TARGA: motoring's Megane fights back on Leg Four

For the Walkinshaw Performance technicians, the Thursday night service in Strahan saw plenty to occupy them. Repairs to car 946, ‘our’ Renault Sport Megane RS 265, were of primary importance, and the dedicated team worked by torchlight to ensure a Saturday start for Mike Sinclair and Bill Hayes.

Having incurred a 20-minute time penalty for their troubles, Sinclair/Hayes were determined to put their woes behind them and battle for stage wins on Saturday’s Leg Four. Ahead of them was a daunting 11 minutes and 51 seconds to their nearest rival, the 2004 Mazda MX-5 of Finn/Harris.

Thanks to an overnight frost, the first two morning tests were run in intermediate conditions. Sinclair was understandably cautious with his rebuilt Renault, but by the Pieman stage the crew was upping its pace, finishing the stage only one second off their factory Renault Sport counterparts and Showroom class leaders, Grant Denyer and Dale Moscatt.

As the day progressed the roads of the west coast heated through, giving crews more grip to work with. Sinclair and Hayes capitalised with a string of top-two stage times reducing the gap to the Finn/Harris MX-5 to 4: 29 by the day’s last stage at Rosebery.

It was here that they suffered another setback: “We had been running well through the stages, but on Rosebery we hit a corner too sharply, ran to the edge of the road and punctured a tyre,” explained Sinclair.

“Thankfully it was only 2km to the end of the stage or so, so we decided to crawl it to the end and fix it after the finish, so not to lose too much time on the stage,” continued Hayes.

The time damage wasn’t too great, as they still recorded the fourth quickest time in the Showroom class. They go into service only 3:51 seconds behind the fifth-placed MX-5.

“The Renault Sport Megane has performed exceptionally well, and tomorrow’s final leg has stages that will really suit its dynamics. We are hopeful of grabbing fourth place by the end of tomorrow,” concluded Sinclair.

For Sunday’s final leg the team leaves Strahan for Hobart, crossing through the moonscape of Queenstown and through Derwent Bridge before concluding Targa Tasmania 2013 at the Wrest Point Hotel in Hobart.