Brendan well-placed after Day 2 of Targa Tasmania

After eight stages of tarmac rallying today, covering around 70 kilometres, Mazda Motorsport drivers Brendan Reeves and Rhianon Smyth sit in fourth outright position at the end of Day 2 of Targa Tasmania.

Today's stages were all run in the opposite direction to previous years, and with the added wet, slippery conditions, it was the first opportunity has had to drive the Mazda RX8 SP in the wet.

"We had a great run this morning," Brendan said. "On the first stage of the day we were only one second behind Jason White's Lamborghini, so I was rapt. That's a stage I always enjoy."

"At the lunch break, we rotated the tyres and in the following few stages I was finding it difficult to get much grip as the tyres had no heat in them. Once I has able to put a bit more air in the tyres, it made a big difference."

"Today we had the car in a dry weather set-up. As I'd never driven the car in the wet before, I preferred to stick with the dry set-up that I was familiar with, but if there's rain around tomorrow, I'll definitely be going with a wet weather set-up."

With all three crews ahead of him driving 4WDs, Brendan is happy with his current position.

"Our tyres are in really good shape, and as there are still three full days of rallying to go, we'll just drive our own rally and not worry too much about what the others are doing at this stage," Brendan added.

Tomorrow brings a number of longer stages as crews head to Tasmania's west coast and Strahan, and if the weather is similar to previous years, it's likely to be wet and slippery again.

Watch videos and browse photos of Brendan and Rhianon from Targa Tasmania 2012.