Motorsport: Inkster and Winn stay on track

With victory in the Targa Rotorua tarmac rally over the weekend, it's a case of only one more to go for Auckland pair Glen Inkster and Spencer Winn.

At the start of the year former gravel ace Inkster said he wanted to win all three New Zealand Targa events this year.

He and co-driver Winn (Mitsubishi Evo 6) started by winning the Targa Bambina event in the Coromandel in February and nudged nearer their target at the weekend, winning the 2012 Targa Rotorua event in the Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

They won by just over a minute from last year's winner Leigh Hopper and his new co-driver Simon Kirkpatrick (Subaru Impreza WRX) with Paeroa pair Mark Whyte and Tracey Lance third, almost 10 minutes back in their V8-powered Toyota Altezza.

Now only victory in the annual six-day Targa New Zealand event in October remains.

This year's Targa Rotorua attracted almost 90 entries and was held in cool and mostly dry weather over almost 400km of closed tarmac roads on both sides of the Kaimais.

On Saturday, top local rally driver Dean Sumner and new co-driver Malcolm Peden (Mitsubishi Evo) battled Inkster and Winn, Hopper and Fitzpatrick and Australian pair Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett (Nissan GTR-35) for the lead until hitting a bank and damaging his car too badly to continue.

On Sunday morning Sydney-based New Zealander Stuart Scoular, 42, was airlifted to Hamilton Hospital after an accident on the first stage and later had his leg amputated.

Scoular and his co-driver, younger brother Bret, 35, were both admitted to Hamilton hospital.

The experienced pair were sixth overall at the time of the accident in their Subaru Impreza WRX.

Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillett stopped to render assistance at the scene of the accident and withdrew from the event.

Bill Hunter and Julie Wallace enjoyed their first taste of tarmac rallying and finished 43rd overall.