TARGA: Day Four – Matt finished?

Local hero Jason White has slightly extended his lead over Victorian Matt Close in what is proving to be one of the most hard-fought Targa Tasmanias in its 25-year history.

Up bright and early the Targa crews descended from Burnie to the quaint fishing village of Strahan to overnight, taking in some of the wildest landscapes this state has to offer.

They were also met with a chance of showers for the first time this year.

Occasional small spatters of rain made parts of the early stages slippery, but that didn’t affect the top eight crews of the GT2 category. Each cleaned the 7.70km stretch known as Montumana.

The top protagonists cleaned the 11.62hm Irish Town, too, Close’s Porsche 991 911 GT3 and White’s Dodge Viper ACR this time joined by Michael Pritchard in his Viper ACR.

Tantalisingly, Close was able to beat White by 4sec in only 7.10km, on the Edith Creek stage, moving to only 2sec behind overall. Were the Viper’s tyres finished?

The 19.92km Oldina proved not, as Close, White and Pritchard once more cleaned the stage.

Hellyer Gorge is the most revered stage of the day and is also the longest at 21.13km. It was here that White asserted himself, gapping Close by 8sec to ease his lead up to double figures for the first time. The next-fastest GT2 was Pritchard once more, but he was 51sec off White’s pace.

It was this gap that held through the final two stages of the day, Mt Black and Rosebery, as White and Close cleaned both. His lead remains 10sec overnight.

“The changes we made to the suspension and wheel alignment last night made the car awesome today,” White said.

“If we had that set-up from the start of the event we wouldn’t have been concerned about tyre wear at all. We’re very confident now the tyres will make the distance, no worries at all.

“Now that we’ve sorted out tyre concerns we can push a bit harder and try to extend our lead.”

Over in the GT4 class it was ‘super-sub’ Steve Glenney who impressed once more, extending his category lead to 1:11 by the end of the day.

Glenney took the driver’s seat in the Buckby Motorsport 2008-model Subaru Impreza STI on Leg Three after Ben Newman withdrew due to medical reasons.

The 2008 Targa Tasmania winner won or was tied for first on six of the day’s seven stages. He leads a close battle between Tony Quinn’s Lamborghini Huracan and third-placed Ben Manion, who is only 3sec off the Italian machine.

“We’ve got a lead of around a minute, but it’s never enough. All sorts of things can go wrong and there’s still a long way to go,” Glenney said.

“We just have to keep pressing on and hope we can extend our lead without using up too much of the car.

“We had a minor engine misfire yesterday, which we worked on last night. It’s better, but it’s not totally fixed so it’s a work in progress.

“The car’s been OK – it gets a bit hot and bothered when I push it hard, but that’s to be expected.”

Brendan Winterbourn’s 2011 Mitsubishi Evolution X now holds an impressive lead of 1:45 in Modern, after overnight leader Chris Crowe dropped time in his HSV Coupe4.

Winterbourn had taken 23sec off the local vehicle through Hellyer Gorge, but an issue for Crowe in the last stage saw him lose 2:00, the car ending the day on a truck. He remains second in the order with Greg Burrowes in another Evo X lying third, a further minute behind.

Over in Early Modern it’s Alan Roe that holds a strong lead, 4:29 to the good in his 2000 Mitsubishi Evolution VI RS. He tied or won every stage of the day for the category.

Behind Roe, Andrew Bollom and Mark Balcombe are closer to the fight, only four seconds separating the similar 1995 Mazda RX-7 SPs.

In Classic GT it’s Jon Siddins in his 1970 Datsun 240Z holding sway with a 5:09 advantage over the entertaining 1977 Ford Escort RS 1800 BDA of Keith Callinan. Callinan charged through Leg Four, usurping the potent 1984 Holden VK Commodore Group C replica of Kim Barwick.

Peter Ulrich still holds sway in Classic Handicap with the 1963 Jensen CV8, though his 1:03 lead is 8sec less than yesterday as Leigh Achterberg continues to push in his 1982 Porsche 944. Paul Freestone continues to impress with third position in his 1960 Aston Martin DB4, one of the most valuable vehicles in the entire competition.

It was  also wonderful to see the two Vintage cars finishing the day strongly. Wayne Clark’s 1938 Dodge Speedster Special has a lead approaching two hours but Graham Copelands 1936 DeSoto Special is running well after missing chunks of the rally earlier on.

Leg Five hosts 115.52km, the second-highest competitive distance after Leg Three. It also includes the longest stage of the event, the 52.91km Mt Arrowsmith. With Strahan and Queenstown preceding it, Leg Five presents another massive challenge for the crews as they finally head for Hobart.