Four times Classic Adelaide winner Rex Broadbent is off to a flying start in his quest for a fifth consecutive Classic Adelaide victory setting the fastest time on the event prologue yesterday.
Broadbent, from Melbourne, in a Porsche 911 RS, positioned himself at the head of the field with a time of 2min:17 seconds around the challenging Victoria Park street circuit. He was closely followed by Queenslander Keith Callinan in his spectacular De Tomaso Pantera with a time of 2min:21 seconds, while Bernie Stack from Adelaide was third with a time of 2min:22 seconds in his E30 BMW M3.
“We were really happy, the car was just fantastic and we didn’t even push it to the limit,” said Rex Broadbent.
Seven times Bathurst 1000 and eight times Targa Tasmania winner, Jim Richards, found himself marginally off the pace posting a time of 2min:25seconds, putting he and co-driver Barry Oliver inside the top ten.
Richards, who is competing in a Porsche 944 Turbo Cup, admitted before the prologue that his car would struggle around the short street circuit.
“We won’t have the pace of the 911s around this circuit, mainly because of turbo lag, however I reckon we will be in the hunt once we are in the rally stages over the next four days,” said Jim Richards.
The 3.1km course through the former grand prix circuit in Adelaide’s Victoria Park played host to today’s prologue, which ran without a hitch according to Classic Adelaide General Manager Bob Carpenter.
“It all went to plan perfectly,” said Bob Carpenter.
“The officials were fantastic as usual and the competitors are all in good spirits and looking forward to competing,” added Carpenter.
The five day 700km tarmac rally continues on Thursday with the first competition car leaving the Hilton Hotel at 9am. The cars will wind their way through the towns of Upper Hermitage and Gumeracha to the lunch break in Tanunda before heading back through the same stages to finish the day in Adelaide’s Victoria Square at around 4pm.
Photo: Kristian McMahon
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