Brendan climbs Targa Tasmania leader board

Day 4 of Targa Tasmania has been a positive one for Mazda Motorsport's Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth and they sit in third outright with just one day of competition to go.

Starting the day in fourth place in their Mazda RX8 SP, the pair drove steadily on the morning's slippery stages to maintain their position, but after putting new tyres on the rear at the lunch break, Brendan increased his pace on the final four stages of the day and took two stage wins, as well as setting two second-fastest stages times, reducing the deficit to Nissan GT-RX driver, Tony Quinn, from 2 minutes 11 seconds to 1 minute 43. The retirement of Matt Close (Audi TT), promoted Brendan to a a well-deserved third outright.

"I was really happy with how the car performed today, particularly in the drying conditions," Brendan said.

"It's a real shame for Matt and Casey (Close) that they went out in the manner that they did but it puts us up to third and there's still a big day of competition to go."

The final day of Targa Tasmania will see competitors cover six stages and 130 competitive kilometres on the way from Strahan to the finish in Hobart. With the RX8 SP running perfectly, a podium finish is looking very possible.

Targa Tasmania top 5 (Modern Class) at end of Day 4:

1. Jason White / John White, 2011 Lamborghini Gallardo, 22m19s

2. Tony Quinn / Naomi Tillett, 20119 Nissan GTR, +2m15s

3. Brendan Reeves / Rhianon Smyth, 2010 Mazda RX8 SP, +3m58s

4. Jim Richards / Barry Oliver, 2011 Porsche 911 GT2 RS, +8m12s

5 Lynn Rattray / Tony Jackson, 2008 Subaru WRX STI, +14m25s

Visit Brendan's Photo Gallery for pics and videos from Targa Tasmania 2012.