Targa Florio returns to the region next week

THE Targa Florio Australian Tribute will return to the roads of the Surf Coast and the Bellarine next week.

In the car rally’s prestigious 102-year history, this will be the second time the annual motorsport event has been staged outside of Italy – the first occasion being in Geelong in 2017.

The official start of the five-day event will take place on the Geelong waterfront on Wednesday, November 28, with classic cars from 1906-1971, V8s and Ferraris from 1971 to the present day on display.

Day 1 of the tour will start and end in Geelong, passing through Torquay, Bells Beach, the Australian Automotive Research Centre near Anglesea, Deans Marsh and Colac, and returning along the Princes Highway.

On day 2, drivers will head east through Portarlington and Queenscliff before catching the ferry to Sorrento and ending in Cape Schanck. The tour will end in Melbourne on December 2.

The Targa Florio Australian Tribute is a regularity event for classic cars produced in the years between 1907 and 1976. Cars will be competing over four days on Victoria’s open roads at regulated speed. There will also be 56 trials across the four days.

A regularity race, also called a time-speeddistance (TSD) race, is a type of motor sport with the object of driving each segment of a course in a specified time at a specified average speed. The race is usually conducted on public roads, but sometimes includes off-road and track sections.

Participants compete in teams composed of a driver and navigator. Teams usually start a regularity race at fixed intervals, creating a field that is spread along the course.

As well as the Classica Trophy, open to cars produced from 1906 to 1976, the Targa Florio Australian Tribute 2018 will also include the Ferrari Trophy, which is open to Ferraris produced from 1977 to the present day.

For more information, head to targaflorioaustralia.com.