Veteran Vann Kann races to Targa win

Dunsborough’s Andy Van Kann and co-driver Megan Logue won the 15th Targa West two-day rally on August 11.

Veteran Vann Kann won the event for the second time in his 48-year career alongside first-time road rally co-driver Logue.

Targa West is a famous four-day rally event culminating in a final stage in Perth city and showcasing modified rally cars such as Porsches, Lotuses and Mitsubishi Evolutions.

The two-day weekend rally is a lesser category, with 20 stages in Toodyay, Bullsbrook, Malaga and Perth city.

Van Kann and Logue were fastest by a mile, opening up a nine-minute lead in their NOROCK 2007 Honda Civic Type R.

“It’s never easy. We had some brake problems ... the breathtaking tarmac stages are on the Saturday and Sunday, so I like to capitalise on the best days and my co-driver is a school teacher, so we couldn’t make the four-day event,” Van Kann said.

Early in the race on the first day, Vann Kann noticed one of the Honda’s front brakes had failed. During service between stages, his professional maxim service team replaced the broken rotor only for the other three to also crack. This left him with use of only the handbrake throughout the rest of the stage.

Thankfully, after a few last-minute phone calls, Van Kann was able to source new brakes in Malaga overnight and fitted them on Sunday morning before the second day of racing. “We were able to finish the race at full pace because I was frustrated about having to drive conservatively and both of our competitors also had issues, so we opened up a big lead,” he said.

“It was one of my most memorable rally days to see the look on Megan’s face when we had won. I train co-drivers and I knew early on that she was very talented.”

Make Smoking History Targa West event director Ross Tapper said he was proud of the rally.

“The competition was exciting; we’ve had thousands of spectators across the four days,” he said.