KEY POINTS:
TASMANIA - South Australian Steve Glenney further increased his lead in the Modern Competition on day four of Targa Tasmania yesterday, and will start today in Strahan on Sunday morning carrying the hopes of Mitsubishi's first victory in the tarmac classic.
Glenney holds a 57 second advantage over Jim Richards after blitzing the day's seven stages across 130 competitive kilometres. Even Richards, the only man in a position to mount any sort of challenge, knows that Glenney, barring an error, is probably out of reach.
Rex Broadbent arrived in Strahan on Saturday evening in his Porsche 911 RS still leading the Outright Classic competition, but he may well drop off the top of the leader board if he decides to change a tyre and take a two-minute penalty.
He currently leads Gavin James' Porsche 944 S2 by only one minute 36 seconds after dropping 54 seconds on the final stage when a re-inflated tyre threw his car out of balance and made it difficult to drive.
His problem is that he does not have a spare tyre and will have to borrow one from another competitor if he is to continue. The alternative of staying on the damaged tyre for the remainder of the journey to Hobart seems implausible.
Leading drivers in the 2WD Showroom competition have maintained their places over the course of the day. Mazda3 MPS driver Rick Bates still holds a comfortable 50-second advantage over his Scottish team-mate, Alister McRae.
The distance between the two was 57 seconds at the start of the fourth day, and although McRae was faster on five of the day's seven stages, he was only able to reduce that gap by seven seconds.
The 4WD Showroom class title looks likely to go to Tony Warren in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9. He has a five minute 54 second break over Queenslander Scott Millar, but given the dramas of day four, no one is yet preparing their victory speech.
The problems for competitors on the penultimate day started early. Kevin Weeks, second overnight in Modern, immediately took more seconds off Glenney on the opening stage. But on the very next stage his charge faltered after hitting a rough edge on the road that burst the side of his tyre. He lost five and a half minutes and any hope of victory as his Lamborghini Gallardo limped from the stage.
Week's demise left the Lamborghini of Jason White in third place. But on the final stage of the day White had a high speed moment, leaving the road briefly and hitting some rocks. The result was a damaged gearbox, bent suspension and a campaign that looked likely to finish a day early.
If he fails to make it to the start line for the run to the state's capital, West Australian Dean Herridge will be third in his Subaru Impreza WRX, two minutes behind Glenney.
Naturally White was extremely disappointed.
"On the last stage of the day we were on the ragged edge and went into a corner too fast," White said.
"We had no chance of wiping off speed and the car bounced around off some boulders on the edge of the road, and we were lucky it didn't go right over the edge.
"We holed the gearbox, bent the suspension and wheels and all sorts of stuff. There's a fair bit of damage and we're not sure how long it will take to fix."
While some struggled, Glenney seemed untouchable. The Cethana stage was a clear demonstration of his brilliance when he was the only driver to clean the stage and he beat Richards by a massive 14 seconds.
"I'm very happy, it's gone really well today," he said. "We upped the pace this morning and tried to pull out a bit more of a gap on the tighter, longer stages that suited us, and we managed to do that.
"That meant that this afternoon I was able to concentrate on conserving the tyres for tomorrow. We've still got about 3mm of tread depth left, and that should be ample to get us to the finish.
"Tomorrow's two long stages all look like they'll be cleanable by the leading crews, so the only stages we expect to lose time on are the three shorter ones. We're confident of being able to maintain our lead and bring home our first Targa Tasmania victory."
Sadly for Broadbent in the Classics, he was highly aware how his grasp on back-to-back titles had slipped away late in the day.
"We've got a shot tyre and it's shaking the car to bits," Broadbent said. "We're going to have to change it overnight, and we lost a fair bit of time in the last stage of the day, so it's the lead will be gone away, unfortunately.
"We don't have another tyre, so we hope to borrow one from somewhere, so we're in a fair bit of strife."
Bates has no such issues as he rests before the final day in his 2WD Showroom class.
"We've got a pretty good lead, and although Alister (McRae) has taken some time off us today, but it doesn't really matter, so I'm happy," Bates said.
"The car is running beautifully, apart form some brake issues on the Cethana stage, but we thought that would be the case because it's a standard production car."
Warren got though the penultimate day in his showroom Lancer and hopes his good run can last another day.
"The car's gone really well today and the navigator has done a great job too," Warren said.
"It was a bit tricky on the final stage of the day with the sun streaming through the windscreen, but apart from that it's all good."
