2014 AUSTRALIAN ENDURANCE CHAMPIONSHIP

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Targa Racing Flying High After Successful Australian Endurance Championship Campaign

2014 saw the Australian Endurance Championship expand to three rounds, the Wakefield, Willowbank and Winton 300's. With the ever growing popularity of these 300 events, two rounds incorporated a second race, a B-Main to allow all entrants to participate.

Across all three rounds Central Coast outfit Targa Racing, led by Chris Gough and Zane Al-Said, was never far away from the action.

Four of the top six drivers/combinations ran a Targa Racing machine at some point during the three round series.

The series was won by Justin Ruggier and Mark Mackay who, after regulations prevented them from running the Skelta G-Force, finish 6th at the Queensland 300 in a Targa Racing Mazda MX5.

Terry Nightingale and Adam Dodd teamed up across all three events, to take their Targa Racing Mazda MX5 to outright 2nd in the championship. Nightingale and Dodd won both B-Main races that were held in the 2014 Championship. At Wakefield Park, after a late-race Safety Car left us with a 1 lap dash to the chequered flag, they held off a late-charge from David Thomas and Gavin Holland to win the race. The duo teamed up for 7th outright at the 2nd round of the Championship in Queensland where, unlike the first and last events, only one race was contested. Just last Sunday at the Winton 300, Nightingale and Dodd returned to the driver’s seat, winning the B-Main from Nick Leontsinis and Peter Lacey. This result moved them from 3rd to 2nd in the Australian Endurance Championship.

5th and 6th in the championship, Paul Chapman and Gerry Murphy also raced for Targa Racing during the series. Chapman, driving with Tony Bonanno in the Targa Racing Toyota 86, finished 8th in the B-Main at Wakefield Park. Chapman would go on to finish 5th in the Australian Endurance Championship.

Gerry Murphy claimed 2nd outright on Sunday with Michael Caine, to secure 6th in the Championship. His other AEC outing for 2014, was with Targa Racing at the Wakefield 300, where he and Brian Anderson finished 4th outright in the BMW E46 M3.

As the dust settles on the 2014 Australian Endurance Championship season, the statistics for Targa Racing’s operation stack up very nicely against the other teams in the paddock.

13 drivers, in eight different cars
2 B-Main race wins
5 top five, and 8 top ten finishes
Represented by drivers who finished 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th in the 2014 Championship.

Team Manager Chris Gough said “A fantastic effort from everyone in the TargaRacing family. It’s a fitting reward to see the results after a hard fought campaign. We are so proud of all our drivers with the results they have achieved. Its also terrific to see our drivers going forward and doing well in high profile categories as Justin Ruggier has done in the Kumho V8 series and Terry Nightingale in the V8 Utes”. Head of Targa Racing team logistics Zane Al-Said continued “The AEC results are one Targa Racing are very proud of. We pride ourselves on the team preparation and presentation, and look forward to finalising the plans for 2015 which include new vehicles to the cars already impressive fleet”

2014 Australian Endurance Championship - FINAL POINTS
1.​Mark Mackay/Justin Ruggier - 140
2.​Adam Dodd/Terry Nightingale - 114
3.​Nathan Jess/Matthew Thompson - 113
4.​Daniel Deckers/Luke Otten - 112
5.​Paul Chapman - 101
6.​Gerry Murphy - 99
7.​Ray Vandersee - 93
8.​Michael Caine - 88
9​Daniel Reynolds - 88
10.​Michael Hall/Andy Harris - 86
11.​Daniel Kapetanovic/Daniel Sugden - 84
12.​Tony Ross - 82
13.​Calum Ballinger/Neil Dedrie - 78
14.​Gavin Holland - 67
15.​Andrew Macpherson/Brad Shiels - 65
​Ryan McLeod/Steve Owen - 65
17.​Peter Lacey - 62
18.​David Raddatz/Shane Otten - 60
19.​Chad Cotton/Jase Collins - 59
20.​Nick Leontsinis - 59

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Some in car action from the race