First Race of 2019, Lake Mountain Sprint
The two freshly prepared Mazda RX8’s of Redbackracing this weekend (23rd & 24th March 2019) competed in the teams first race of 2019 and the final round of the 2018/19 Australia Tarmac Rally Championship – Lake Mountain Sprint.
Adam & Lee were once again paired in one of the RX8’s and Andrew Bollom plus Ric Shaw were in the other car. The first day was going to be a test for both crews, as this is the first event either set of competitors had ran in the new Redbackracing RX8’s, shortly after the shakedown stage the Victorian weather took a turn for the worse and rain came down, which to the locals was a sight they hand longed for – due to bush fires in the surrounding forests, however for the competitors it added some increased complexity to what are some already very tricky roads.
Other than a slight visit into the grass for Adam & Lee, the car of Andrew & Ric suffered from a cracked brake rotor which fortunately enough was only picked up at the end of day servicing and was changed overnight.
Day two brought dry and bright conditions and both cars performed way above the benchmark from the day before, showing that the teams were beginning to settle in their freshly prepared cars. Whilst Adam & Lee suffered a similar issue at lunch as Adam and Ric and had to swap a brake rotor the cars performed wonderfully, proving all the time and effort into the cars preparation was worthwhile.
Adam & Lee finished the race in 2nd place and with a final stage remaining Andrew & Ric pushed hard to try and grab 3rd, but painfully missed out by just 3.9 seconds. A really enjoyable event and a lot was learnt by all on how the cars should be driven and what we all need to do in preparation for the teams return after a number of years absence, to the Ultimate Tarmac Rally – Targa Tasmania 2019.
The team would once again like to thank their sponsors and without them it would not be possible to compete in events such as Lake Mountain and the team look forward to sharing updates from the Apple Isle Tasmania with the event only four weeks away…. Watch this space (and keep an eye on our social media)
