Jason and John White have taken out their third consecutive CAMS Targa Australian Championship race with the Tasmanians claiming Targa High Country.

It was a sensational drive from the Dodge Viper pilots, dominating the 180 car field to lead from start to finish and take out a 30-second victory over Matt Close, the winner of the past three Targa High Country titles. 

Despite Close and his Porsche GT3 RS keeping up with the Whites throughout the whole event, he was unable to catch them, settling for second, three minutes ahead of Jeff Morton and co-driver Stuart Benson in third.

With the Whites sealing their third Targa High Country in the event’s history, Jason was relieved to eventually cross the line, despite suffering mechanical issues during the final stages.

“We were going as fast as we could through the longer stages, but the were not coping and I thought we’d lost a lot of time, but we were surprised to see we had pulled even more of a gap,” White said.

“But the car started to vibrate after that and we thought it was a de-laminated , but it was a big chunk of melted tar from the road that had stuck to one of the front .

“We knew we had a bit of a gap, so we slowed down a bit, and when we got to the final stage, we had a great run up Mount Buller.”

Despite the Whites adding Targa High Country to their Targa Tasmania and Targa Great Barrier Reef victories of 2018, the inaugural CAMS Australian Targa Championship went to Paul Stokell.

Driving alongside CAMS Australian Rally Championship navigator Malcolm Read for the second time this year, the Brisbane based driver finished the season finale in seventh, adding to his already strong previous results to claim the championship.

As expected, Michael and Daniel Bray Classic GT champions, despite facing heartbreak when their 1975 Holden Torana broke down on the final stage.

Taking advantage of the Bray’s misfortunes, Mick Downey and Jarrod Van Den Akker took out the class victory, the 1979 Holden Commodore V8 pilots finishing 30 seconds ahead of another ARC crew in Adam Kaplan and Alisha Penney, who also suffered issues late in the day. 

“We went like a bull at a gate this morning and ripped 20 seconds out of Adam Kaplan and then he de-laminated a , so we had a margin for the final stage,” Downey said. 

“It was a pretty tense drive up the mountain, but we brought it home.”

There was more drama in the Shannons Classic Handicap throughout the weekend with Graham Copeland and Josh Herbert on track for victory, only for their trusty 1941 GMC Jimmy Special to succumb to mechanical issues.

Their retirement paved the way for Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 pilots Colin Byrne and Michael Partridge to secure the class victory over Peter Gluskie and Samantha Winter in a BMW 325i.

Other classes saw Paul Dowie and co-driver James Marquet dominate the RDA Brakes GT4 class, Peter and Tristan Taylor take out the TSD Trophy, NSW pair Mark and Scott Meletopoulo claim GT Sports Trophy and Stephen Marlin pick up the Early Modern category alongside Stephen Horobin. 

Click here for more information on Targa High Country.