Troy Wilson and Frank Guildea have dominated the 2022 Make Smoking History Targa Malaga Sprint with the pair now achieving a hat trick of wins in the Make Smoking History Targa West Series.
Taking place in the city of Perth, the event saw 70 drivers race against the clock around the fast six-kilometre street circuit, which Wilson and Guildea comfortably won after leading the event from start to finish.
Despite being the first time either had competed in Malaga, they enjoyed a 24-second victory over Matt Cherry and Cade Bell, while Cody Harris and Morgan Ward steered their 2004 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 8 to third place just two and a half seconds behind Cherry and Bell.
The ex-West Coast Eagles football player had already won the first two rallies of the Make Smoking History Targa West Series season, which included the Midland Toyota Targa Ellenbrook Sprint and The City of Perth Targa Rallysprint, both of which were held earlier this month.
Leading up to the Targa Malaga Sprint, Wilson admitted he didn’t know what to expect but was thrilled with the win.
“Being rally, it’s different to any other type of motorsport, as in there’s no practice, you don’t get to drive on the stage beforehand at speed, so it’s tricky to balance how fast to go - there’s no concept or idea of braking points, grip level, or speeds to carry through corners. You don’t know those things without any practice, and I love that challenge,” Wilson said.
“There were a lot of fast cars there today, a few more big hitters, but I had a little bit of luck on my side, I managed to get through four clean runs which gave me good times.”
Although Cherry missed out on the win, he still claimed the Open Rallysprint 2WD 2000cc class, while the fourth placed Mark Cates and Pete took out both the Targa Cup Outright class and Targa Cup 2WD 2000cc and over.
Rounding out the top five just eight seconds behind Cates and Davies rounding out the top five was RSEA Safety Motorsport Australia Rally Championship rookies Daniel Gonzalez and Caleb Ash.
Event Director Ross Tapper said that it was a terrific day of street rally competition.
“We’ve received a lot of positive feedback and I’d like to thank all the businesses in Malaga for allowing us to run the rally here,” Tapper said.
“The weather was perfect, thousands of spectators lined the streets to watch all the motorsport action, and importantly, everyone who started the rally finished safely. We couldn’t ask for anything more.”
The next event of the Targa West Series will be the GT Fabrication Targa Bunbury Sprint on 12-13 November.
Photo: Tim Allott