Former Repco Supercars Championship driver Alex Rullo has claimed a pair of victories during the 2021 Auto One Targa Albany Sprint over the West Australian long weekend.
With thousands of spectators attending the two-day double event in Albany, Rullo proved too strong for the 99 other competitors across the festival, steering his Lamborghini Gallardo to the fastest times in both Sunday’s Auto One Targa Quaranup Sprint and Monday’s Albany Sprint.
With a sprint and rallysprint taking place on Sunday, Rullo won the opening two-kilometre sprint of the event in style, thanks to a blistering run time of 54.78 seconds.
Finishing five seconds slower than the winner was 1993 Nissan Skyline R32 driver Matt James-Wallace, while an impressive Nigel Ball was third fastest in an electric 2019 Tesla Model 3D.
The day’s second competition saw a variety of teams of drivers and co-drivers complete three runs of a four-kilometre course up to the historic Camp Quaranup.
Taking out the rallysprint was Will White and Matt Thompson – their aggregate score ending up two seconds faster than Steve Jones and Jacob Zurzolo.
Reigning Targa West title holder Mark Greenham and Steph Esterbauer finished Sunday’s second leg in third place, around 10 seconds behind the two Mitsubishi Lancer front runners.
At Monday’s main Auto One Targa Albany Sprint, Rullo was back in action and once again topped the time sheets as competitors took on the 2.8km course from Middleton Beach to Mt Adelaide.
Rullo’s best time for the event clocked in at one minute and 28 seconds, almost three seconds faster than the second placed Steve Jones in a 2010 Mitsubishi Lancer.
Rounding out the podium for the main event of the weekend was Peter Rullo, who was also behind the wheel of the Lamborghini Gallardo and with his best time around four seconds slower than Jones.
Following on from his perfect weekend, a thrilled Alex revealed how close he was to not competing.
Photo: Elevation Digital
“We had some serious issues on Thursday (before the event), we almost pulled out, there were so many things going on with the car, things we didn’t realise and things that happen when it sits in storage for four or five years,” Alex said.
“There was a lot of hard work and late nights to get it running, and when we did, we didn’t expect that we’d have reliability and speed - it was great to reward the boys with a functioning and winning car.
“On Sunday, I focused on getting comfortable with the car. At Middleton Beach, I had the car on the rails, each run pushing a little harder. I knew where I could make up time after each run and I focussed on that. I tried to get under 1:30 minutes and was pretty happy that I was able to do that.
“The event was pretty awesome, and the Sunday stages were high speed, really challenging, really enjoyable.
"All the Targa West events are enjoyable with a great vibe from everyone from organisers, officials and competitors. It's a fun weekend away.”
The next Targa West event is the Make Smoking History Targa South West in Manjimup, Pemberton, and Northcliffe on 20 March.