Pedder increases Rally Tasmania lead

"It’s been a good day. We were wearing our tyres down a little bit towards the end but we expected that, so generally everything is going very well,” Pedder said.

In second place is Simon Evans in his Subaru, but tyre woes complicated his day as he fought to keep up with Pedder’s pace.

“I'm driving the best I've ever driven,” he said. “I'm really happy with the way we are driving and the car's handling superbly – we’re just at a disadvantage with the new control tyre.”

Worse off, however, was his younger brother Eli Evans, who delaminated four tyres on his Honda Civic. It had been a great start to the day for the Honda driver, who took the rally lead after the first stage of the day, but it all went down hill from there.

Victorian Justin Dowel moved in to third place in his Mitsubishi Lancer, at the expense of Glen Raymond, whose Mitsubishi struck clutch problems late in the day.

Mark Pedder is fourth in a Mitsubishi, ahead of Queenslander Ryan Smart in a Toyota Corolla.

The final day of Rally Tasmania will see competitors contest another eight special stages, with a competitive distance of nearly 56 kilometres.

The rally finishes with two stages around the streets of Burnie, in front of an expected crowd of 5000 people.

Australian Rally Championship Round One

Rally Tasmania Day Two Results (after 10 of 18 stages)

1. Scott Pedder / Jon Mortimer, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, 1:16:20.7
2. Simon Evans / Sue Evans, Subaru Impreza WRX, +33.0s
3. Justin Dowel / Matt Lee, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, +2:09.5s
4. Mark Pedder / Catherine Smallbone, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX, + 3:02.3s
5. Ryan Smart / Rebecca Smart, Toyota Corolla Sportivo, +3:47.3s

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