastest competitor by over 3 and a half minutes.
Great work to all involved and again a great highlight that the GT-R is now the force to be reckoned with in the tarmac rally world.
Link: Quit Targa West Website
Images: Travis Barnes
Quit Targa West 2009: Jones Retakes the Lead After Day Two
In some truly abysmal weather for tarmac rallying, Steve Jones has managed to not only make up the 13 seconds he trailed competing Nissan GT-R driver Tony Quinn, but also put another 22 seconds on top by the end of day two’s racing.
Coming around some corners there were what seemed like rivers of water across the road and you had to concentrate just to keep the car on the road. It’s difficult but I’m having so much fun out there it’s just awesome.”
Steve Jones
Tony Quinn is still in second place however and leaves almost a full minute behind to third place Dean Herridge in a Subaru STi.
In the Modern Challenge class, the Nissan GT-R of Mark and Andrew Conacher leads by 1:19 to the nearest competitor. So each Nissan GT-R entered is in a top spot after day two.
Link: Quit Targa West Website
Link: Quit Targa West Live Updates
Images: Circlework
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