The fourth and final day of the Lance East Exotics Tarmac West was held in Perth with six city stages, a total of 35.55 competitive kilometres, all of them with car-breaking kerbs and tight turns in front of Perth’s beautiful palm tree and skyscraper-filled backdrop.
Bright blue skies and 25 degrees saw thousands line the streets of Malaga in the morning for the first three stages of the day, and thousands more in the City of Perth for the final three sprint-style stages along Riverside Drive and around the Terrace Road car park.
Langley Park was transformed into a car-lovers dream with over 400 cars on display at the Celebration of Motorsport and along Riverside Drive and there was a huge collection of stunning classic cars from yesteryear along the river in the Shannons Classics on the Swan display.
Lance East Exotics Targa West competitors start at 30-second intervals, with the winner being the fastest over all 33 stages, a total of 250 competitive kilometres, across four days.
The event is owned by Tarmac Events and is only possible thanks to a dedicated committee and an army of 500 volunteers.
Event Director Ross Tapper said that wants to thank each and every official, all competitors, sponsors, crew and spectators.
“Our priority is always safety, and the event has been successful on that front,” Tapper said.
“Just as importantly, the competitors have loved the return of the long-form rally.
We love what we do and take enormous pride and satisfaction knowing that we’ve run a safe and enjoyable rally, and this year it’s been outstanding,” Tapper said.
In the main category, T200, Brett Morse and Rodney Ng took the top step, first time winners of Lance East Exotics Tarmac West.
The 2017 Lotus Exige of Heuson Bak and Roger Tan finished outright second, 3:04 mins behind, and the rally’s only EV entrant, the 2019 Tesla Model 3P+ driven by Jurgen Lunsmann with co-driver and wife Helen Lunsmann, who finished outright third, 13 seconds behind Bak, and 3:17 minutes behind the leader Morse.
Morse took the lead in Day 2 after Matthew O’Neill suffered a mechanical failure in his 2006 Subaru WRX, and Morse never looked back.
Morse had a game plan, and the plan came to fruition.
“I’m thrilled, it’s taking a bit to sink in, we work really hard in our sport and it’s great to get a reward,” Morse said.
Morse has contested seven Tarmac West events in the past, his best result has been fourth besides a win in the entry-level 130 Class in his first year.
“Thanks to Ross the event organiser, all the fans, my sponsors, G-Spec, it’s a team sport, you can’t do this one your own, and a huge thanks to Rodney my co-driver – to call notes doing warp speed is incredible, I don’t think I could do it,” Morse said.
Finishing second outright is also the best result that Heuson Bak has achieved at Tarmac West.
“It feels incredible, we didn’t think we’d be up here, it’s amazing,” said Bak, who has competed in five previous Tarmac West events.
“The car has been absolutely faultless all event, the team at KYP have been looking after it and they have been incredible, they have been at every stage, it’s been amazing. Congratulations to all the other competitors and thanks to all the officials,” Bak said.
Third place finisher Jurgen Lunsmann said he’s happy and relieved with the result.
“It’s always tricky driving someone else’s car and the EV has a big following, so there’s been a bit of pressure, but we’re really happy with the result,” Lunsmann said.
“This is our first time in the T200 main category, and wow, it’s different than the lower categories, but we’ve enjoyed it.
“In this event, it’s hard to catch up if you fall behind, so we went out hard straight away and I know this car well so I could do that, and that helped us a lot, thrilled to have got there,” Jurgen Lunsmann said.
Finishing fourth was Will White, who took four stage wins today and was a close second in the other two stages in a desperate bid to make up time after he lost over three-and-a-half minutes on Day 2 with an intercooling pipe issue that saw him drop to 12th outright.
White, in his 2018 Nissan GTR Nismo with co-driver Matthew Thompson, has been playing catch up ever since, pushing hard and winning 13 stages (out of a possible 17 stages) in the past two days.
White said that despite the mechanical challenges and setbacks, he’s had a great weekend.
“Congratulations to all the winners, Heuson (Bak) put in a great effort, the EV was amazing, and hats off to the winner Brett (Morse) and Rodney (Ng) – we’ve had fun. When the helmets are on, we’re racing and when they’re off, we’re friends. It’s been great,” said White, owner of Dardanup Removals.
Rounding out the top five outright was a 39-year-old car, also the winner of the T200 Classic Class, Nathan Ellement in his 1985 Chevrolet Corvette C4, with rookie co-driver Stephen Mackinlay. They finished 49 seconds behind Lunsmann and 4:56 minutes behind the winner, Morse.
Ellement’s result wasn’t without its challenges. They were sitting in fourth position at the start of Day 3 but lost a cylinder and ran the long endurance stages yesterday afternoon with seven cylinders instead of eight.
“We’ve had a great time chasing the modern guys, and we rattled a few of them, and we finished the event in front of a pretty strong field – we are extremely happy,” said Ellement.
“Ross and Jan put on the most amazing event and the volunteers, do the most amazing job, I hope we put on an awesome show for the spectators who came out in droves during the perfect weather, the crowds have been great – we’ve had kids around the car the whole time, they have loved it,” said Ellement.
In the T165 Class, Aaron Williams and co-driver Geoff Duckworth held their position at the top of the table in their 2002 Mitsubishi Evo 7, to take a class win, 2:23 minutes faster than David and Anna Hodges in their 2013 Holden VF SSV.
Rounding out the top three was Dan Adams and Jeremy Edwards in their 1994 Honda Civic.
There was plenty of action off the track as Langley Park became a motoring Mecca at the Celebration of Motorsport, and the Celebration of Hot Rods and Street Machines, while the Shannons Classic on the Swan will be displayed across the road, along the banks of the river.
Over 400 cars were on display, and then 100 of them fired up to drive in convoy in the first Tarmac West Sunday Cruise. Spectators loved seeing hot rods and muscle cars cruise past.
For more information and full results, visit tarmacevents.com.au/our-events/tarmac-west/
Article: Tarmac Events WA
