TARGA GREAT BARRIER REEF & RE-SCHEDULED TARGA TASMANIA CANCELLED

14 July 2023

The 2023 TARGA Great Barrier Reef, scheduled for 1-3 September, and the re-scheduled 2023 TARGA Tasmania, set down for 23-28 October, have today been cancelled. 

Despite assurances that the sport would be back up and running by 1 July, the safety review panel process is now into its fifteenth month, leaving the sport of tarmac rallying without a clear future direction at this point in time. 

With the large-scale events just seven weeks and three months away respectively, organisers TARGA Australia have been left with no choice but to cancel its iconic motorsport events to the disappointment of competitors, sponsors, officials and all the TARGA fans across Australia and around the world.

“We have waited and been incredibly patient with the process but there are still a number of outstanding issues that are yet to be resolved,” said Mark Perry, TARGA CEO. “Given we need certainty well in advance of running these events, we have no other choice other than to cancel our 2023 events.”

“Competitors are also waiting on a clear direction of what the future looks like for them, so are rightly holding off on entering our events. This in turn has forced us to cancel our 2023 events, after postponing TARGA Tasmania earlier in the year to hopefully give the process more time to be effectively implemented.

“We have sincerely tried as hard as we can to ensure the return of TARGA this year. It is another sad day for everyone involved in TARGA.

“We will now focus on an exciting return of TARGA Tasmania in its traditional place on the calendar from 8 to 13 April 2024” Perry said.