Lows and Highs in Rounds 1 and 2 of Qatar Touring Car Championship

Lows and Highs in Rounds 1 and 2 of Qatar Touring Car Championship

The first two rounds of the Qatar Touring Car Championship happened last weekend at Losail international circuit.  Unfortunately after Qualifying 4th the car developed an electrical fault on the start line and was pushed from the starting grid.  With this penalty applied and the car repaired for round 2 a strong start from the 11th place at the rear of the grid to the 3rd step of the podium as a satisfying end to a frustrating start of the championship.

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Targa Mechanical Failure Frustrations

Targa Mechanical Failure Frustrations

Targa Tasmania 2016 was an important milestone for the team.  It was Adam’s 10th Targa in a row and the 25th for the event as a whole.  It was also Ross Hynd’s first with the team.  The team spent many hours prior to the event testing and preparing the car for the event.

 

The first day of the event started extremely well with Adam and Ross tied in the lead of the GT4 category after missing a win in the street stage by 2 tenths of a second!

 

Days 2 and 3 saw the pairing finding their feet but always running in the top 5 or 6 cars consistently which landed them in 5th place.  Then on day 4 with some tuning changed done to the car the team start challenging for stage wins with a couple of 2nd’s and clawing towards 4th place with still around 50% of racing distance still in front of them.

 

Unfortunately, a podium finish was not going to happen at this event with the team halfway through a stage the gearbox failed and went into limp mode which meant the car was still mobile but not competitive in stages. With a lack of spares available in Tasmania for this specialized vehicle, it also meant a premature end to the event for the team.

 

A devastating result for the team that had so much bad luck previously and who were so well positioned at this event.

 

That being said there are many positive outcomes from this event that the team will bring into their next rally.

 

Finally, a big thank you to Ross Hynd who traveled from Scotland and swapped his normal seat in a WRC Hyundai in the Scottish Rally Championship to the teams GTR in Tasmania and proved more than capable of the switch.

 

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Irvine rally ace Ross Hynd set to join Redbackracing for Targa Tasmania 2016

Irvine rally ace Ross Hynd set to join Redbackracing for Targa Tasmania 2016

As the team complete final preparations for Targa Tasmania 2016 starting in just over one week, news has broken in the UK that Irvine rally ace Ross Hynd is set to Join Adam Spence in the Redbackracing Nissan GTR R35.

Ross spoke to Scottish tabloid newspaper Daily record of his excitement in competing in the world’s longest tarmac rally.

Click here to read the full article.

We will be sharing updates in the lead up to Targa and throughout the event so stay tuned at redbackracing.com.au

 

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