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  The Adelaide event would have a prologue on September 14 followed by three days of competition.

Australia is to have a new national motorsport championship.

The CAMS Australian Targa Championship for tarmac rally cars will kick off with the new Supaloc Classic Targa Adelaide in September. Supaloc Classic Targa Adelaide replaces the former Classic Adelaide Rally that ran into financial difficulties two years ago.

The new event is being run by promoter Octagon which has won its reputation with Targa Tasmania. A portfolio of Octagon's events has been linked together and it was announced in Adelaide yesterday the series had won CAMS endorsement to become an Australian championship.

The championship for classic cars will include the Adelaide event in September, Targa High Country at Mt Buller, Victoria in November, Targa Wrest Point in Hobart in January and Targa Tasmania in April.

A championship for modern cars will be held over the latter three, Octagon's managing director Sean Nicholls confirming yesterday there was no plan to add a modern competition category to the Adelaide event.

"The targa format of rallying has been going from strength to strength over the past three years, growing out of Targa Tasmania," Mr Nicholls said. "Mote competitors will be attracted to it now that it has the backing of CAMS."

CAMS president Steve Papadopoulos said the Australian Targa Championship would be a significant title in Australian motorsport. "Tarmac rallying is a real growth area of Australian motorsport," he said.

Mr Nicholls said 100 entries had been taken for the Adelaide event so far and a further 100 were anticipated. The Adelaide event would have a prologue on Wednesday, September 14 followed by three days of competition, although that could grow to four days next year.

The Adelaide event has drawn naming rights sponsorship from steel building system Supaloc - an SA firm run by Kevin Weeks who is a three-time winner of the former Classic Adelaide Rally in his 1974 Porsche RS and who won Targa High Country last year in a modern Lamborghini.