It’s been a successful Quit Targa West rally, with Dean Herridge and Chris Murphy claiming a podium position at their first attempt.
With the gaps between the top five increasing during the morning stages, Dean and Chris concentrated on preserving the Maximum Motorsport Subaru over the final stages to claim third second place behind Steven Jones and Tony Quinn.
(Aug 24 Update: During post-event scruinteering, an exhaust irregularity was found on the Nissan GTR 35 of Tony Quinn (car #90). As a consequence car #90 was excluded from the final results, elevating Dean to second place, and the Alister McRae/Bill Hayes Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X into the final podium place.)
“It’s pretty pleasing to be able to claim a podium at the first attempt”, Dean commented at the finish line. “The rain on Saturday made conditions quite tricky, but the car and the team have been fantastic. We’ve run the car at Targa Tasmania and Targa Wrest Point this year, and it’s great to be able to compete in front of our home crowd and come up with such a good result”.
While Jones and Quinn maintained station at the head of the field, Alister McRae managed to sneak past both Dylan Thomas and Peter Major to claim fourth third place. Of the other Maximum Motorsport teams, Rob Herridge moved up another two positions during Sunday’s stages to take ninth eighth place, while Graham Iddles took 20th 19th place.
And with the Quit Targa West rally completed, Dean and Chris now head directly to China for next weekends Rally Fogang in the Guangdong province. Rally Fogang is the third round of the Chinese series, and Dean will be keen continue his good form in the SRTC Subaru.
Quit Targa West – Final Results, Modern Competition
1. Steven Jones, Nissan GTR 35, 1:47:14.0
2. Dean Herridge, Subaru Impreza WRX Sti, +2:29.0
3. Alister McRae, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 10 RS, +4:05.0
4. Dylan Thomas, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 9 RS, +4:39.0
8. Rob Herridge, Subaru Impreza WRX Sti, +6:31.0
19. Graham Iddles, Subaru Impreza WRX Sti, +15:59.0
25. Paul Carrucan, Subaru Impreza WRX Sti RA, +18:25.0
42. David Iddles, Subaru Impreza WRX Sti , +27:50.0
Photos courtesy of Peter Evans.