Mackenzie & Sayers dominate first day of Targa Bambina event

Auckland’s Haydn Mackenzie and his Hamilton-based co-driver Matt Sayers (Mitsubishi Evo 10 RS) have dominated the first day of competition on this year’s two-day Targa Bambina in the south Waikato and King Country.

The pair won six of today’s seven timed special stages to arrive back in Hamilton with a lead of almost a minute (0:58.1) over second placed Subaru Impreza WRX driver Leigh Hopper and his co-driver Michael Goudie from Orewa (the only other pair to win a stage today) and just over one and three-quarter minutes (1:47.3) ahead of third placed David Rogers from Auckland and his new co-driver, Shane Reynolds, from Temuka (Mitsubishi Evo 10 RS).

Enjoying a run in a pukka MK 2 Ford Escort RS1800 rally car was Emirates Team NZL team boss Grant Dalton and co-driver Chris Stephens

Fourth home this afternoon was the first 2WD car, the BMW M3 of Perth-based expat Robert Darrington and Kiwi co-driver David Abetz, just under a minute (50.4s) clear of the second 2WD car home, Production (GT2) 2WD class leader Jeremy Friar and co-driver Katrina Renshaw (BMW 330ti Compact).

In sixth place – incredibly – just 2.5 seconds back was Production 4WD (GT4) class leader Ivan Knauf and co-driver Trevor Corbin (both from the Hawke’s Bay) in Knauf’s late model Subaru Impreza WRX 4WD.

With the roads remaining dry and temperatures in the high teens and early 20s today, conditions were close to perfect for Targa-style tarmac rallying and some of the margins between competitors in very different cars had to be seen to be believed..

In the penultimate stage, the 13.92km sprint near Waitomo, fourth placed Robert Darrington was just a single second slower through it in his 2WD BMW M3 than third placed David Rogers in his 4WD Mitsubishi Evo 10 RS. Amazingly the margins were even less between fifth placed Jeremy Friar is his 2WD BMW Compact, and Ivan Knauf in sixth in his 4WD Subaru Impreza WRX (0.4 of a second), local ace Mike Tubbs in his 2WD BMW M2 in seventh (another 0.4 of a second) and Mainlander Andrew Oakley who was eighth home in his 4WD Audi RS5, only a further 0.9 of a second back.

Also impressing with their pace today were event and Classic 2WD category stalwarts Anthony and Joanne Butler in their locally-made (HQ Holden-based) Cheetah sports coupe.

The pair were never far from the Top 10 for most of the day and were rewarded with the overnight lead in the Classic 2WD category over the Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.3-16 of fellow Aucklanders Mark McCaughan and Lindsay Lyons.

The Targa Tour remains a popular part of the annual Targa NZ event

This year’s Targa Bambina event continues tomorrow with stages in the south and east Waikato with the first car due to leave the overnight base at the FMG Stadium in Hamilton at 8.15am and get back to the official end point at Claudelands Arena at 3.55pm.

Overall Classification after Day 1

1/ Haydn Mackenzie/Matthew Sayers (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X RS) 51:26.5
2/ Leigh Hopper/Michael Goudie (Subaru Impreza WRX) 52:24.6
3/ David Rogers/Shane Reynolds (Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X RS) 53:13.8
4/ Robert Darrington/David Abetz (BMW M3) 54:21.1
5/ Jeremy Friar/Katrina Renshaw (BMW 330ti) 55:11.5
6/ Ivan Knauf/Trevor Corbin (Subaru Impreza) 55:14.0
7/ Mike Tubbs/Brooke Walden (BMW M2) 55:25.2
8/ Andrew Oakley/Steve Hutchins (Audi RS5) 56:21.0
9/ Jerry Rowley/Matthew Bailey (Toyota GT86) 58:07.8
10/ Troy & Kyla Twomey (Mini Cooper S) 58:15.0
11/ John Rae/Dave Leuthart (VW Polo-R Replica) 58:30.4
12/ Anthony & Joanne Butler (Holden Cheetah) 58:45.4
13/ Terry & Frank May (BMW 330ci) 59:11.5
14/ Mark McCaughan/Lindsay Lyons (Mercedes 190E 2.3-16) 59:43.4
15/ Bob Boniface/Simon Butler (Toyota Altezza) 1:00:14.7
16/ Anton Tallott/David Connell (Mazda RX7) 1:01:42.5
17/ Patrick O’Donnell/Lewis Gardner (BMW E36 328i) 1:02:09.6
18/ Robert & Nick Webster (Mini Cooper S) 1:03:50.2
19/ Grant Dalton/Chris Stephens (Ford Escort Mk2) 1:05:10.7
20/ David O’Neill/Blair Brookbanks (Honda Integra) 1:08:28.0

Classic 2WD
1/ Anthony & Joanne Butler (Holden Cheetah)
2/ Mark McCaughan/Lindsay Lyons (Mercedes 190E)
3/ Anton Tallott/David Connell (Mazda RX7)

Production (GT2) 2WD
1/ Jeremy Friar/Katrina Renshaw (BMW 330ti)
2/ Mike Tubbs/Brooke Walden (BMW M2)
3/ Jerry Rowley/Matthew Bailey (Toyota GT86)

Production (GT4) 4WD
1/ Ivan Knauf/Trevor Corbin (Subaru Impreza WRX)
2/ Andrew Oakley/Steve Hutchins (Audi RS5)