Jason White has finished day one of Targa High Country with a commanding one minute lead after his main rival, Steve Glenney, crashed out on the final run up the Mount Buller road.
Driving a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, the Tasmanian trailed his South Australian rival by 10 seconds after the first seven closed road tarmac stage, but the Nissan GT-R driver fell foul of the unseasonal winter conditions, which turned the mountain road into a nightmare drive.
After his convincing win in round one of the championship in Adelaide in August, Glenney shot out of the starting blocks quickly in his Nissan, and was fastest on the first seven stages to establish a handy 10 second buffer.
But it all went wrong on the run up Mt Buller, with rain, fog and even snow giving crews an extra challenge.
“We hit a guardrail about two thirds of the way up the mountain, splitting an oil cooler and put us out of the event,” Glenney said.
“We were driving at a safe speed, braking early into corners, but we were caught out and hit the guard rail at about 25km/h.”
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It gave White a lead of one minute and three seconds after the first day, and while happy with his advantage, he was disappointed Glenney’s event had come to an end.
“It’s one of those funny situations where it’s a relief that you don’t have such a close tussle anymore, but it’s a real shame because we were having a hell of a battle,” White said.
“Usually the closest battles offer the sweetest rewards, but having said that it’s nice to take a one minute lead into tomorrow.
“We’ve had no mechanical issues today, only the tyre choice that we were a bit concerned with in the dry, and we’re looking forward to tomorrow’s eight stages.”
Victorian Matt Close moved into second place in his Audi TT RS Plus, a further minute clear of the Nissan GT-R of Ben Searcy.
Veteran touring car driver and motorsport legend, Jim Richards, made the most of the afternoon’s wet conditions to move into fourth place in his Porsche 911 GT2 RS, just clear of Jamie Vandenberg’s Nissan GT-R.
After crashing a helicopter at Mount Buller on Wednesday, Greg Garwood also crashed out while contending for the lead in the Classic Outright competition. Once again he was not injured. South Australian hot shot, Craig Haysman, leads the Classic Outright competition in his 1981 Triumph TR7 V8, while Angus Kennard holds a narrow three-second advantage in the 4WD Showroom class.
In other categories, Peter Ullrich (1963 Jensen CV8) leads the Early Classic Handicap, Craig Haysman also leads Late Classic Handicap, and Adam Spence has continued his dominance of the Showroom competition.
Tim Hendy’s Nissay Skyline is 10 seconds ahead in Early Modern, Michael Minshall (Audi TT RS) controls Showroom Sports, and Neill Ford heads the exciting new Modern Muscle Cars class.
Day two of Targa High Country heads from Mt Buller to Eildon over eight closed road tarmac stages, with the cars finishing back on Mt Buller late in the afternoon. With snow forecast on the mountain on Sunday, it could make for an exciting finish.
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