Quinn's rapidly-repaired Lamborghini Huracan, which crashed out of the running on Tuesday near Oamaru, topped the time-sheets in the Allcomers 4WD class on yesterday's first stage, outside Gore.
At the day's end in Cromwell though, it was expat Kiwi Gavin Riches and co-driving wife Amy's sheer pace in their patched-up Porsche GT3 Cup car which had everyone talking. Usually the quickest all-wheel-drive car in the Allcomers class is the quickest in the 100-strong field.
Not yesterday, however, as after Riches lost his early event class lead to a broken exhaust and engine bay fire on Thursday, he was quickest overall through all four stages yesterday in his two-wheel-drive Porsche.
In the day's first stage, he was 2sec faster than Allcomers 4WD class winner Quinn.
In the second return run over Tuesday's 21.45km Lawrence stage from Tuapeka Mouth to outside Lawrence, he was 12sec faster than event leaders Glenn Inkster and Spencer Winn in their Mitsubishi Evo 8.
Then in the north to south run through the 41.15km Moa Flat stage from Ettrick to Heriot, he was 7sec quicker than Harry Dodson and Glen Cupit in the Dodson Motorsport Nissan GT-R35.
Dodson was quick through the afternoon's first stage, but again the Riches were faster, this time by 5sec.
''We lost so much time fixing the car [on Thursday] we are out of class and overall contention but if we want to get back, maybe, to the top 10 we just have to fight really hard so that's what we have been doing today,'' Florida-based Riches said.
Five-time Targa winner Quinn remained in the top 10 in class for the rest of the day, finishing fourth, seventh, and fourth again respectively in stages two to four.
Inkster found that balance between stage-winning speed and event-winning expediency and still enjoys a (class and overall) lead of almost 7min over fellow Mitsubishi Evo runners Todd and Rhys Bawden.
With just the final stages in the Lakes District to go today, Dunedin pair Martin Dippie and Jona Grant top the Modern 2WD class and Mark and Chris Kirk-Burnnand retain their lead in the Classic 2WD category.
Originally the field was to contest six stages yesterday but the weather caused problems around the Tapanui service park, affecting the time frame allowed for the school buses and forcing the organisers to cancel the final two.
Event director Peter Martin said it ''was a shame, obviously, for everyone involved in the event.''
''Initially we were going to delay the start but community always comes first in these cases so we made the call to just tour the cars through the stage and get the field to Cromwell,'' he said.
