Former Mitsubishi and Hyundai WRC works driver Alister McRae dominated the Competition Classic category of the Quit Targa West rally last weekend, held in Alister's now-native Western Australia.
The Scot won all but one of the event's 31 stages to arrive at the finish with a margin of almost seven and a half minutes, giving him an emphatic win in the classic category and putting him on par with the event's modern entry, which included Porsches and Lamborghinis.
The event was based around the capitol of WA, Perth and was the second Targa event Alister has competed in this year. The first was the Targa Tasmania and this weekend's event was, according to Alister, just as much fun.
Driving a 1974 Porsche 911 run by K-Tec Porsche, Alister and co-driver Bill Hayes immediately set the pace in the Classic category and went on to take the stage win on each of the event's 31 stages, with the exception of the penultimate test.
On stage 30, their car suffered brief fuelling problems and they backed-off to prevent any further problems and ensure they reached the finish with the class win.
Even more encouraging was the crew's pace overall. Prior to the event, Alister said that he hoped that the car would have the pace to be able to do well in the classic class but also compare favourably with the modern cars. Indeed, his total time for the event in the classic class would have placed him in sixth place in the modern competition category if he were included.
"I really enjoyed this weekend," he reflected. "The rally was really good and pretty relaxed. The stages themselves were not very long but high speed and because of the nature of the roads down here, there were lots of chicanes to keep the speeds down. But we were out in a fantastic car for three days in the sunshine, so who could complain!"
This was the first time that Alister was competing with experienced Australian co-driver Bill Hayes and he felt that the event and the partnership worked very well.
