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The tiny Fiat
750 Abarth of Jack Waldon and Vin Gregory is
storming its way through the event in giant
killing mood. Now 16th in the 'Early
Classic' section it is classified well ahead
of many much more powerful cars amongst the
47 crews still running in the category with
one day remaining. |
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The battle for modern section honours at Targa Tasmania
has developed in to a two horse race between the
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera of Kevin Weeks and the Nissan GTR of Tony
Quinn cleared out from the field, with only the final
leg from Strahan to Hobart remaining.
Weeks holds a slender eight second lead over the veteran
Quinn, with local hope, Jason White, in a similar
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera to Weeks, is back one minute 44
seconds seconds after experiencing wind-screen wiper
problems in the rain late on the fourth day.
The winner of the past two Classic titles, Rex
Broadbent, is on-track to make it three straight after a
brilliant drive in the wet on Saturday afternoon. The
leader since the opening day, Ben Wooster, in a Nissan
Skyline GTS, watched his lead vanish when the roads
turned slippery at Hellyer Gorge early in the afternoon.
No such problems for Tasmanian Greg Johnston in the
Showroom class. His Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 has
dominated proceedings across the first four days, and
victory on the fifth seems his certain reward.
After leaving Launceston the first four stages of the
penultimate day were held in dry conditions. But once the event
reached the Hellyer Gorge, light rain followed the crews
down the West coast, making Weeks’ drive all the more
impressive.
His rear-wheel drive Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
wasn’t expected to be on the pace when the weather
turned, but he’s proven everyone wrong.
"Today has been pretty edgy because it's been wet,”
Weeks said on arriving in Strahan. “We're looking
forward to getting to the finish with the car in one
piece. If it keeps raining I think it could be a problem
because the GTR (Quinn) is pretty quick."
Quinn’s charge for victory should have been made easier
in the rain, but brake problems early in the day saw him
drop time to his rival. His Nissan GTR’s brakes
overheated and the car cut out, forcing him to restart
the engine before continuing.
"I drove the last three kilometres of one stage using
just the gears and the handbrake, it was incredible,”
Quinn said.
“The boys reckon the brake fluid probably boiled. This
car is 400kg heavier than anything else, so it's an area
that we're obviously going to have to do some
development in.”
Local hopes have been resting on Jason White after his
scorching pace on Friday, but the Burnie driver lost
time firstly with brake problems, and then when his
windscreen wipers seized on the last stage.
"The ABS problem that we knew we had coming into the
event was accentuated by the wet conditions, and to make
things worse the new front brake pads we put in last
night went really soggy,” White explained.
“We're doing what we can in the wet, but then the wipers
seized three kilometres into the last stage and we
virtually had to come to a stop because the rain was so
heavy. Hopefully we can fix that tonight.”
Dean Herridge was in fourth place but was forced to
change two tyres after the Cethana stage. The ensuing
four minute penalty dropped him to seventh place. That
elevated Burnie’s Jamie Vandenberg into fourth place in
his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9.
In the classic car category, Victorian driver Rex Broadbent has
been the star of the day, winning five of the eight
stages and ending the day with a commanding one minute
and 24 second buffer.
His closest rival, and the leader for the first four
days, Queenslander Ben Wooster, dropped to second after
struggling with cracked brake rotors on the front of his
Nissan Skyline GTS.
Broadbent’s Porshce 911 handled the stages beautifully,
and he’s eyeing his third straight Targa crown.
"This is the first time I've used medium tyres, and they
feel pretty good,” he said. “We haven't done anything
silly, we've just stayed in the middle of the road and
if we've picked up time, then that's fantastic."
Wooster was disappointed to lose the lead, but hopeful
of repairing the car for the final run to Hobart.
"We'll try and fix the car tonight, but I'm not sure
what we can do, we're stuck here on the west coast and
we might just have to try and get it to the finish,” a
dejected Wooster said as spare parts were being sourced
in Hobart late on Saturday afternoon.
Although he’s over two minutes from the lead, New South
Welshman Bill Pye hasn’t given up hope just yet.
"We've saved our tyres until the end, so we can have a
go regardless. Our strategy is to go harder tomorrow,”
Pye said. “We can hold the pace with most in the dry,
but in the wet we might be a little bit quicker."
Greg Johnston has extended his lead in the Showroom
category, but Mazda’s Brendan Reeves suffered a puncture
today and dropped to third place, while his team-mate,
Rick Bates, suffered turbo problems and is now
languishing in sixth position.
That has allowed last year’s winner, Hobart’s Tony
Warren, to move onto the second place on the podium in
his Lancer Evo 9, but with a gap of nearly three minutes
between he and Johnston, it appears unlikely that he can
repeat last year’s win.
Reeves was disappointed with his time loss and the
consequent two minute penalty for changing a tyre, but
owned up to the mistake.
"We had a 'don't cut' on a corner in Rosebery, and me
being a typical driver, I cut the corner and we got a
puncture,” he said.
“Now we're well back in our class. I'm not sure if we
can make up the time tomorrow, with the wet conditions
the four-wheel drives have been really quick, and if it
stays wet I don't think we'll have any chance."
The 18th running of Targa Tasmania concludes on Sunday
with a further five stages between Strahan and Hobart,
including the event’s longest, Mount Arrowsmith at 47
kilometres.
The podium finish will be at Hobart’s Wrest Point at
2pm.
Targa Tasmania Day Four results:
MODERN (Provisional)
1. Kevin Weeks (SA), Rebecca Crunkhorn (SA), 2007
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
2. Tony Quinn (QLD), Naomi Tillett (SA), 2008 Nissan GTR,
+8s
3. Jason White (TAS), John White (TAS), 2007 Lamborghini
Gallardo Superleggera, +1min 44s
4. Jamie Vandenberg (TAS ), Simon Vandenberg (TAS ), 2006
Mitsubishi Lancer EVO 9, +5:29s
5. Klark Quinn (QLD), Toni Feaver (WA), 2006 Mitsubishi
Lancer Evo IX, +5:43s
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