By BOB PEARCE
Neil Allport, who revelled on the tarmac as he won the last round of the national rally championship in Waikato last month, will have a chance to continue that form when he competes in this year's Dunlop Targa.
He joins an illustrious group of champions such as Jim Richards, Steve Millen, Owen Evans and Robbie Francevic.
Allport and Millen are members of the Team Talk operation, which will use the event to demonstrate their GPS tracking and communication systems.
Driving a Group N Mitsubishi Evo 8, Allport, three-times national rally champion, will be a hot contender for outright honours in the 10th running of the Targa.
It starts on Sunday at Penrose. The 210 competitors visit New Plymouth, Wanganui, Palmerston North, cross the North Island to Hastings, and finish at Queens Wharf in Wellington on the afternoon of Saturday, October 30.
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McIntyre in Surfers
John McIntyre scarcely had time to clean his helmet after the New Zealand V8 round at Pukekohe before heading for Surfers and a drive in the V8 Supercar races this weekend.
He will take the wheel of the Ford Falcon vacated by David Besnard, who will race a Champ Car in the main event. McIntyre put in some impressive laps at Bathurst, where he shared the drive with Besnard until their car dropped out with engine trouble. This weekend, his mission will be to return the Falcon intact after two sprint races round the unforgiving Surfers street circuit.
Another Kiwi getting a late call-up for Surfers is Waikato teenager Nic Jordan, who will drive in the Formula Three races.
Jordan clinched the trophy for older cars at Adelaide last month and thought his season was over because of lack of funds. But a backer has emerged and the Hamilton Boys High fifth-former headed across the Tasman.
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Interested spectator
Englishman Justin Wilson, who spent last season driving for Minardi and Jaguar in Formula One, was an interested spectator at Pukekohe on Sunday.
He made his debut for Minardi in March last year at Melbourne and switched to Jaguar in August. His best finish was eighth at Indianapolis in September.
One of the tallest men in the sport at 1.9m (6ft 3in), he drives for the Conquest team in the Champ Car series. He finished eighth in the last race at Las Vegas and lies 12th in the championship with two rounds to go.
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California dreamin'
Scott Dixon has finished his IndyCar season with Chip Ganassi Racing, but he has one more racing commitment for the team this year.
He will share a Lexus Riley sportscar with team-mate Darren Manning in the Grand American Sportscar series finale, the Lexus 400, on a road course at Fontana, California, on October 31. Dixon shared the wheel in a similar car at Daytona this year.
Ganassi is associated with the leading team in the championship, driven by Scott Pruett and Max Papis.
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O'Neill continues
Australian Shannon O'Neill, who dominated the Formula Ford races at Pukekohe, hopes to continue in the championship as long as he is doing well.
The 24-year-old, who describes himself as a grazier, was at the wheel of the car in which Tim Edgell won the title last season.
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Kiwi shortlist
Team Kiwi have reduced the shortlist of potential candidates to replace Craig Baird next season to three candidates, two Kiwis and an Aussie.
Owner David John expects to be able to make the choice this weekend at the Surfers round.
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No blaming the car
Team New Zealand yachting boss Grant Dalton will not be able to make excuses about his car when he contests the Porsche GT3 races this summer.
Craig Baird drove the car to a win and two seconds at Pukekohe last weekend.
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Lost revenue
As Silverstone battles to hold on to the British Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One championship, Auckland PR man Murray Taylor muses on what might have been. Taylor, from his days as a racing team boss in Europe, is a member of the British Racing Drivers Club, which controls the circuit.
A few years ago, he was notified that someone had offered to buy the commercial rights held by the club and that his share of the proceeds would be $100,000.
But the cheesecutter cap and blazer brigade choked on their gins and rejected the offer. Taylor had to stop dreaming and resume selling red socks for Peter Blake.
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Pukekohe rumours wrong
Amid the misinformation being propagated by opponents of the Auckland street race and other factions is the demise of Pukekohe raceway.
The facts are that the track will stage a low-level national meeting on October 31 before closing for four months to allow long-delayed drainage work to be completed. It will be up and running again by March 1, in time for the V8 Supercars in April. Counties Racing, which owns the track, has every intention of continuing with the motor-racing circuit.
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