With the field running in their seeded order, the first of the Maximum cars was the ’05 Impreza WRX STi of Graham Furness. “I was pretty happy with it. We were very conservative. It’s been a cold day, the tyres were cold and we weren’t expecting get too much grip from them on such a short stage. So we adjusted the diff settings to help us with cornering, and I didn’t push too hard with the braking. But we got through without a problem, and I’m happy with that”.
The grip from cold tyres caught out a number of competitors, including Graham Iddles in the #985 Maximum WRX STi. “It was just dumb! The third corner in, I locked it up and spun. The tyres were still a bit ‘green’, and I should have known better. The rest of the stage was fine. I backed off a bit; the whole stage was pretty slippery. It was just a simple error and I think we lost around 15 seconds. But there’s no damage to the car; we’re still here and we’ll start again tomorrow”.
Making his debut at Targa Tasmania, Brian Green and Fleur Pedersen also found the stage slippery. “I was pretty happy with that effort”, remarked the experienced Kiwi at the end of day service. “The car was perfect, it was just a bit slippery. But no problems at all”.
The final Maximum car to attempt the Prologue was that of the #993 Dean Herridge Subaru Impreza WRX STi. “I’m very happy with that”, Dean commented after his run. “We’ll start eighth-last on the road, which is just about where we wanted to be in the starting order. The car was good. Like all the other guys, we couldn’t really get too much heat into our tyres on such a short stage. But we coped OK with that, and the car is ready to go again tomorrow”.
With the starting order now determined, the crews will begin Leg 1 tomorrow. The ‘Northern Loop’ takes in eight stages, including Lilydale (to the north-east of Launceston) and then heads west to Sheffield before returning to Launceston.
Targa Tasmania 2010 Prologue
1 – White / White, Lambourghini Gallardo
2 – Hendy / Wilson, Daytona Coupe, +5.65
3 – Jones / Searcy, Nissan GT-R, +6.36
4 – Quinn / Tilett, Nissan GT-R, +6.87
5 – Richards / Oliver, Porsche 911 GT-3, +8.77
6 – Weeks / Allen, Lambourghini Gallardo, +9.28
7 – Vandenberg / Vandenberg, Mitsubishi EVO IX, +9.33
8 – Herridge / Weston, Subaru Impreza WRX STi, +10.26
