City gets revved up for rally

Rotorua will roar to the sound of finely-tuned engines next weekend as the Targa Rotorua tarmac motor rally returns to the city.

In contrast to the annual six-day Targa New Zealand event - which starts in Auckland and last year headed to Taupo then Havelock North in the Hawke's Bay - the two-day Rotorua event starts and finishes in Rotorua.

Headquarters for the event is the Novotel Rotorua Lakeside hotel on the corner of Tutanekai and Whakaue Sts with more than 100 competitor and official event cars based across the road at the Rotorua Village Green.

Competitors, crews and officials arrive in Rotorua on Friday, with scrutineering conducted under the City Focus marquee on Hinemoa St between 3pm and 5.30pm. The cars will then be driven to the Village Green where they will be on display.

The first car is due to leave the official start ramp at the Novotel Rotorua at 7.20am on Saturday to get to the first closed special stage - the 24.95km Waireki 1 - in time for a 7.50am start.

Saturday's seven stages covering a total of 191.3km are centred on Rotorua with the first four south-west of the city in the morning and the next three in the north-east and north in the afternoon.

In between, the cars return to the Village Green for a service and lunch break between 11.30am and 12.30pm.

After lunch the first stage - Manawahe/Braemar - is repeated with a 25-minute service stop at the Edgecumbe Primary School on College Rd, with cars arriving around 2pm.

After the stage is repeated, the field then heads west to Mourea for the 18.39km Hamurana stage. It skirts the northern side of Lake Rotorua before heading due north to Rotongata then west again to Kaharoa and the finish at Te Pu. The cars then return via Ngongataha to Rotorua's Village Green.

The public is welcome to check the cars and crews out at the Village Green on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning before the field crosses the Mamaku Ranges for a day of special stages in the Waikato.

There are a further nine closed road stages covering 198.9km on Sunday with the first at Waotu, west of Lichfield, and the final between Te Miro near Cambridge and Buckland near Matamata.

In between, there are service stops at the Wharepapa South School (near Otorohanga) in the morning and Matamata in the afternoon, and a main service and lunch stop at the Village Green in Cambridge between 11.35am and 12.35pm.

Further information on the event - including a list of entries and stage maps - is available in the latest issue of New Zealand Classic Car magazine.