Leigh Hopper is a regular competitor in Targa events. He entered his first Targa event in 2007 in a standard WRX STi Subaru only to bin it on the fourth day. Having caught the bug, subsequent Targa entries have generally been Subaru variants running in the modified 4WD category with registration HTR969. With five event wins, Leigh is a top contender but also carries a healthy reputation for regularly binning his cars (fortunately no injuries) including shaving some bark off a 1m diameter pine tree here at the Leadfoot Festival Hopefully he will survive the main Targa event to line-up at Leadfoot in 2017.

Leigh Hopper - 2004 Subaru STi C Spec RA

Leigh Hopper is a regular competitor in Targa events. He entered his first Targa event in 2007 in a standard WRX STi Subaru only to bin it on the fourth day. Having caught the bug, subsequent Targa entries have generally been Subaru variants running in the modified 4WD category with registration HTR969. With five event wins, Leigh is a top contender but also carries a healthy reputation for regularly binning his cars (fortunately no injuries) including shaving some bark off a 1m diameter pine tree here at the Leadfoot Festival Hopefully he will survive the main Targa event to line-up at Leadfoot in 2017.

2004 Subaru STi C Spec RA:

This is a Subaru STi C spec RA Targa car. It has many of the mechanical components of Leigh’s previous Targa cars. The last car experienced an unceremonious encounter with a power pole during the prologue for the October 2015 Targa Rally. Built by Leigh’s nephew Ricky Gray of Mach1 Engineering, the car has a healthy 400kw output and is coupled to a 6 speed Modena sequential gearbox. Extracting reliability has been a progressive exercise over the years and Leigh has made incremental improvements and adjustments to keep up with and on occasions ahead of other competitors with far more modern computer-assisted technology.