Targa Tasmania - Leg Three
Giant killing continues as MINIs march onwardsTarga Tasmania 2007
Hobart
Three down, two to go -- the two most important days of Targa Tasmania and the business end of the 16th running of Australia's best-known tarmac rally event.
And Team MINI enters the two longest days of the event in good form with all three Coopers in the top 30.
The Team Tiger MINI of Paul Stokell and Peter Burrey leads the squad with a hard-fought 12th placing. On the technical but at times fast and very bumpy eight stages of Day Three south of Hobart, Stokell was able to consistently record top 15 times. Team Tiger is now comfortably the fastest front-wheel drive in Targa.
But the performance of the day went to Team Cheetah MINI of Grant Denyer and Dale Moscatt. Denyer back in the seat after a day away from Targa for television duties, started the day in emphatic style, placing eighth fastest overall on the Grasstree Hill Reverse stage.
Though the stage starts uphill and is a horsepower track, Denyer and Moscatt took time from some of the fastest cars in the event.
Team Cheetah cemented their 20th placing with a consistently fast performance over all eight stages. And over the day, the battle for the title as fastest MINI Financial Services-sponsored Cooper S went to the spotted ones -- narrowly. Denyer dropped 3min 56sec over Day Three to Stokell's 4:06.
The Carsales Network supported Team Snake MINI of the writer and co-driver Bill Hayes dropped 6:46 on the day but moved up in the overall standing to sit in 27th position overall going into Leg Four.
Once again Hayes' coaching and encouragement made the difference, with Bill's "uphill 8s are flat" calls egging-on yours truly.
The Team MINI Cooper S JCWs are performing strongly with suspension development being the only difference between their spec in 2006. A demonstration of the work's worth is the fact that Team Snake is matching and at times bettering the fastest MINI times set in 2006, while Denyer and Stokell are smashing them.
Old stagers will tell you that Targa proper starts on Day Four. With the second-longest stage in the event (Cethana) and medium-length low base time stages such as Mole Creek and South Riana there is much time to be gained -- or lost!
THE MAIN EVENT
Team MINI now sits at the edge of the main show -- just seconds outside the Top 10. At the very pointy end, the day was dominated by the Honda S2000-powered Skelta of Ray Vandersee and Jahmeil Taylor.
Vandersee and Taylor blitzed most of the stages on Day Three winning one by a staggering 11sec. Alas problems early in the event have them five hours behind the leaders and in 87th position. The Skelta squad looked set to claim second in last year's Targa when a mechanical gremlin hit on Day Five. This year is a story of what might have been (again) for the Queensland built sports special.
Still leading the way in the drivetravel.com Modern competition, is Tony Sullens and Julia Rabbett-Barkley in their Subaru Impreza WRX. But the big mover of the day was Tony Longhurst and Michael de Vere in their WRX STI Spec C. The Queenslander was 27sec off the pace at the end of Thursday's competition, but cut the gap to just 13sec over the day
In third place is the 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 of Jim Richards and Barry Oliver, who started the day 6sec behind Sullens but finished 22sec back. Richards appeared to wind the pace back towards the end of the day but don't count him out yet.
In the Shannons Classic Outright battle, Victorians Rex Broadbent and Michael Goedheer still lead the way in their 1974 Porsche 911 RS, from Bill Pye and Grant Geelan's 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera 3.
But the V8s are on their way back -- Steve Coad and Simon Vandenberg have broken into the top three.
Top three -- drivetravel.com Modern after day 3 of 5
1. Tony Sullens (NSW)/Julia Barkley (NSW), 1999 Subaru Impreza WRX RA
2. Tony Longhurst (QLD)/Michael De Vere, +13 seconds
3. Jim Richards (VIC)/Barry Oliver (TAS), 2007 Porsche 911 GT3 RS, + 22 seconds
Top three -- Shannons Classic after day 3 of 5
1 Rex Broadbent (VIC)/Michael Goedheer (VIC), 1974 Porsche 911 RS
2. Bill Pye (NSW)/Grant Geelan (NSW), 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera 3, + 27 seconds
3 Steve Coad (VIC)/Simon Vandenberg (TAS), 1972 Holden Monaro GTS +1 min 23 secs
See also
Targa Tasmania - Day Two
Targa Tasmania - Day One
Targa Tasmania Prologue
The team behind Team MINI
Pace notes - perfect preparation
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Follow the link to Team MINI's news and results from the 2006 Targa Tasmania event here
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