Brendan increases Targa Tasmania lead

Brendan has used his previous Targa Tasmania experience, and another excellent run today, to streak ahead of his nearest rival in the Showroom class.  The young Victorian, with sister Rhianon Smyth in the co-driver’s seat of the factory-backed Mazda3 MPS, is living up to pre-event expectations, extending his lead over Sinclair’s Skoda Octavia RS station wagon to 2m 37.

However, while he might be making it look easy, Brendan says it isn’t always that straightforward.

“The Sideling stage was tough and the time wasn’t as good as I hoped, but I still had a good run,” he said. “There was oil on the road at Rossarden, which was really hard, because last year we got sixth outright on that stage, and I was hoping to do a good time in there. “Trying to straddle the oil was really tough. There’s nobody as quick as us in our category, so I’m benchmarking myself against some of the 4WD Showroom guys.”