Sport
3 September, 2020
Cassowary Coast rolls out the welcome mat for TARGA
Rolling green agricultural fields through to world heritage rain-forest, the Cassowary Coast will be on show this weekend as it hosts the all-new second leg of TARGA Great Barrier Reef.
On Saturday 5 September, one hundred Touring and Tarmac Rally cars are expected to line up at Bamboo Creek for the first stage of the day before venturing through two further stages at South Johnstone and Mena Creek.
Competitors will regroup for lunch at Mission Beach, with the final three stages to be run in reverse across the afternoon, completing the 48.39 competitive kilometres out of the 200 competitive kilometre course.
TARGA Chief Executive Officer, Mark Perry explained that while the impact of COVID-19 means this year’s event will be slightly scaled, it will not impact the media exposure that TARGA offers the destination.
“Saturday’s action is based around roads south of Innisfail, with the original stages planned around Mission Beach downgraded to touring for 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic meant we were unable to travel to the region to complete a planned consultation phase with local residents,” said Mr Perry.
“We’ve gone to extraordinary lengths behind the scenes in our crew logistics to ensure that our international broadcast will still proceed as normal, which will feature on the Nine Network later in the year as well as our digital platforms and international syndication, in total reaching two billion viewers.”
Cassowary Coast Regional Councillor for Economic Development and Tourism, Kylie Farinelli extended her welcome to the TARGA crew and its entrants, assuring the community that while the opportunity to interact with this event has been limited due to COVID-19, the broadcast exposure will offer a great boost for the region.
“TARGA will shine an international spotlight on our region and we’re grateful that they have been able to continue with the event under such extraordinary circumstances,” said Cr. Farinelli.
“Council had planned several community events to leverage the opportunity which couldn’t proceed this year due to social distancing issues, but consider this a soft launch for the full experience in 2021!”
TARGA Great Barrier Reef is a three-day competitive tarmac driving and non-competitive touring event, featuring eighteen stages throughout the broader Cairns region to the Cassowary Coast and Tablelands.
Residents surrounding each stage have been notified of road closures by TARGA. For full road closure detail go to: http://www.cassowarycoast.qld.gov.au/-/september-5-2020-targa-great-barrier-reef-road-closures.
For further information about TARGA Great Barrier Reef go to https://targa.com.au/targa-great-barrier-reef-competition.
