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Alongside the "Modern" categories runners fighting for overall victory, there is
a large field of "Classic" cars in action, with Alfa Romeo well
represented as ever on this event. Here
entry # 360 Henry/Blake (1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super),
top, and #681 Morris/Molocznyk (1981 Alfa Romeo GTV 6
2.5), bottom, press on relentlessly during yesterday's
third leg. |
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Jason White has continued his dominance of Targa
Tasmania by further extending his lead on day three of
the classic Australian tarmac rally.
The Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Strada driver
increased his lead to one minute on a day when key
rivals Steve Glenney and Matt Close crashed out of the
event.
Tasmanian Tony Warren continues to lead the Showroom
competition in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, while
Rex Broadbent has again proved to be virtually
uncatchable in his quest for another Classic crown.
Conditions on day three were primarily dry, with misty
rain affecting some stages, however that didn’t slow the
flying Jason White. He started the day with a 31 second
advantage, and almost doubled that by day’s end.
“We’ve had a great day. It started off well this morning
and continued on this afternoon,” White said.
“We had a couple of moments with some scary road surface
changes, but apart from that it’s been as planned. But there’s no time to relax, especially with the
longer stages coming up Saturday and Sunday. If you
relax when someone else is having a crack, you could
lose a second per kilometre, which could mean a half a
minute in some of the longer stages. ”
Steve Glenney’s Mazda had turbo hose problems early in
the day, but the South Australian then crashed out of
the event after colliding with another car. The accident
took out Glenney’s Mazda RX8, and the Nissan Skyline of
David Ayers.
Glenney’s mishap promoted Queenslander Ray Vandersee to
second in his Australian-built Skelta G-Force, and
despite the one minute deficit, he hasn’t given up on
his chances of victory.
“The speed of the Lamborghini is just unbelievable and
it would be a big call for us to haul him back, to be
honest,” he said.
“I’m looking forward to the longer stages because up
until now they have been fairly short, and the
performance of the Lambo on the longer stages is a
little bit of an unknown as yet.”
Last year’s Targa champion, Tony Quinn, is still in
contention in his Nissan GT-R, 26 seconds behind the
flying Skelta, while Steve Jones (Nissan), Jamie
Vandenberg (Mitsubishi), and Jim Richards (Porsche) have
all moved up the leader board during the day and are
fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
While still pushing hard, Rex Broadbent has a vice-like
grip on the Classic competition title, increasing his
lead to over a minute and a half.
“We’re going moderately hard,” said Broadbent. “We
haven’t really backed off, we’re going comfortably
quickly. If we’re not pulling away, I’m glad we’ve got a
little bit of a break that we can maintain. The car
feels great – it’s really good.”
Second placed Jon Siddins is still hanging in there in
his 1970 Datsun 240Z, but has resigned himself to the
fact that Broadbent is out of reach.
“I’m really pleased to be in second place,” Siddins
said. “I’m not even going to try and catch Rex, the
Porsche is too fast, so we’ll just cruise along and run
our own race.”
The flying Porsche of Peter Eames is in third place, 11
seconds clear of local hero David Cooper in his Torana
A9X, with John Ireland fifth in another German 911.
Paul Batten, driving the 1961 Volvo PV544 looks set for
Classic Handicap honours.
Showroom competition leader, Tony Warren, had an
off-road excursion during the day that has seen his lead
narrow to 53 seconds, but he still holds a commanding
advantage over fellow Lancer Evo driver Dean Evans.
“The day’s been really good, apart from Mt Rowland which
is just a nightmare. The conditions up there were pretty
horrible,” Warren explained.
“We had a bit of a mishap ourselves, so the gap that we
have is handy. I’m very happy to still have the lead.”
Evans is 42 seconds ahead of front-wheel drive Mazda3
MPS driver Brendan Reeves, who had a better day than his
team-mate Glenney, including winning the 16 kilometre
Paloona stage.
Scott Millar lies fourth, followed by Greg Burrowes,
both drivers in Mitsubishis.
In Early Modern, Andrew Richmond and still leads Gavin
James in a hotly contested division, while in the
Shannons Vintage Rallye, John Felder still leads the way
in his 1930 Oakland 8-101.
Today's fourth day of Targa Tasmania is the longest so far,
with crews making the trek from Launceston, down the
west coast to Strahan. Damp conditions are almost
guaranteed on some of the eight Targa stages, which
total 166 competitive kilometres.
Three of the stages are over 30 kilometres in length,
including famous tests such as Cethana and Riana. The
tight and twisty Hellyer Gorge stage will also challenge
competitors.
Targa Tasmania - Provisional results after Day 3
PURE TASMANIA MODERN COMPETITION (provisional)
1. Jason White (TAS) / John White (TAS), 2010
Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Strada
2. Ray Vandersee (QLD) / Cameron Reeves (QLD), 2009
Skelta G-Force S/C Spec A, +1m00s
3. Tony Quinn (QLD) / Naomi Tillett (SA), 2009 Nissan
GT-R, +1m27s
4. Steve Jones (WA) / Ben Searcy (WA), 2008 Nissan GT-R,
+1m37s
5. Jamie Vandenberg (TAS) / Simon Vandenberg (TAS), 2006
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution IX, +3m41s
6. Jim Richards (VIC) / Barry Oliver (TAS), 2010 Porsche
911 GT3 RS, +3m51s
7. Dean Herridge (WA) / Glen Weston (QLD), 2008 Subaru
Impreza WRX STi, +5m08s
8. Tony Alford (QLD) / Karl Farmer (QLD), 2007 Nissan
GT-R, +5m24s
9. Tim Hendy (QLD) / Daniel Willson (TAS) 2005 Daytona
Couple, +5m37s
10. Simon Bartter (NSW) / Ian Wheeler (TAS), 2009 Subaru
Impreza STi, +6m15s
SHANNONS CLASSIC OUTRIGHT (provisional)
1. Rex Broadbent (VIC) / Chris Randell (VIC), 1974
Porsche 911 Carrera RS
2. Jon Siddins (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (QLD), 1970
Datsun 240Z, +1m43s
3. Peter Eames (VIC) / Will Logan (TAS), 1974 Porsche
911 RS, +2m06s
4. David Cooper (TAS) / Jason Dann (TAS), 1977 Holden
Torana A9X, +2m17s
5. John Ireland (NSW) / Michael Ribot (NSW), 1977
Porsche 911 RS, +4m04s
6. Paul Batten (VIC) / Mike Batten (NSW), 1961 Volvo
PV544, +4m10s
7. Barry Faux (ACT) / Therezia Mihajlovic (ACT), 1979
Mazda RX-7, +4m12s
8. George Pethard Jnr (NSW) / Adrian Johnstone (NSW),
1976 Porsche 911 Carrera 3, +4m59s
=9. Peter Ullrich (NSW) / Sari Ullrich (NSW), 1963
Jensen CV8, +6m15s
=9. Richard Woodward (NSW) / David McCrow (NSW), 1969
Holden Monaro GTS, +6m15
PURE TASMANIA SHOWROOM COMPETITION (provisional)
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, +52s
3. Brendan Reeves (VIC) / Rhianon Smyth (VIC), 2009
Mazda3 MPS, +1m34s
4. Scott Millar (QLD) / Christopher Dean (QLD), 2008
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, +3m59s
5. Greg Burrowes (QLD) / Rhonda Burrowes (QLD), 2008
Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X, +9m11s
SHANNONS CLASSIC HANDICAP (provisional)
1. Paul Batten (VIC) / Mike Batten (NSW), 1961 Volvo
PV544
2. Jon Siddins (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (QLD), 1970
Datsun 240Z, +1m24s
3. David Cooper (TAS) / Jason Dann (TAS), 1977 Holden
Torana A9X, +2m01s
4. Peter Ullrich (NSW) / Sari Ullrich (NSW), 1963 Jensen
CV8, +2m25s
5. Barry Faux (ACT) / Therezia Mihajlovic (ACT), 1979
Mazda RX-7, +3m22s
PURE TASMANIA EARLY MODERN (provisional)
1. Andrew Richmond (VIC) / Chris Thomson (VIC), 2001
Nissan Skyline GT-R V-Spec II N1
2. Gavin James (VIC) / Tim Kulhanek (TAS), 1989 Porsche
944 S2, +11s
3. Jeff Beable (VIC) / Nerida Beable (VIC), 2000 Nissan
Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1, +20s
4. Andrew Bollom (NSW) / Jon Roberts (VIC), 1997 Mazda
RX7, +3m53s
5. Brendan Manion (TAS) / Travis Dean, 1995 Nissan
Skyline GT-R V-Spec N1, +4m01s
SHANNONS VINTAGE RALLYE (provisional)
1. John Lawson (VIC) / Paul Lawson (VIC), 1936 Delage D6
70 Le Mans
2. John Felder (VIC) / Craig De Somerville (VIC), 1930
Oakland 8-101, +5m08s
3. Wayne Clark (TAS) / Roger Richardson (TAS), 1938
Dodge Speedster Special, +13m59s
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