Great day for Brendo in Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge |
 |
Competing in the 'Modern' category of the event, Brendo's Mazda3 MPS is a standard vehicle with roll cage, race seats and harnesses fitted, and is up against highly modified Subaru Impreza WRXs, Mitsubishi Lancer Evos and Nissan Skyline GTRs. Neverthless, Brendo's talent has seen him finish the day in eighth place overall, an outstanding result.
Battling wet conditions for many of the day's stages, it was a tough but enjoyable day for Brendo and co-driver, Rhianon Smyth.
"It's been a tough day in the new car. Running in a standard showroom car makes it difficult, but we’ve had a great day overall."
"The medium-hard compound tyres we have aren’t soft enough, and with the cold and damp conditions, it’s really hard to get any heat into the tyres."
"The car is quite skatey on cold tyres, so we tried to soften the rear of the car to try and get more heat into them. We lowered the rear tyre pressures, which worked this afternoon."
"The Mazda has a 2.3 litre engine and has heaps of power, so it spins the wheels very easily. It’s got heaps of grip in the dry, but like everyone, it’s a lot tougher in the wet."
"We passed a Porsche on the two long stages today, which was quite interesting. He had more power than us getting out of the corners, but we caught him under braking and in the corners, so it made for some exciting driving!"
CHECK OUT BRENDO'S PHOTO GALLERY FOR PHOTOS FROM THE EVENT