Targa Tasmania: Leg One Results

The first day of official competition at the 2010 Targa Tasmania would be best described as horrendous. Rain took its toll on participants' chances, with dozens of cars retiring.

Pre-event favourite, Jason White in his Lamborghini Gallardo Super Trofeo Strada, has continued his consistent run, with superb driving in treacherous conditions keeping him in the overall lead. White recovered from a slow start to finish the day some eight seconds clear of 2008 winner, Steve Glenney, driving a Mazda RX8.

"The Holwell stage was absolutely atrocious," White said. "We were sitting at the start line and just as we went to start the stage a massive squall came through and the car was actually shaking from side to side because of the wind," explained White.

Glenney was highly impressive in his two-wheel drive turbocharged Mazda RX-8 SP race car against the four-wheel drive Lamborghini.

"We've had sheets of rain, poor vision, oil on the road and very slippery conditions, so we've just been trying to tune the car as we go," said Glenney.

"The Mazda is responding really well -- it's a different car to last year when it was basically just a showroom car. It's been properly prepared this year and it's going really well. There's still a long way to go, but it feels good."

2009 winner, Tony Quinn, sits in third place, and while he is 30 seconds from the lead, he is well aware that there is still a very long way still to go.

West Australian Steve Jones is two seconds further back in fourth place, also driving a Nissan GT-R, while Dean Herridge and Ray Vandersee are equal in fifth place.

Reigning champion, Rex Broadbent, used all of his experience and guile to finish the opening eight stages as the fastest Classic car, while Tasmanian Tony Warren was again the pace setter in the Showroom division.

Surprisingly, one of the pre-event favourites, NSW driver Bill Pye, crashed his Porsche on the penultimate stage, leaving Broadbent with a narrow 12 second lead over Paul Batten in a 1961 Volvo PV544.

"The weather conditions were terrible for the first two or three stages. People were crashing because they couldn't see and it was so slippery," Broadbent said.

"But I'm in it, and I'm having fun, but I don't think I've been quite so scared in a car for a long time. Those stages this morning were scary," said Broadbent, reiterating the general consensus.

After setting the pace in Tuesday's Temco Prologue, Tony Warren was again the man to catch in his Showroom competition Lancer Evo IX. He finished the day 28 seconds clear of the new Lancer Evo X of Dean Evans, while in third place sits the front-wheel drive Mazda3 MPS of Brendan Reeves.

Leg 2 of Targa Tasmania begins Thursday morning and takes competitors east of Launceston over eight Targa stages, including one of the event's most famous stages, 'The Sideling'.

Stay tuned for more updates on Targa Tasmania at our Targa minisite.

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