Mountain flyer shakes leaders

HOBART surgeon Mike Pritchard rocketed to second on the Targa Tasmania leaderboard yesterday with a run over Mt Arrowsmith described as “the drive of Targa”.

Tasmanian Jason White still leads the six-day event going into the final day and the doctor doesn’t believe he can catch the five-time champion on the last six stages near Hobart today.

White was amazed that his virtual teammate clocked such a slick time over the tortuous 52.91km Arrowsmith stage in a performance that parked his Dodge Viper ACR second only to White, who leads by 1m7s.

Defending champion Matt Close is third in his Porsche GT2, 1m24s off the lead.

“Mike was on a mission through Arrowsmith — that was the drive of the event,” White said.

“That stage is hard enough in the dry let alone those wet conditions, so to take a minute out of ‘Closey’ and jump back into second was phenomenal.

“We need to be more scared of Mike in future.”

White built Pritchard’s car side-by-side with his own Dodge Viper Extreme, and they service them together daily.

“I don’t think we can catch ‘Whitey’ but we’ve certainly made ourselves a nuisance to the front two,” Pritchard said. “Anything can happen tomorrow.”

White said it was too early to start dreaming of win number six.

“That would be awesome — that’s what we’re here for,” he said. “But it’s Targa. Anything can happen. We just confidently aspire to get there.”

Wet roads did not suit Close’s GT2, which thrives on maximum grip.

“We’ll have a red-hot crack tomorrow and see what happens,” Close said.

Gold Coast mechanic Jon Siddins has a stranglehold on Classic GT in his 1970 Datsun 240Z, and also sits 10th in overall.

Barring breakdown, Peter Ullrich ( NSW) has an unassailable 6m24s lead in Classic, as does Angus Kennard (NSW) in his 2015 Nissan GTR with a 6m31s lead in GT4.

The final day is a six-stage blast south of Hobart ending with the official finish at Princes Wharf. First cars are due at noon and the podium champagne spray is scheduled for 2.30pm.