Inkster odds-on favourite

The Crown Range will be closed today from 12.55pm to 5.25pm for the 2018 Targa New Zealand tarmac motor rally cars to roar through. The annual multi-day marathon event has returned to the South Island for only the second time in its 24-year history. It started in Invercargill on Tuesday and takes in over 600km of closed special stages through Southland and Otago before a ceremonial finish in Queenstown tonight. The road closure will be in effect from the Gibbston Highway through to Cardrona and spectators must be parked at the designated viewing spots before 12.55pm and will not be able to leave before 5.25pm. WRC driver Hayden Paddon will be doing a promotional run in his 2018 New Zealand Rally Championship-winning Hyundai i20 AP4 car on gravel tyres, while circuit racing great Greg Murphy will be roaring through in a HSV Camaro. Vintage cars and the Targa Tour non-competition cars will also precede the rally entrants. Favourites to claim their fifth consecutive win in the event are South Auckland pair Glenn Inkster and co-driver Spencer Winn in their Mitsubishi Evo 8. Highlands Motorsport Park owner Tony Quinn is back with new co-driver Kieran Anstis and a late model Porsche GT3. Also keep an eye out for former event winners Martin Dippie and Jona Grant, of Dunedin, also in a Porsche GT3, plus Gore rally driver Derek Ayson in his 2016 Silver Fern Rally-winning 1981 Ford Escort. The ceremonial finish chute will be on Queenstown’s Rees St outside Eichardt’s Hotel between 4.30pm and 6.30pm. - by Catherine Pattison