Mazda's Dynamic Duo Come Through Targa High Country Prologue

VICTORIA, AUSTRALIA – November 8, 2010: Today’s Targa High Country prologue may have been downgraded from a competitive stage to an exhibition, but this didn’t stop both Mazda entrants putting on a show of speed.

With thousands of rally fans lining Mansfield’s main streets, all 220 Targa High Country entrants were given the chance to introduce their cars before competition proper starts tomorrow. The Mazda3 MPS of Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth was the first of the Mazda factory cars to come through and it displayed its characteristically strong pace to all.

The RX-8 SP of Steve Glenney and Bernie Webb was one of the last cars to start in today’s prologue by virtue of its position as one of the outright favourites for the event. With today marking the competition debut of the brand new Mazda RX-8 SP, the entire Mazda Motorsport team was pleased to see it come through unscathed and showing the pace that should put it amongst the front runners over the weekend.

Mazda Motorsport team manager Allan Horsley is now looking ahead to the rest of the weekend “While today’s prologue wasn’t a timed competitive stage, we’re obviously pleased to see both our cars showing good speed and the reports from both Steve and Brendan have confirmed that we have put together two strong race car packages that we expect to be extremely competitive. With some very challenging stages ahead of us tomorrow, the hard work really starts now.”

The end of today’s stage saw a carnival atmosphere, with a street festival allowing the many spectators to get up close and personal with the Targa High Country race cars and crews. Both Mazda crews enjoyed the opportunity to speak to and engage with the many fans and are looking forward to good spectator support throughout the rest of the event.

Tomorrows leg one from Mount Bulla to Wangaratta and back consists of 8 stages with a total competitive distance of 88 kilometres.