As Glenn Inkster and co-driver Spencer Winn continued on their winning way, the big story on the third timed day of this year's Targa South Island tarmac rally was developing behind them.
Heading into a smorgasbord of stages, from the tight, winding 10.74km Larnach stage along Dunedin's Highcliff Rd to the long flowing curves of the 42.66km Catlins stage, the day was a true driver's delight.
Event ambassador ''Racing'' Ray Williams has been involved as a driver, co-driver or high-speed chauffeur for 19 of the 20 events held so far and says the roads in the South Island just get better and better as the event goes on.
''I found them fabulous today, absolutely stunning, very challenging; hard to read but extraordinarily rewarding when you get them right,'' he said.
Repeating stages - giving drivers a chance to return to a favourite piece of road later in the day - is also proving popular with drivers this year.
With just a final blast around Invercargill's Teretonga Park to go to complete the day, Inkster and Winn were just over 6min ahead of fellow Mitsubishi pair Todd and Rhys Bawden in the allcomers 4WD class standings, with expat South African pair Nic de Waal and Guy Hodgson upholding Subaru WRX honours in third.
The roads were new to Hodgson and de Waal, who said it was ''really great to see the eastern side of the South Island''.
Heading into yesterday, US-based expatriate Kiwi Gavin Riches and co-driving wife Amy led the modern 2WD class and were second overall to Inkster and Winn in their road-registered Porsche GT3 Cup car.
The pair continued to push hard yesterday until disaster struck when an exhaust failure ultimately led to a fire.
''We're running but of course it cost us a lot of time,'' Riches said.
''All we can do now is to fight back and try and get some of the places we have lost back again.''
After shadowing the Riches earlier, defending Targa New Zealand title-holders Martin Dippie and Jona Grant stepped up to take the class win in the Catlins stage in their Porsche GT3 and also now lead the class overall from Christchurch pairings Dean Buist and Andrew Bulman in a Mk 11 Ford Escort RS1800 and Marcus Van Klink and Dave Neill in Van Klink's exotic ex-WRC Citroen C2.
The battle for Metalman Classic 2WD honours, meanwhile, remained tight.
Wellington son-and-father pair Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand remained in the lead in their BMW M3 but Rob Ryan and Paul Burborough, from Auckland, remained in contention just over a minute and a-half back after the Catlins stage in their Toyota AE86 Sprinter. Nelson driver Bruce Farley and co-driver Tim Eddington also won a stage, the Lawrence one, and the pair have moved up to third overall in their BMW 325i.
Organisers yesterday named the contestants involved in a serious accident in Special Stage 14. They were father and son Greg and Jackson Fowles, from Wellington.
The Targa heads to Cromwell today before a final day in and around Queenstown tomorrow.
Tony Quinn, who crashed his Lamborghini on Tuesday, confirmed late last night he would return to the rally today.
