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Driven by two-time Australian rally champion Simon Evans the Toyota TRD Aurion has won in its world competition debut race. The Toyota TRD Aurion won the George Town Prologue on the opening day of the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally. The Toyota TRD Aurion win came after a 4.8 kilometer-long stage run in and around George Town.
Toyota Press Release:
TRD AURION WINS ON WORLD COMPETITION DEBUT
Toyota's two-time Australian rally champion Simon Evans has secured the TRD Aurion's maiden victory in the car's world competition debut, taking class victory in the George Town Prologue on
the opening day of the Targa Tasmania tarmac rally.
Evans and his co-driver wife Sue won their class in the Showroom 2WD category of the tarmac classic, driving a clean lap of the 4.8 kilometer-long stage run in and around the northern Tasmanian seaside town.
"To win our class on the TRD Aurion's very first outing is a great achievement," Evans said.
"I kept repeating the tarmac racing principles in my head - brake early and keep it clean, and it clearly paid off.
"For what is basically a standard road-going TRD Aurion it performed well. The car has a really good chassis, it turns well and the brakes are great. But it has a lot more potential on the open roads so we'll see how we go for the rest of the week."
Toyota Racing Development (TRD) team-mates Neal Bates and Coral Taylor also enjoyed a solid start to their Targa campaign, finishing second in their class of the Modern Competition category.
The George Town Prologue determines the starting order for Leg 1 of the event on Wednesday. Former Targa winner Bates was pleased with the TRD Aurion's competitive debut and to be less than three seconds from class leader Paul Freestone.
The 1995 Targa winner has enjoyed many successes on tarmac and although his race-spec
TRD Aurion handled George Town's tight, twisty roads well, Bates feels the car will be more at home on the fast flowing roads the event will cover in the coming days.
"We did a lot better than I expected on the Prologue stage," Bates said. "I am really happy with how the car performed, it was clean and neat.
"I expect the car to perform a lot better once the roads open up in the coming days and the TRD Aurion can stretch its legs. We can't read too much into such a short section of road but we are well-placed heading into tomorrow's first real hit out."
Evans, driving a standard TRD Aurion, was overjoyed to secure the supercharged car's first win in its very first competitive outing - and cannot wait to test the car on the fast, flowing roads the event will cover over the next five days.
Although the reigning Australian rally champion was joined for the Prologue by his regular co-driver and wife, Sue, from Wednesday he will pair up with a number of celebrity co-drivers for the remainder of the event.
Wednesday's Leg 1 will see Greg Rust, host of Network 10's RPM motorsport program fill the co-driver seat for the day's nine stages that run between Launceston and Devonport.
"Sue and I have worked a lot with Greg (Rust) developing pace notes so we should have respectable pace," Evans said.
