KEY POINTS:
TASMANIA - South Australian Steve Glenney produced a superb drive on day two of Targa Tasmania to establish a handy 40 second lead over eight-time Targa champion and overnight leader, Jim Richards.
Glenney, driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9, was brilliant on the opening Sidling stage, taking
12 seconds off Richards' 2008 Porsche 911 GT2, and immediately claimed the lead.
Over the next seven stages he continued to show his liking for the tight, twisty roads in Tasmania's North-East to end the day with a handy buffer with three days remaining.
Tony Longhurst, driving the Les Walkden-prepared Subaru Impreza WRX STI, was up in second place with two stages to go, but he had an off on the Roassarden stage, and while he made it through the stage without any mechanical damage, he lost over a minute, and then copped a two minute penalty when he had to replace a tyre.
In the Outright Classic competition, Rex Broadbent and Peter Eames, both driving 1974 Porsche 911 RSs, continued their battle across the day's eight stages.
Broadbent, the reigning Classic champion, pulled away from his rival and took a 53 second buffer into Friday's leg.
Third in the Classic competition is still Victorian Gavin James, a further 18 seconds back in his 1989 Porsche 944 S2.
Rick Bates is another competition leader to put distance between himself and the rest of the field. He leads the Showroom 2WD class by 51 seconds over his fellow Mazda3 MPS driver, Alister McRae.
Simon Evans, the reigning Australian Rally Champion, spent the day with comedian Jono Coleman calling the pace notes in his Toyota TRD Aurion. Evans is third, but is now three minutes 13 seconds in arrears.
The 4WD Showroom has been dominated again by Hobart driver, Tony Warren in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. He has a commanding two minute 24 second lead over Queenslander Scott Millar, with South Australian Malcolm Klopp a further 59 seconds back.
The Rookie Rallye has been won and run. The two-day event for Targa first-timers attracted around 40 entrants. The leading Classic competitor was David Griffiths in a 1989 Nissan Skyline GTSt while Stephen Bradford, in a 1999 Subaru Impreza WRX STI took the modern honours.
The day produced plenty of drama, with a number of cars leaving the road, but everyone who saw Glenney's attack marvelled at his skill.
The thoroughbred racehorse trainer was pleased to put so much time between himself and the Targa master, Richards.
"We've stepped up the pace today to see where we would sit with our times and I think it has worked well," Glenney said.
"Today's stages have really suited the car and my driving, so we've been able to raise the bar a bit and push harder.
"Ideally we'd like to maintain the lead we've got and look after our tyres. We would like to maintain this lead for the next couple of days and see where we end up after that."
Broadbent was also upbeat about his day.
"We're not on the ragged edge, but we are pushing probably nine-tenths," he said.
"We're not too much behind the times of the front running guys in the open section, so we're very happy about it."
Bates was also pleased to have had another clean day.
"We had a great day and after Alistair (Mazda team mate McRae) had a problem, we took it slightly easier than because he was our main rival," he said.
"The Mazda MPS has been going very well and we want to get it to the finish and win the showroom category, which is important to the manufacturers."
Warren is delighted to be leading the new 4WD Showroom class.
"Today was really good, we had a good run all the way through," he said, "the roads were excellent apart from the back of The Sideling, which was pretty skatey, but apart from that everything has been going well and the car has been great, so we're really happy."
Friday takes in a further eight stages, the highlight being the first street stage round Devonport in the event's 17 year history.
- NZ HERALD STAFF