National Motorsport Awards NPDC and VT

Great customer service and event management have resulted in New Plymouth District Council and Venture Taranaki receiving awards from Dunlop Targa New Zealand.

Today (Friday) Targa Event Director Mike John presented the Outstanding Council Award to Mayor Peter Tennent, and the Outstanding Evening Function Award and the Support and Appreciation Award to VT CEO Stuart Trundle.

“How easy it is to work with the governing bodies can be the difference between us bringing the rally to an area or not,” says Mr John.

“We deal with about 20 councils for the planning of the rally, and New Plymouth District Council and Venture Taranaki stood out as the best for helping us with road closures, promotions and facilities.

“We also had the most outstanding evening function last year at Puke Ariki, when there was a dinner for the competitors.

“And of course your Mayor is the icing on the cake because he makes everyone welcome.”

The awards are decided by Targa staff who work directly with council people, and the competitors themselves.

Mayor Peter Tennent was thrilled to receive the award on behalf of the council. “Our focus is always on making events happen as smoothly as possible, and it’s great to see the hard work of our staff recognised by Dunlop Targa New Zealand,” he says.

Dunlop Targa New Zealand also had another award to present in Taranaki: To Marco School near Whangamomona, which received the Most Outstanding Lunch award.

“Little Marco School has about 10 pupils, yet they provided lunch for the 550 people involved in the rally and it was the best lunch we had across New Zealand,” says Mr John.

“It was the biggest choice of meat I’ve ever seen in my life – even lambs’ tails!”

The Targa Rally has been running for 14 years, and has been in Taranaki for the last four.