Brendo's Targa charge continues

Brendo has continued his impressive performance on Targa Tasmania in today's eight stages, again finishing the day in second outright and first 2WD in the Showroom class. With rain falling before the day's rallying began, the Mazda Motorsport team softened the suspension of the little Mazda3 MPS, however before the first stage even began, the rain had cleared and the roads dried out.  Brendo and Rhianon were then forced to tackle the first two stages with a wet weather set up, until the team could switch back to a dry weather set up after the second stage.  This resulted in the pair losing a little time to the leading Showroom car of Johnston/Stoneman, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX.

Once the suspension set up had been changed, though, Brendo was able to up the ante, and set the fastest stage times on SS24 and SS25.

"We've had another great day," Brendo said.  "A lot of the stages used today were similar to stages used in Rally Tasmania in February, so they were familiar to me."

"Our tyre wear is looking good heading into the weekend, which is very promising given that the rally has been dry, and I couldn't ask for a better position to be in.  Everything is going really well," he added.

Brendo and Rhianon currently sit 1:09 minutes behind first placed Johnston/Stoneman, and 39 seconds clear of team mates, Rick Bates and Anthony McLoughlin, who are third.

Visit Brendo's Photo Gallery for photos from today's action and check out www.mazda.com.au/targa for video and audio clips.