Dean appears at the feature article in the latest edition of Tarmac Magazine.

As well as talking about Targa and tarmac rallying, the interview also touches on Dean’s early career, transitioning from gravel to tarmac, modifying his driving style and competing against Lamborghinis. Plus you get a detailed looked inside Dean’s Maximum Motorsport Subaru, and find out who owns the pink sock.

Tarmac Magazine is available from newsagents throughout Australia, or online at www.tarmac-mag.com.au.

It’s been a tough weekend at Mt Panorama for the Maximum Motorsport team. The promise of a good result evaporated when a fault in the fuel tank caused laps to be lost in the pits.

The race began well, with John O’Dowd starting in the car and settings good times during the opening 50 minutes. But ten minutes before the first scheduled pit stop, the engine in #3 Subaru WRX STI started to ‘cough’ on certain corners. “To be honest, we’re still not identified the actual fault”, lead driver Dean Herridge commented at the end of busy race day. “We made a number of changes to the car, from our normal tarmac rally car setup, and one of those changes was fitting a new bagged fuel cell. It not only gives us greater range, but also helps with maintaining a reliable fuel supply when the car is cornering under load. But it looks like there is a fault within the fuel cell, and this caused the engine to ‘cough’ at various parts of the track.”

The team immediately began working to resolve the problem, with Dean driving seven or eight test stints in a search for an answer. “We thought we’d found the solution, and around the six hour mark I put in 22 or 23 laps and the car run perfectly. So I brought it back in and passed over the Angus Kennard for his first stint. But within a few laps the problem was back! In the end we rigged up a system that by-passed bag system and that worked well, although we could only run for six laps before needing to refuel. We should have won the ‘Most Use of the Pit Lane’ award!”

“When the car was running, it was running really well and we managed to set the fastest lap time for our class. So it was a bit frustrating, but we’ve learnt a lot and I think the experience has made us all pretty keen to come back.”

The Maximum Subaru did make to the chequered flag for 21st 19th place overall, and 4th place in Class D.

Photos courtesy of All Speed Images.

It’s been another solid result for Dean Herridge and the Maximum Motorsport team with 4th place at Targa Wrest Point.

Hoping to repeat last years fight with defending champ Jason White, the event turned into a two-horse race between the Lamborghinis of White and Kevin Weeks, leaving Dean to fight out the minor places with Steve Glenney (Mazda RX8) and Tony Quinn (Nissan GT-R). “It just goes to show how competitive this championship has become”, Dean observed. “We drove the wheels off the car and we were in a fight the whole weekend. In the end, the difference between 4th and 2nd was that Steve Glenney had a bit of blinder on stage 4 or 5 and got ahead of us. Apart from that, all three of us were pretty close over the event.”

“The car was great all weekend. We had some minor things that we’ll look at before Targa Tasmania, but nothing serious. With the move to E85 fuel we’re now getting a lot more performace from the car, and that’s exposing other areas we need to work on. So we’ll get the car back to Perth and start preparing for Targa Tasmania.”

“We’re now second in the championship. Jason’s got a little bit of a break on us, but there’s double points on offer for Targa Tasmania. The series is still wide open.”

The Maximum team now faces a new challenge; Bathurst’s Mt Panorama and this weekends Armor All 12 Hour production race.

Targa Wrest Point 2011 – Final Results

1. Jason White / John White, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
2. Steve Glenney / Bernie Webb, Mazda RX8 SP, +29s
3. Tony Quinn / Naomi Tillett, Nissan GT-R, +58s
4. Dean Herridge / Bill Hayes, Subaru WRX STI, +1m17s
5. Matt Close / Casey Close, Audi TT RS, +2m23s

Photos courtesy of Optical Note. – More photos can be seen on our gallery page.

Dean Herridge and the Maximum Motorsport team have begun a hectic fortnight of competition, arriving in Hobart to prepare for Targa Wrest Point. The second round of the Australian Targa Championship is contested on roads south of Hobart; stages which have typically suited Dean’s Subaru WRX STI. “Stages like ‘Airwalk’ and ‘Cygnet’ are fantastic to drive and have become favourites for many. And this event really allows our Subarus to shine. There are a couple of pretty narrow and bumpy stages on this event, and that gives us a bit of advantage against the larger cars.”

And Targa Wrest Point will see Dean reunited with his former co-driver Bill Hayes. “It’s great to have Bill back in the team. We competed together for years, so having him back in the car for Wrest Point feels pretty natural. Unfortunately Glen (Weston) wasn’t available for this event, so Bill stepped in. We’ve had great success together in the past, and this is an event where we can really challenge the ‘exotics’ for victory”.

Targa Wrest Point will be the first of back-to-back events of the Maximum team. Although the team is focused on the Tasmanian event for the next few days, as soon as Dean crosses the finish line in Hobart on Sunday night it will be ‘all hands on deck’ to pack up and transport the cars to Bathurst for the Armor All 12 Hour production race. “We’re travelling with two cars with very different setups. For Wrest Point I’ve got the 2.0L WRX STI that I’ve been using for the past couple of years. But for Bathurst, we’ve prepared our new 2.5L STI. I’ve not driven this car in competition before and it’s a very different setup for a 12 Hour endurence race. But we’re really excited to be competing at Bathurst under the Maximum Motorsport banner, and I think we’ve go the potential to surprise a few people”.

For updates during Targa Wrest Point and the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour, check back here at deanherridge.com or on our Facebook page.

Main photo courtesy of Optical Note Photography.

Maximum Motorsport announced today it will contest the Armor All Bathurst 12 Hour production car event at the beginning of February. Dean Herridge will lead the team, driving Maximum’s 2.5L Subaru WRX STI race car.

“This is something we’ve been looking at for a while”, Dean said from the Maximum Motorsport workshop in Perth. “We had a successful test session at Mount Panorma in November. We were pretty happy with the times we managed to set in the 2.0L tarmac rally car. For the ’12 Hour’ we’ll use the 2.5L car that debuted at Targa Tasmania last year, set up specifically for this event”.

“I guess the decision has surprised a few people. Maximum is pretty well known for tarmac and gravel rallying, and this is our first foray into production car racing. But I have competed in the ’12 Hour’ a couple of times, and we’ve got guys in our team like Steve Wisby who was involved in Glen Seton’s touring car team for many years. So as individuals, we all bring plenty of motorsport experience to the team.”

“Joining me in the car will be John O’Dowd and Angus Kennard. John is a regular with our team; he drives a Maximum-prepared Subaru in the WA state rally championship and has completed in the ’12 Hour’ a few times now. Last year he finished 4th Outright in a Greg Murphy Racing prepared EVO 8, and he knows his way around the mountain. Angus has quite a bit of tarmac rallying experience, and regularly campaigns the ex-Subaru factory WRX STI that I drove in the ’12 Hour’ with Chris Atkinson and Cody Crocker in 2007.”

“So it may seem that we’re stepping into new territory, and in some ways we are. But we think we’ll be competitive with the other cars in our class this year, and we’ll be building experience for future years.”

And while Bathurst offers some new challenges for the team, Maximum Motorsport will be contesting Targa Wrest Point, the second round of the Australian Targa Championship, on the weekend prior to the ’12 Hour’.

“Bathurst is a great opportunity, but Targa is our main focus”, commented Dean. “We had a great run at Wrest Point last year, and I think we shocked a few people by leading after the first day. Second place was good, but we’d like to go one better this time.”

“I really like this event. It’s based on roads south of Hobart and uses a lot of stages previously used in Targa Tasmania several years ago. Stages like ‘Airwalk’ and ‘Cygnet’ are fantastic to drive and have become favourites for many. And this event really allows our Subarus to shine. There are a couple of pretty narrow and bumpy stages on this event, and that gives us a bit of advantage against the larger cars.”

We had a good start to the season at Targa High Country in November. We banked some solid points, even though we suffered during the event with brake problems. That’s now behind us, and we’re looking to really attack at Wrest Point and ruffle the feathers of some the ‘exotics'”.

Targa Wrest Point, the second round of the Australian Targa Championship, runs over the weekend of January 29 and 30. The Amour All Bathurst 12 Hour takes place on Sunday 6th February.

It’s been a positive start to the 2011 Australian Targa Championship for Dean Herridge and Glen Weston with 4th place at Targa High Country.

On the opening day, running on roads expected to suit the faster cars, the pair managed to stay in touch with the leaders to sit in 4th place at the end of the first leg. “We were really pleased with our performance during Saturday”, noted Dean at the end of two hard days of competition. “The stages didn’t really suit our car, and all the guys ahead of us were in cars with much larger engines. On top of that we had a few brake dramas, so to be in fourth by the end of the day was great.”

“Sundays stages were twistier than Saturdays, and we expected to be a lot more competitive. Unfortunately our brake problems re-appeared during Sunday morning and for three stages we had virtually no brakes. That meant we had to slow down to make it back to service. But once we got on top of that we managed peg back a fair bit of time to Jimmy (Richards).”

“So although Sunday didn’t quite work out the way we’d planned, it was actually better than the results suggest. For this event we ran E85 fuel in our car, and we’re really happy with the improvement in horse-power and torque. We’ve now got some good points ‘in the bank’ for the rest of the championship and we’ve got some more development planned for the car. Maybe not the result we wanted, but a solid result”.

After a post-event of timing revision Kevin Weeks was named the event winner, beating fellow Lamborghini driver Jason White by 20 seconds, with third-placed Jim Richards just over a minute behind.

The next event is Targa Wrest Point, run on roads south of Hobart. “We had a great run at Wrest Point last year. I think we shocked a few people by beating the Lamborghinis on the first day. Second place was good, but we’d like to go one better this year.”

Targa High Country – Final Results (Provisional)
1. Kevin Weeks, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, 11:35
2. Jason White, Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, +0:20
3. Jim Richards, Porsche 911 GT3 RS, +1:21
4. Dean Herridge, Subaru Impreza WRX STi, +1:41
5. Matt Close, Audi TTRS, +3:02

Photos courtesy of www.targahighcountry.com.au