Targa Tasmania: day one review

Rally young gun Brendan Reeves continues to cause a stir with the performance of his Mazda3 MPS during the first day of the 2009 Targa Tasmania. After a strong run in Tuesday's Prologue, the 20-year-old played the giant killer throughout day one's 71km of competitive stages.

Reeves sits third in the Showroom class in his two-wheel drive turbocharged hot hatch behind a pair of all-wheel drive Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. Reeves believes the MPS will only get more competitive as the stages get more technical.

"It was so fantastic to finally be out there competing," Reeves says. "The Mazda3 MPS handled beautifully in today's open and flowing stages but I can't wait until we get on tighter and more twisting roads.

"Targa Tasmania is a very long event, and this is only day one so we have to keep in mind our long-term strategy for the rally -- to finish, and finish well."

Reeves teammate in the sister MPS, Rick Bates, also enjoyed a competitive day and finished only 18 seconds behind the young charger. Unlike Reeves, Bates is a veteran of Targa and knows that consistency is the key across the five-day event. He is also confident that the twister roads will play to the strengths of the MPS.

Mazda's third entry, the RX-8 SP driven by defending Targa winner Steve Glenney, recovered from turbo problems in the Prologue and completed yesterday's stages without drama. He ended the day 11th in the Modern class 15-seconds outside the top 10.

"After yesterday's uncertain start the Mazda RX-8 SP really showed its true capabilities today," says Glenney. "It handles and drives beautifully, particularly after we made a very slight ride height adjustment which helped dial out a little bit of unwanted understeer.

"This is one of the most competitive fields I have ever experienced at Targa Tasmania. I think there are about 12 really quick cars in this competition challenging for a podium finish and we're going to give it our best shot."

Targa regular Tony Quinn grabbed the lead heading into day two in his Nissan GT-R. He was able to take a six-second lead ahead of local hero Jason White in his Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. White was two seconds up on the Porsche 911 GT2 of Jim Richards.

Today's action includes 81km competitive distance across nine stages on the roads near Launceston and St Helens.

You can keep track of the Mazda team's progress at its special website here

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