Ross Dunkerton in the 2006 Targa West rally

Targa West was a

rally Rally or rallye may refer to: Gatherings * Demonstration (political), a political rally, a political demonstration of support or protest, march, or parade * Pep rally, an event held at a United States school or college sporting event Sport ...

event held in and around

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Western Australia between 2005 and 2021. The event takes its name from the

Targa Florio The Targa Florio was a public road endurance automobile race held in the mountains of Sicily near the island's capital of Palermo. Founded in 1906, it was the oldest sports car racing event, part of the World Sportscar Championship between 1955 ...

, a former motoring event held on the island of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

, as well as more recent Australian events including

Targa Tasmania Targa Tasmania is a tarmac-based rally event held on the island state of Tasmania, Australia, annually since 1992. The event takes its name from the Targa Florio, a former motoring event held on the island of Sicily. The competition concept i ...

, now defunct East Coast Targa, Targa New Zealand and Classic Adelaide. The inaugural event was held in 2005 and won by

Ross Dunkerton Ross Dunkerton OAM (born 16 July 1945) is an Australian rally driver. Dunkerton is a 5 time Australian Rally Champion and 2 time Asian Pacific Rally Champion. He was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2018. Dunkerton is one of ...

. Dunkerton also won the 2006 event which ran for four days from 7 September 2006 in a

Mitsubishi Lancer EVO IX The Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, popularly referred to as the 'Evo', is a sports sedan and rally car based on the Lancer that was manufactured by Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi Motors from 1992 until 2016. There have been ten official versio ...

2006

After the official start at

Forrest Place Forrest Place is a pedestrianised square located within the CBD of Perth, Western Australia. The street was created in 1923, and has a history of being a focal point for significant political meetings and demonstrations. Description Forrest P ...

in central Perth, special stages were held in

John Forrest National Park John Forrest National Park is a national park in the Darling Scarp, east of Perth, Western Australia. Proclaimed as a national park in November 1900, it was the first national park in Western Australia and the second in Australia after Royal Nat ...

, Gidgegannup, Araluen, Muchea, Chittering, Bindoon and Toodyay. 76 teams entered in one of two classes: ''Challenge'' (cars without

roll cage A roll cage is a specially engineered and constructed frame built in (or sometimes around, in which case it is known as an exo cage) the passenger compartment of a vehicle to protect its occupants from being injured or killed in an accident, pa ...

s) and ''Competition''. The 2006 event was marred by the death of champion driver

Peter Brock Peter Geoffrey Brock (26 February 1945 – 8 September 2006), known as "Peter Perfect", "The King of the Mountain", or simply "Brocky", was an Australian motor racing driver. Brock was most often associated with Holden for almost 40 years, a ...

who lost control of the car and smashed into a tree in the second stage of the event near Gidgegannup north-east of Perth at 11.50am on 8 September 2006. Brock and co-driver Mick Hone were in a 2001

Daytona Sportscar The Daytona Sportscar (sometimes referred to as the 'Daytona Coupe') is an Australian built reproduction of the '' Shelby Daytona'' coupé from 1964. It was built by Richard Bendell, designed by Ross Holder and the chassis builder was Michael ...

. Hone was taken to hospital and made a recovery.

References

External links

TargaWest website
{{Targa Rallies Road rallying Motorsport competitions in Australia Rally competitions in Australia Sports competitions in Western Australia Motorsport in Western Australia