TARGA: motoring's Megane digs the Tassie scenery

“We had….well…I had a bit of a whoopsie.” Driver Mike Sinclair’s succinct summation of his Targa Tasmania day said all it needed to say.

On Friday morning, Sinclair and co-driver Bill Hayes departed the Launceston Silverdome for the last time this year. Their Showroom-specification Renault Sport Megane RS 265 was sitting in third position in class, and the crew were in a positive frame of mind with a handful of favourite stages to come at them, hard and fast throughout the day.

Trailing leaders Adam Spence and Erin Kelly by 1 minute, 26 seconds overnight, Sinclair and Hayes opened Leg Three with a time on Mole Creek only three seconds off Spence.

Moving onto the epic Cethana stage, which Bill Hayes rates as one of THE tests of Targa, the motoring.com.au crew retained third place, increasing their gap to the fourth placed Noor/Challoner-Miles Megane to 3:18.

The crew arrived at the Ulverstone lunch-stop clearly confident, missing out on winning the Isandula stage by a mere second to Spence. Under bright blue autumnal skies, things were really looking up…but you can never rely on Targa to deliver a straightforward day.

On the first stage after lunch, Oldina, Spence/Kelly crashed out of the Showroom lead. It was a bitter way to end for the Renault Sport Megane RS 250 team, and promoted Denyer/Moscatt to the lead.

Unfortunately the stage also claimed Sinclair and Hayes, leaving the Megane with damage to the left-rear wheel, brake and suspension.

“We were at the high end of fifth gear and I mis-calculated a corner. There was some gravel across the road, and we simply ran out of road and slid off,” explained Sinclair.

After a helpful tow from the Redback Racing crew -- Spence’s team -- back to the Walkinshaw Performance service crew, car 946 was given a thorough inspection for damage.

Although the initial feeling was that the car could be retired, a solution was found that would see the car return to competition on Saturday’s Leg Four, albeit with a 20-minute time penalty for not finishing Leg Three under its own power.

“It’s a testament to the strength of the base product,” Sinclair said of the Megane. “We’ll get it repaired and look to make the time up over the next two days.”