Targa Tasmania is an annual event that has been running since 1992.
A classic tarmac rally in the style of the Mille Miglia, Coupe des Alpes and the Tour de Corse, Targa Tasmania attracts an international entry list that grows bigger every year.
The format is to conduct the event over six days on around 2,000 kms of tarmac roads. In 1998 a new format was adopted with three separate competitions being run within the overall event. The categories for 1998 were Targa Tasmania Shannons Historic, Targa Tasmania Classic and Targa Tasmania Modern.
No stranger to the event, Peter Fitzgerald had competed in a number of previous Targa's with his best result being 5th outright in 1996 in one of Fitzgerald Racing Services 'Special things', a 968 Turbo RS.

 

So it was no surprise that Porsche Cars Australia approached Peter to drive the 356A Carrera GS from the Porsche Museum in Germany in the 1998 Targa Tasmania.
The classic cars 100 bhp was a long way from the 300+ bhp machines that Peter was used to driving and the rubber technology (the car ran on classic rubber) was almost primitive by today's standards.
Nonetheless the 3 times Australian Champion set about the task with his usual professionalism and enthusiasm with German journalist Michael Peterson navigating.

The competition in the new category was fierce with 10 cars sharing the lead at the end of Day 1 and 6 cars sharing the lead at the end of Day 2.
The Fitzgerald / Peterson combination were equal 1st place on the first two days of competition. They then took control of the category lead from day 3 and lead the remainder of the event.

The little 356 racer that had been flown all the way from Germany had triumphed taking outright category victory by 4 minutes and 9 seconds from the 1974 Porsche 911 RSR of Mundy / Dunstan.

With that victory Peter had once again demonstrated his ability to extract the maximum performance from a car that was competing against cars that were newer and faster.

A well deserved victory for Peter Fitzgerald and Porsche.

Fitzy