Pre-event favourite Jason White in his Lamborghini
Gallardo Super Trofeo produced a superb drive in
horrendous conditions on yesterday's opening leg to take
a strong lead into today's second leg of Targa Tasmania.
While wet and windy weather lashed the north of the
state, White powered on in his Lamborghini Gallargo
Super Trofeo Strada, recovering from a slow start to end
the day nine seconds clear of 2008 winner, Steve Glenney,
driving a Mazda RX8.
Reigning champion, Rex Broadbent, used all of his
experience and guile to finish the opening eight stages
as the fastest Classic car, while Tasmanian Tony Warren
was again the pace setter in the Showroom division.
White knows that with four days to go he will face many
challenges, but none that will come close to the morning
stages on the opening day. "The Holwell stage was
absolutely atrocious," White explained. "We were sitting
at the start line and just as we went to start the stage
a massive squall came through and the car was actually
shaking from side to side because of the wind. Just
after we took off the heater stopped working and the
windscreen completely fogged up and all I had was a tiny
little gap to see through to drive the stage. But as
soon as the weather cleared up on the next couple of
stages we started to make amends for it and we had a
great run through Mersey Lea and grabbed the lead."
After a great first day
on the road in Targa Tasmania, John White, co-driver to
Targa leader Jason White, is totally rapt in the
performance of the Lamborghini, despite horrendous
weather conditions. The car has now been totally
redeveloped in the intervening 12 months since last
years event he explains: "The only bit that is common
with the car we ran last year is the tub," John said.
"We reckon that we know more about this car than
Lamborghini themselves. They all operate in a closed box
atmosphere, whereas we have to deal with the whole car
and in an endurance competition environment.” The engine
is both bored and stroked to give 5200cc total capacity
and has 4 more bhp, but more importantly an increase in
torque of about 20%," John advised. Previous problems
included dramas with the ABS and the gearbox. However
John’s tight-knit team has now ironed out these issues,
and he is very proud of the fact that it has all been
done locally.
Glenney was also highly impressive yesterday in his
two-wheel drive car against the four-wheel drive
Lamborghini. "We've had sheets of rain, poor vision, oil
on the road and very slippery conditions, so we’ve just
been trying to tune the car as we go. "The Mazda is
responding really well - it's a different car to last
year when it was basically just a showroom car. It's
been properly prepared this year and it's going really
well. There's still a long way to go, but it feels
good."
2009 winner, Tony Quinn, sits in third place, and while
he is 30 seconds from the lead, he is well aware that
there is still a very long way still to go. West
Australian Steve Jones is two seconds further back in
fourth place, also driving a Nissan GT-R, while Dean
Herridge and Ray Vandersee are equal in fifth place.
As expected, the Classic battle was tightly fought, with
Rex Broadbent holding sway at the end of a tough opening
day. Surprisingly, one of the pre-event favourites, NSW
driver Bill Pye, crashed his Porsche on the penultimate
stage, leaving Broadbent with a narrow 12 second lead
over a Paul Batten in a 1961 Volvo PV544. "The weather
conditions were terrible for the first two or three
stages. People were crashing because they couldn’t see
and it was so slippery," Broadbent said. "But I'm in it,
and I'm having fun, but I don’t think I've been quite so
scared in a car for a long time. Those stages this
morning were scary." Batten perhaps produced the drive
of the day in the ageing Volvo, and he sits 18 seconds
clear of Jon Siddins in third place, driving a 1970
Datsun 240Z. Batten also leads the Classic handicap
event after his impressive drive in the wet.
After setting the pace in Tuesday's Temco Prologue,
yesterday Tony Warren was again the man to catch in his
Showroom competition Lancer Evo IX. He finished the day
28 seconds clear of the new Lancer Evo X of Dean Evans,
while in third place sits the front-wheel drive Mazda3
MPS of Brendan Reeves.
Leg 2 of Targa Tasmania takes competitors east of
Launceston over eight Targa stages today, including one
of the event's most famous stages, 'The Sideling'. At
just under 14 kilometres in length, the stage begins the
day in what many competitors hope will be fine
conditions. Crews return back to the event base at the
Launceston Silverdome at around 5pm this evening.
Results after Leg 1
of Targa Tasmania 2010
PURE TASMANIA
MODERN COMPETITION
1. Jason White (TAS) / John White (TAS), 2010
Lamborghini Gallardo Supertrofeo Strada
2. Steve Glenney (SA) / Bernie Webb (NSW), 2009 Mazda
RX-8 SP, +9s
3. Tony Quinn (QLD) / Naomi Tillett (SA), 2009 Nissan
GT-R, +30s
4. Steve Jones (WA) / Ben Searchy (WA), 2008 Nissan
GT-R, +32s
=5. Ray Vandersee (QLD) / Cameron Reeves (QLD), 2009
Skelta G-Force S/C Spec A, +50s
=5. Dean Herridge (WA) / Glen Weston (QLD), 2008 Subaru
Impreza WRX STi, +50
7. Matt Close (VIC) / Casey Close (VIC), 2010 Audi TTRS,
+1m08s
8. Jim Richards (VIC) / Barry Oliver (TAS), 2010 Porsche
911 GT3 RS, +1m10s
9. Tony Alford (QLD) / Karl Farmer (QLD), 2007 Nissan
GT-R, +1m25s
10. Angus Kennard (NSW) / Damien Grimwood (TAS), 2007
Subaru Impreza WRX STi Spec C, +1m28s
SHANNONS CLASSIC OUTRIGHT
1. Rex Broadbent (VIC) / Chris Randell (VIC), 1974
Porsche 911 Carrera RS, +1m41s
2. Paul Batten (VIC) / Mike Batten (NSW), 1961 Volvo
PV544,+12s
3. Jon Siddins (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (QLD), 1970
Datsun 240Z, +30s
4. David Cooper (TAS) / Jason Dann (TAS), 1977 Holden
Torana A9X, +39s
5. Peter Eames (VIC) / Will Logan (TAS), 1974 Porsche
911 RS, +42s
6. John Ireland (NSW) / Michael Ribot (NSW), 1977
Porsche 911 Carrera 3, +42s
7. George Pethard Jnr (NSW) / Adrian Johnstone (NSW),
1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3, +1m02s
8. Richard Woodward (NSW) / David McCrow (NSW), 1969
Holden Monaro GTS, +1m37s
9. Peter Ullrich (NSW) / Sari Ullrich (NSW), 1963 Jensen
CV8, +1m41s
10. Andrew Bryson (UAE) / Jason Rowley (SA), 1975
Davrian Coupe, +2m15s
PURE TASMANIA SHOWROOM COMPETITION
1. Tony Warren (TAS) / Natasha Deniese (VIC), 2006
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX
2. Dean Evans (NSW) / Simone Bachmann (VIC), 2008 TMR
Evolution X Club Spec, +28s
3. Brendan Reeves (VIC) / Rhianon Smyth (VIC), 2009
Mazda3 MPS, +57s
4. Greg Burrowes (QLD) / Rhonda Burrowes (QLD), 2008
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, +2m18s
5. Peter Brown (NSW) / Stewart Gamble (NSW), 2007 Mazda
3 Diesel, +2m53s
6. David Watson (TAS) / Stuart Lister (VIC), 2004
Volkswagen Golf R32, +3m10s
SHANNONS CLASSIC HANDICAP
1. Paul Batten (VIC) / Mike Batten (NSW), 1961 Volvo
PV544
2. Jon Siddins (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (QLD), 1970
Datsun 240Z, +1m16s
3. John Ireland (NSW) / Michael Ribot (NSW), 1977
Porsche 911 Carrera 3, +1m24s
4. Peter Ullrich (NSW) / Sari Ullrich (NSW), 1963 Jensen
CV8, +1m36s
5. Rex Broadbent (VIC) / Chris Randell (VIC), 1974
Porsche 911 Carrera RS, +1m41s
PURE TASMANIA EARLY MODERN
1. Andrew Richmond (VIC) / Chris Thomson (VIC), 2001
Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II N1
2. David Ayers (TAS) / Robbie Bolton (NSW), 1997 Nismo
400R, +32s
3. Jeff Beable (VIC) / Nerida Beable (VIC), 2000 Nissan
Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1, +41s
PURE TASMANIA ROOKIE RALLYE MODERN
1. Adam Newton (VIC) / Daniel Lemish (VIC), 1997
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV RS
2. Stephen Spada (NSW) / Christine Condon (NSW), 1999
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX RS, +52s
3. Stewart Liddle (WA) / Michael Lloyd (WA), 2003 Subaru
Impreza WRX STi, +55s
PURE TASMANIA ROOKIE RALLYE CLASSIC
1. Stephen Barrand (VIC) / Tim Manion (TAS), 1981 Volvo
242GT
2. Michael Lamprell (SA) / Tania Wearing (SA), 1966 Ford
Mustang, +13s
3. Simon Duff (NSW) / Shaun Dudley (NSW), 1980 Lancia
Beta, +2m54s
SHANNONS VINTAGE RALLYE
1. Wayne Clark (TAS) / Roger Richardson (TAS), 1938
Dodge Speedster Special
2. John Felder (VIC) / Craig de Somerville (VIC), 1930
Oakland 8-101, +7m27s
3. John Lawson (VIC) / Paul Lawson (VIC), 1936 Delage D6
70 Le Mans, +24m20s
