A day of high drama has seen hopes of back to back victories for Lamborghini on the Targa Tasmania evaporate after the front running Gallardo Superleggera of defending champion Jason White incurred a 20 minute time penalty.

It left Queensland’s Tony Quinn grabbing a comfortable 90 second buffer over the rest of the modern field after pre-event favourite White was hit with the penalty after arriving late into a time control. Quinn, the 2009 winner, was supreme at the front of the field in his Nissan GT-R, leaving Victorian Matt Close (Audi TT RS) and South Australian Matthew Sims (Nissan GT-R) fighting it out for the minor placings.

The Classic Outright competition was also drama filled, with NSW driver Andrew Miedecke wrestling the lead from Launceston’s local hero David Cooper, while Mazda’s Brendan Reeves has continued his domination of the Showroom class and now leads by over two and a half minutes. Hobart’s Tony Warren is still on top after a good battle with Matthew Heskin in the TMR Performance Showroom 4WD competition. Blaise Paris still leads the Early Modern competition; Paul Freestone (1948 Holden 215) the Early Classic Handicap, while Duane Rodgers holds a slender Late Classic Handicap lead in his Porsche.

Day two of Targa Tasmania took competitors to the state’s east coast, with eight competitive stages, finishing with a spectacular run around the streets of the historic town of Longford. Quinn started the day with a slender five second advantage over White’s Lamborghini Gallardo, but the local hero hit a rock, punctured a tyre and suffered under body on the first stage of the day.

After making repairs to his car at the end of the stage, he arrived at the start of the following test outside his late time allowance, incurring a 20-minute time penalty that has dashed his hopes of back-to-back Targa titles. "We had to straddle a great big boulder in The Sideling, and rather than tear a wheel off the car it's managed to roll its way down the car and puncture everything from oil coolers to oil pipes and even the bottom of the engine," White said. "We've got it all patched up, but we seem to have run out of late time by just a few minutes, so it's a 20 minute penalty, so that's about the end of us, unfortunately. It leaves White in 50th place out of 53 cars still running in the Modern category, 18 minutes and 24 seconds off the rally lead.

After a disappointing first day when he encountered gearbox problems, Kevin Weeks in the other Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera on the event is in eighth place overnight, pending an investigation into an incident on the day’s penultimate stage.

Quinn, meanwhile, was extending his lead with a series of fast times that could set him up for his second Targa Tasmania victory in three years. “I’m totally casual about today, we do our best and whatever happens, happens,” Quinn said. “It’s proof that you need to just be there and keep going. We’ve been pressing on and our intention is to press on more tomorrow and try and just get a comfortable gap. If it rains on Saturday and Sunday then a few of the boys with medium compound tyres might be a bit quicker than we think. ”

The husband and wife pairing of Matt and Casey Close are second, while the son and father combination of Matthew and Dennis Sims have continued their impressive run in their Nissan GT-R to hold third. Former gravel rally ace, Dean Herridge, is fourth, while eight-times Targa Tasmania winner, Jim Richards, is fifth in his Porsche 911 GT2 RS.

The Classic Outright competition has produced a classic tussle, although the day saw the demise of two-time World Rally Champion, Walter Rohrl, who retired his Porsche 911 SC with mechanical problems. David Cooper faced a day-long battle as his rivals set about reducing the lead the 1977 Holden Torana A9X driver had built up on day one. Four-time winner, Rex Broadbent, in a Porsche 911 made an early charge, but it was Port Macquarie car dealer, Andrew Miedecke, who moved his 1970 Ford Capri Perana into a 16 second lead by day’s end. “It’s been an eventful day,” Miedecke said. “In the first stage our anti-roll bar sort of tied itself up in knots, so it cost us a bit of time. We started having some gear change problems on the opening day, and we thought we’d fixed them, but we haven’t, so we’ve been running most of the day in third and fourth. With a big engine like ours it doesn’t kill us, but it does hurt us a bit. But the way I look at it is if you are going through slow corners in third gear, you’re not wearing the tyres out and we’ll have plenty of tyres for a real big run over the next few days. I think we’re still in good shape.” Broadbent stormed up from his overnight place of seventh to be third, just 36 seconds from the lead, by the time the cars made their way back to the Launceston Silverdome at the conclusion of the day.

Once again the Showroom competition was dominated by Brendan Reeves in the factory Mazda, but Skoda’s Mike Sinclair continued to set impressive times in the Octavia RS station wagon. Adam Dodd is third and has moved ahead in the battle of the Mazda MX5s, leading Andrew McKay and Kelly Silverthorn.

Day three of Targa Tasmania heads east of Launceston for a further eight stages over a competitive distance of around 80 kilometres, with the highlight being the run around the streets of Devonport.

Results – Day Two 2011 Targa Tasmania (Provisional)

Pure Tasmania Modern       

1. Tony Quinn (QLD) / Naomi Tillett (SA), 2009 Nissan GT-R  
2. Matt Close (VIC) / Casey Close (VIC), 2010 Audi TT RS, +1 min 32 secs
3. Matthew Sims (SA) / Dennis Sims (SA), 2009 Nissan GT-R, +1m33s
4. Dean Herridge (WA) / Ben Searcy (WA), 2008 Subaru Impreza WRX STI, +1m52s
5. Jim Richards (VIC) / Barry Oliver (TAS), 2011 Porsche GT2 RS, +2m24s

Shannons Classic Outright       

1. Andrew Miedecke (NSW) / Daniel Willson (TAS), 1970 Ford Perana
2. David Cooper (TAS) / Jason Dann (TAS), 1977 Holden Torana A9X, +16s
3. Rex Broadbent (VIC) / Chris Randell (VIC), 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RS, +36s
4. Jon Siddins  (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (VIC), 1970 Datsun 240Z, +2m00s
=5. Len Cattlin (VIC) / Gayle Cattlin (VIC), 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 302, +2m38s
=5. John Ireland (VIC) / Michael Ribot (VIC), 1977 Porsche Carrera 3, +2m38s

Shannons Late Classic Handicap       

1. Duane Rodgers (VIC) / Paul Rodgers (NZ), 1985 Porsche 911 Carrera
2. Barry Faux (ACT) / Therezia Mihajlovic (ACT), 1979 Mazda RX7, +9s
3. Peter Ullrich (NSW) / Sari Ullrich (NSW), 1963 Jensen CV8, +20s
4. Jon Siddins  (QLD) / Darren Ferguson (VIC), 1970 Datsun 240Z, +43s
5. David Cooper (TAS) / Jason Dann (TAS), 1977 Holden Torana A9X, +1m08s

Shannons  Early Classic Handicap       

1. Paul Freestone (VIC) / Christine Freestone (VIC), 1948 Holden
2. Paul Batten (VIC) / Mike Batten (NSW), 1961 Volvo PV544 , +11secs
3. Scott Kent (TAS) / Wayne Kent (TAS), 1965 Ford Mustang, +51s
4. Jack Waldron (VIC) / Vin Gregory (VIC), 1955 FIAT Abarth 750, +1:34
5. Andrew White (NT) / Ashley Yelds (USA), 1961 Volvo 122S, +1m44

Pure Tasmania Early Modern   

1. Blaise Paris (WA) / Raechel Krause (WA), 1999 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VI
2. Andrew Richmond (VIC) / Matt James-Wallace (WA) , 2002 Nissan Skyline GT-R V Spec II N1, +27
3. Paul Dowie (VIC) / Nicole Bryan (TAS), 2001 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, +1m18s
4. David Ayers (TAS) / Robbie Bolton, 1997 Nismo 400R, +1m39s
5. Adam Newton (VIC) / Dan Lemish (VIC), 1997 Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IV, +1m44s