Good start to Targa Tasmania for Brendo |
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With results from the 5km town stage deciding the field’s running order for day one of competition proper, it was to be a well thought out run by the Mazda Motorsport team to ensure its Mazda3 MPS race car obtained an optimum starting position at the rear of the field.
Despite cruising through the tight and tricky town stage, the Mazda3 MPS driven by 21-year-old Brendan Reeves was the third quickest Showroom vehicle on the road with a time of 3:31:48, and was the fastest two-wheel drive in the category.
“Today’s Prologue was a fantastic opportunity to get to know the car,” said Reeves. “We took it pretty easy today as we had new brake pads and Yokohama tyres that need to last the majority of the event. Now the Prologue’s over, I am really looking forward to getting started.”
Mazda Motorsport boss Allan Horsley revelled in the fact his team’s Prologue strategy went exactly to plan.
“Things went very smoothly today,” said Horsley. “We set the time that we needed to set. There are no points lost or gained today and the cars are in exactly in the right spot in the field.
But while today went to plan, Horsley is realistic of the challenge that remains.
“The competition is going to be fierce, we’re up against cars with more powerful engines, but we’re quietly confident. We’ll certainly out handle them but in the power stakes we are way down.”
Tomorrow sees the start of competition proper. The field starts from Launceston and does a loop around the State’s central north totalling 340 kilometres, stopping for lunch in Tasmania’s town of ‘murals’, Sheffield.
Visit Brendo's Photo Gallery for photos from Targa Tasmania