TARGA: Day Three – USA v Germany

For the first time in its Silver Anniversary year, Targa Tasmania HQ has moved from Launceston to Burnie on the north coast.

The move has only intensified hostilities between Tasmanian Jason White, driving a Dodge Viper ACR, and Victorian Matt Close’s Porsche 911 991 GT3.

Close held a slender 2sec lead overnight, but the day’s eight stages and almost 140 competitive kilometres saw White dig in, winning four stages to Close’s singular victory. The other three stages were tied between the two protagonists as they each achieved the base, thus incurring no penalty time.

“We’re feeling more comfortable in the car each day and trying not to extract too much from it to the detriment of the tyres,” White said.

“We’re going to try some unorthodox suspension adjustments and alignment settings tonight, which we think will prolong the life of the front tyres in particular.

“We’re fairly confident the changes we’re going to make will allow the tyres to make it to the end.”

The Dodge Viper leads the GT2 category by a mere 6sec over the Porsche at the end of Leg Three, with the Ford Mustang Shelby GT of Craig Dean in third place almost five minutes off the lead after some braking issues, which the crew now hopes to have rectified.

There was similar electricity in the GT4 category for all-wheel drive vehicles.

Buckby Motorsports driver Ben Newman was forced to swap out of his 2008 Subaru Impreza STI for medical reasons, giving the driver’s seat to his co-driver – and former Targa winner – Steve Glenney.

The car was lying eighth after Leg Two, but Glenney (with no co-driver Tim Kulhanek) stormed northward. He tied Tony Quinn’s Lamborghini Huracan on the opening High Plains test and dropped six seconds to the Italian machine at Moriarty, but from then on produced a masterclass of Targa driving.

He clawed back the 6sec at Paloona, then won every remaining stage – including the last two by a combined total of 44sec, to lead GT4 by the end of the day.

“We’ve had a really good day – to be a minute and a half behind at the start of the day and make that time up and more is a really good result for us,” Glenney said.

“The longer stages really played into our hands and gave us more opportunity to make up time. We’ve got a small misfire in the engine which we think is just an electronic glitch, but we’ll fix that tonight and be good to go tomorrow.”

Ben Manion’s 2010 STI is now second in class with Tony Quinn in the final podium position as he continues to iron out electronic bugs in the new Huracan.

There’s also been change in the Modern class, with overnight leader Roderick Neville’s near-minute buffer evaporating when he hit a rock only 4km out from completing the day.

This leaves the surprising 2004 HSV Coupe4 of Chris Crowe leading by 41sec from Brendan Winterbourn’s 2011 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution X. Another Evo X, this time a 2009 model, holds third position for Greg Burrowes, 1:32 off the lead.

Alan Roe’s until-now dominant Evolution VI RS also lost time on this leg. Over the morning’s first three stages he extended his lead to 1:58, only to drop over four minutes on the 14.7km Sheffield stage.

This dropped him to seventh in the class, and though he was immediately back on the pace – taking the 38.06km Cethana by 10sec – he finished the day in fourth, 53sec off the category lead.

Andrew Bollom’s 1995 Mazda RX-7 SP leads Early Modern, 17sec ahead of Mark Balcombe’s similar machine. Stephen Thatcher’s Nissan ATTKD Select R SP has the final podium slot for now, 45sec off the front.

In a day of seemingly endless drama, Classic GT was also flipped on its head when leader Matt Cardinaels went off the road on Targa Stage 17, Castra, with his 1972 Datsun 240Z.

This left Jon Siddins with a very comfortable 3:43 advantage in his 1970 Datsun 240Z, an advantage held over Kim Barwick’s 1984 VK Group C Commodore Replica. Another 1:04 behind is Barry Faux, clawing his way up the leaderboard after earlier issues with his 1985 Mazda RX-7.

The Classic handicap category remains tightly in the command of Peter Ulrich’s 1963 Jensen CV8. The Anglo-American V8 coupe lies 1:11 ahead of Leigh Achterberg’s 1982 Porsche 944, with the highly prized 1960 Aston Martin DB4 of Paul Freestone 2:55 away from the Jensen.

There was some good news in Vintage as Graham Copeland was able to re-enter his 1936 DeSoto Special Roadster. Even though he’s listed almost two hours behind the only other category entrant (Wayne Clark and his 1938 Dodge Speedster Special) it’s nice to have the oldest competitor car in the event join the rest on the West Coast trip.

Leg Four shifts south and west via the famous Oldina and Hellyer Gorge, to the pretty coastal town of Strahan. The total 92km competitive may appear insignificant after Leg Three’s mammoth 138km (the most of the event), but the west coast run always possesses a sting in its tail.

Images: Angyman Photography