MASONS WIN DUNLOP TARGA
By Chris Grant
2nd November, 2008
In atrocious weather conditions New Zealand's top rallying couple, Richard and Sara Mason, have steered their bright yellow BNT/Dunlop Subaru to a stunning victory on the 2008 Dunlop Targa NZ which finished in a storm-lashed Wellington on Saturday.The correction of times for a Day One stage meant the Masterton Flyers started the final day 79 seconds behind the winner for the last two years, Joe McAndrew, with 90 kilometres of stages to travel.
They halved that margin in the first two stages (30k) as the weather deteriorated and, after a safety-first double traverse of the treacherous Paekakariki stage, went into the final set of tests 50 seconds behind Joe.
All 50 seconds were claimed back in the two passes of the 10.5k Moonshine Road, so unbelievably, the dominant pair of this 14th edition of Dunlop Targa NZ went into the final 14k Makara stage absolutely equal on 5 hours 57 minutes 17 seconds after 700 kilometres of flat-out tarmac driving.
The Masons made no race of this last test and recorded their 16th stage win to take out an amazing 23 second victory - a quite unbelievable way to wrap up their 2008 season that saw them win every rally they finished in their BNT Subaru.
Dunlop Targa NZ 2008 - Top Ten after Day 5 of 5 :
955 Richard Mason 06:06:32 1
951 Joe McAndrew 06:05:55 2
897 Gavin Riches 06:13:34 3
927 Emma Gilmour 06:14:24 4
997 Tony Quin 06:17:07 5
926 Jason Gill 06:23:26 6
830 Peter Millener 06:25:29 7
407 Kim McLeod 06:28:10 8
907 Steve Millen 06:29:51 9
943 Maurice Shapley 06:30:20 10
FOR SATURDAY'S TV3 NEWS COVERAGE OF DAY FIVE OF THE 2008 DUNLOP TARGA featuring the BNT/Dunlop Subaru
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