A driver and co-driver have been killed in a crash on the final day of Targa Tasmania, a day after a 68-year-old driver died in another stage of the rally race.

The latest crash occurred on Wattle Grove Road near Cygnet in southern Tasmania.

Police are yet to release further details and have asked motorists to avoid the area.

Local bed and breakfast owner Cindy Beard was watching the race and witnessed the crash.

She said the car was driving on a straight section of Wattle Grove Road close to the Cygnet Coast Road intersection when the crash happened.

She said the car was travelling very fast.

“[That] part of the road it’s probably one of the safest parts,” she said.

“These guys were really hooting along.

“They were coming down very fast, they just sort of curved off the road and bang it’s wedged in between two gum trees.”

“It was a very hard hit, straight away I thought there was something seriously wrong.”

New South Wales competitor Shane Navin died after losing control of his car on a west coast stage on Friday morning.

Police said Navin lost control when navigating a right-hand bend at Double Barrel Creek on the Mount Arrowsmith stage of the race, and the car rolled into a culvert, coming to land on its roof.

His co-driver, Glenn Evans, survived the crash.

Race due to finish

The event was due to finish in Hobart this afternoon after a racing leg in Tasmania’s Channel area.

Despite the fatal crash yesterday, organisers said the event would proceed as scheduled on Saturday.

The latest fatalities bring to five the number of competitors killed during the Tasmanian race since the inaugural event in 1992.

In 1996, Melbourne navigator Ian Johnstone died after a crash in the state’s north-west.

In 2013 John Mansell from New South Wales died in a crash that was the subject of a coronial inquest.

Targa Tasmania competitors cover 2,000 kilometres over the six-day course on public roadways around the state.

There have been several deaths at Targa events interstate, including racing champion Peter Brock, who died near Perth in 2006.

The Targa website describes its Tasmanian event as “the longest and hardest tarmac rally in the world”.

–ABC