Mazda's Targa Drivers Meet the Press

NOTTING HILL, AUSTRALIA – April 27, 2010: It was a busy day of press engagements for Mazda Motorsport’s drivers today, fronting the State’s media at Targa Tasmania’s official press conference held at Symmons Plains raceway, just outside of Launceston.

Spending the morning posing for team shots with Mazda Motorsport’s service and support crew, Mazda works pilots Steve Glenney and Brendan Reeves headed out to Symmons for Targa Tasmania’s pre-event media call.

Sitting on a panel alongside some of Targa’s other hot contenders, Mazda RX-8 SP driver Glenney and his Mazda3 MPS teammate spoke of their up-coming campaign of the 2000km gruelling Tasmanian rally.

“Last year we ran what was essentially a showroom specification RX-8 SP and with 12 months development, Mazda has been able to shed some weight and find some more horsepower,” said Glenney.

“Like any other year [my approach to this year’s event], is just flat out from the word go. You can’t afford to drop any time, especially on the first couple of days.”

“This is the global rally debut for the New Generation Mazda3 MPS, so I am really looking forward to driving the car,” said young gun Brendan Reeves. “We tested two weeks ago at Eastern Creek in the wet and the dry and we think we’ve got a really great package heading into Targa.

“We’ve done a really stringent reconnaissance over eight days, and hopefully we can come home with a Showroom win at Hobart.”

Tomorrow morning sees the official start of Targa Tasmania. The field will be flagged off from the Country Club Resort in the morning and the cars will North to George Town for the Prologue - a short town stage that decides the starting order for day one of competition on Wednesday. The cars will then head back to Launceston where they will stay overnight at the Silverdome.

Stay tuned to www.mazdamotorsport.com.au throughout the day for a live results feed and updates via Twitter.