Thirty cars lined up in Pemberton at the start of the Make Smoking History Targa South West on Saturday, but it was one Porsche that ruled them all.
Mark Cates and co-driver Bernie Webb won all 16 stages in the Competition Modern class, the fastest of the rally, and finished 30 seconds clear of Dardanup duo Will White and Steph Esterbauer in both the morning and afternoon rallysprints.
Their weapon of choice was a 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS, tuned to perfection for the short, punchy stages through the forest.
"I wasn't sure how the shortened format would suit us, but the roads the organisers chose were brilliant fun," Cates said.
Cates and Webb started the day with a four second win in the first stage with a time of 2 minutes 16 seconds. From there, the lead snowballed across the eight morning stages, with the Porsche pair consistently a handful of seconds clear of White and Esterbauer in their Nissan GT-R Nismo.
Cates said that it was an immensely fun day of racing on the closed roads around Pemberton.
"The first three stages were pretty gnarly, but after those, we found our groove and it was a really fun day.
"The car performed spectacularly well. We didn't even check the oil or change any tyres.
"We brought home the bacon for Bunbury."
Doug Tostevin and Dan Adams finished third fastest in Sprint Two in their Subaru Impreza WRX, 47 seconds behind White and Esterbauer, and took third place overall.
Husband and wife team Bill and Glenys Stagoll were in the hunt for third, but a mechanical failure during the tenth stage forced them to retire their Mitsubishi Evo 9.
Cates is headed to Melbourne this weekend to compete in the 488 Ferrari Challenge, a support category for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Paul Moltoni made a triumphant return to Targa in his 1972 Porsche 911 RS, with co-driver Lisa Read White, the duo won the Competition Classic category.
Moltoni said his Porsche was running well until the second last stage where it lost power, and they limped through town to finish the event, losing 33 seconds.
"The win was unexpected, and I guess the misfortune of Nathan Ellement having an off was our fortune, we were surprised but very happy with the win," Moltoni said.
Moltoni said that after he won the four-day Targa West in Perth in 2015, he gave up rallying while juggling family commitments, only competing in a few circuit racing events.
"I really like the team environment in Targa events, you have to rely on your navigator, I like that events are longer than a couple of hours, they last all day and sometimes several days. It doesn't matter where you are from or what you do, everyone is there with a common goal - to have a good time," Moltoni said.
