Tuesday 14 October 2025 marked the start of the 30th edition of the five-day Targa with documentation and scrutineering taking place at the Indian Community Centre in Pukekohe. Reigning Targa Champions, Marcus van Klink (main photo) and co-driver Matt Richards will be coming into the event as the hot favorites to win outright, although Dave Rogers and his co-driver Shane Reynolds will be sure to give van Klink/Richards a real battle in the Mitsubishi Evo X RS.
Reynold’s is fresh from his class win last weekend when he co-drove for Robbie Stokes. Further afield Bevan Claridge and his co-driver Campbell Tannock will be aiming to win their class as well as making the top ten overall in the Holden Commodore.
The 36 competition cars, 6-time trial, and 17 Tour cars will leave Pukekohe Township on Wednesday morning for Leg one, travelling through some of the Waikato’s best tarmac roads to finish up in Rotorua where they will spend the night.
They will cover 115km of special stages. The exciting variety of cars will include Craig Haysman’s Ultima RS and Brett Wotton’s Lamborghini Sterrato, both very unique vehicles. There will be a further 26 cars entered on Saturday for the two-day Regional.
Many of the drivers and crew have spent long days and nights preparing their cars for this special event, while the organizers have also been planning the route and engaging with local communities for over a year. Race4Life are also into their eight year of working with Targa.
Owner Peter Martin brings together a wealth of knowledge through the various personalities to make this a gold star event. Once again Jim Scott will be the CRO, while Victoria Edwards is back onboard as the Secretariat.
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