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While attention
is focused on the two Lamborghini Gallardo
Superleggera entries at the front of the
field, Italian classic machines are well
reporsented as usual and cars to stand out
include an Alfa Romeo Montreal, GTV 6,
Giulia Super and Spider, a Fiat 600, 124 AC
and Abarth 750, and this Ferrari 308 GTB
(above) entered by Robert Gambino and
Matthew Reid from NSW. |
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South
Australian Kevin Weeks and Tasmanian Jason White have
been the big movers on day three of Targa Tasmania,
wrestling the lead off Tony Quinn and making it a
Lamborghini 1-2 with two days of the event still to run.
In a day of high drama, eight-time winner, Jim Richards,
crashed out of the event on the day’s fifth stage,
putting the Targa legend on the sidelines for the first
time in his 16 year history in the event.
The third day of the 18th Targa Tasmania started with
wet roads for the first time this year, but the
overnight rain quickly dissipated and clear skies
prevailed for much of the day. With his slight engine
problems from yesterday all sorted, Kevin Weeks was the
early mover, winning the opening stage and reducing the
gap to overnight leader Tony Quinn. But it was the drama
among the other event favourites that was creating all
the interest. Western Australian Steve Jones, the winner
of last year’s Targa West, was lying fourth in his
Nissan GTR until he crashed heavily on the Stoodley
test. Co-driver Ruari Soutar-Dawson was uninjured, but
Jones was taken to Launceston General Hospital for
observation with back pain.
Two stages later, Jim Richards shocked onlookers when he
hit a bank on the Paloona stage, damaging his Porsche’s
radiator beyond repair and retiring from the event for
the first time. "We hit a bank on a little second gear
corner and broke the radiator,” Richards explained. “The
radiator's right at the front of the Porsche, so
unfortunately we just rolled down the road and parked it
an SOS point and waited for the truck to arrive to pick
it up. These things happen, and they happen to other
drivers. It's just a consequence of going in a rally;
every now and then you make a little blue and hit
something, I suppose. I turned into the corner in second
gear, got to the middle of the corner and the car
understeered off on all the gravel and mud that was on
the road. But hey, 200 other cars got around the corner
without hitting the bank, so I was obviously going a
fraction too fast,” a philosophical Richards added.
"There's no excuses. The fact is that we hit the bank
and no-one else did."
Back at the front of the field it was shaping into a
ding-dong battle between the Lamborghinis of Weeks and
White, and Quinn’s Nissan. Weeks moved ahead of Quinn,
but local boy Jason White was the man on a mission. He
set the fastest time on the final four stages and
finished the day just three seconds from the lead,
having started the day with a 16 second deficit. Quinn
remains a big threat, particularly with wet weather
expected as the event moves from Launceston to Strahan
on Saturday, before the final day into Hobart on Sunday.
"It's great to see two Lamborghinis at the top of the
leader board,” Weeks said. “We really pulled all the
stops out on Paloona, but that's Whitey's back yard. We
didn't think anyone would beat us on that, but we got
beaten by eight seconds, so you have to hand it to him,
he did a sensational job on that stage. To stay in the
lead we'll have to go faster tomorrow."
White feels that things are getting better the longer
the event goes. "We've made good progress with our
pacenotes today, and things are really starting to
click,” White said. “John was a bit rusty on reading
them at first, but it's not working well and the stages
times are showing that. It's a shame to see Jim out of
the event, but we'd moved ahead of him before his
problem. Having said that, if you get a chance to stand
on a podium you want them standing below you, not having
retired from the event."
After an overnight engine rebuild, Dean Herridge’s
Subaru Impreza WRX has moved up to fourth place, but is
over a minute and a half off a podium placing, but
maintains a handy advantage over fifth placed Matt Close
in a Porsche.
Classic category pacesetter, Ben Wooster, from
Queensland, started the day with a 17 second lead over a
charging Rex Broadbent, but it wasn’t long before he
found himself six seconds in arrears after going off the
road on the second stage. “We came into the corner a bit
hot and locked a brake,” the Nissan Skyline GTS driver
explained. “We had to make a decision on whether to take
the corner, which I don't think was ever going to
happen. I had to go through a fence, then out through
some poor farmer's paddock, and then choose where I was
going to come back out onto the road.” Fortunately his
car was not damaged, and he regained his composure to
storm back into the lead, finishing the day 28 seconds
in front.
In second place, Broadbent has just a nine second
advantage over the similar Porsche of Bill Pye, but with
rain expected and Pye’s car set up for those conditions,
the battle of the German cars is far from over. Gavin
James is fourth, with Porsches holding five of the top
six positions in the classic field.
Showroom class leader Greg Johnston has had another
solid day, with his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 holding a
one minute and nine second lead over the front-wheel
drive Mazda3 MPS of the brother and sister pairing of
Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth. Johnston’s four-wheel
drive Lancer is using its extra traction to good effect,
but Reeves and his team-mate, Rick Bates, are making up
time on the longer stages, keeping Johnston on his toes.
Last year’s winner and runner-up in the Showroom class,
Tony Warren and Scott Millar, lie in fourth and fifth
place, but their hopes of repeating last year’s
successes seem to be fading rapidly.
Day four of Targa Tasmania is the longest of the event,
and sees the remaining competitors travel from
Launceston to Strahan via eight stages totaling nearly
138 competitive kilometers. The highlights are two of
the event’s most famous stages, Cethana and Hellyer
Gorge.
RESULTS
- END DAY 3, 2009 Targa Tasmania
MODERN (Provisional)
1. Kevin Weeks (SA), Rebecca Crunkhorn (SA), 2007
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
2. Jason White (TAS), John White (TAS), 2007 Lamborghini
Gallardo Superleggera, +0:03
3. Tony Quinn (QLD), Naomi Tillett (SA), 2008 Nissan GTR,
+0.04
4. Dean Herridge (WA), Glen Weston (QLD), 2008 Subaru
Impreza WRX STI , +1:44
5. Matt Close (VIC), Cameron Reeves (QLD), 2000 Porsche 911
Turbo, + 2:08
6. Jamie Vandenberg (TAS ), Simon Vandenberg (TAS ), 2006
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9, +2:26
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