Targa Tasmania was definitely an event of highs and lows for the whole team. The highs were; the pace we had from the start of the event, in only the second running of the car and also our debut of the CR9 Carbon Revolution 20 inch wheels. They really transformed the car and especially on some of bumpy roads throughout Tasmania, the wheels made a significant performance improvement.
Another high was working with such a great team that worked like clockwork!
Obviously, it was a huge disappointment to leave the event midway through. A tough pill to swallow with everything running so well to that point. We have learn’t from that experience and will come back stronger with an aim to have the same pace coupled with greater consistency. We will work hard over the coming months to repair our car and team Redbackracing will be back stronger than ever!
Watch this space!
Click here to view the pictures from Targa Tasmania 2015
Redback Racing to make history in Targa Tasmania 2015!
On Monday the 27th of April 2015, Adam Spence, Erin Kelly and the team at Redback Racing will enter the record books, being the first race team to run their Nissan R35 GTR with a one piece, full carbon fibre wheel set. These wheels, produced by Carbon Revolution of Geelong, Australia, are the world’s first aftermarket carbon fibre automotive wheel.
The Redback Racing team have been working along side the Australian owned and operated Carbon Revolution on the fitment of a wheel suitable for their GTR.
Adam Spence, team principle, said “We did some early testing on the wheels and you could feel the difference immediately, completely changing the dynamics of the car. Acceleration and breaking performances were improved over our old aluminium wheels due to dramatic weight savings, the Carbon Revolution CR-9 has improved the overall wheel and tyre combination, which makes such a difference to the cars handling”
“We know we still have more to learn about the GTR and what it is capable of and after a solid 5th outright at Targa High Country in November last year, which was our first outing in the car, we know that running such a great product will help us gain those precious seconds needed on every stage to be competitive again this year”.
Brett Gass, Executive Director of Carbon Revolution said “Our partnership with Redback Racing has been a tremendous project for Carbon Revolution. We have been looking for the opportunity to work with an innovative racing team to prove our wheel technology in the harshest conditions possible. We are looking forward to supporting Redback Racing as they strive for great success in this world famous race”
The team at Redback Racing would once again like to take this opportunity to thank all of their support team and our major sponsors Vivant, Corporate Impressions Australia, Cyara, Hi-Tec Batteries, Motul as well as Oracle Creative, Cartek, JustJap, Freem, Styling Spacing Spaces, Renotech and Nuance.
CARBON REVOLUTION
Geelong, Australia, based Carbon Revolution has designed, engineered and manufactures the world’s first carbon fibre automotive wheel. The Carbon Revolution team includes former senior engineers and manufacturing executives from global automakers and suppliers, R&D specialists from the aircraft industry, industrial composites manufacturing specialists and numerous PhDs with materials and structures expertise. Carbon Revolution has utilised this team’s depth of experience and knowledge to develop proprietary and patented processes that are literally revolutionising the wheel industry.
Carbon Revolution, as a global leader in composite technology, has key technology development partnerships with Deakin University and RMIT in Australia, which are both recognised in their respective fields of materials sciences and aerospace technology. The company has met global automaker standards for component supply to ensure a world-class approach to quality and process control. Carbon Revolution’s automotive carbon fiber wheel technology is proven to improve performance and efficiency and the company is working with key partners to develop aerospace, military and industrial vehicle applications to take vehicle performance and efficiency to new levels. “PERFORMANCE IS EVERYTHING. EFFICIENCY IS EVERYTHING ELSE.”
Targa High Country – A great success! (available for viewing on 7 Mate, Sunday 23rd 12 Noon November 2014)
After 6 months month of planning and hard work, the team at Redback Racing made their way from Sydney, Brisbane and Doha to the beautiful Mt Buller, Victoria for the first ever outing in their new Nissan GTR R35.
After the huge effort by all involved to get the car to the stat of the event, things didn’t quite go to plan, when during a test run down the mountain on Thursday before the official start on Friday Adam & Erin had a gearbox sensor fail getting stuck in 5th gear and going nowhere fast. After a few panicked phone calls to ask a few favours, the car was towed back to Melbourne where our service crew, with some much needed help from the guys at Justjap, Motul and Alpine Affair worked through the night to have the car ready to race on Friday morning.
The event went smoothly from that point on with the car running like a dream. Over some of the most beautiful roads in Australia, Adam and Erin had the car running as high as 2nd position outright, finishing in 5th place on the final day but ending on a high after winning their first stage outright on the Sunday afternoon!
Now with only 6 months until Targa Tasmania in late April 2015, the team are focused on making some slight enhancements to the car. Be sure to stay tuned for further updates throughout the year.
As always we would like to thank our incredible sponsors, Cyara, Vivant, Carbon Revolution, Hi-Tech Batteries, Nuance, Corporate Impressions Australia, Oracle Creative, Motul, Cartek, Reno Tech, Dirrawong, JustJap, Feeem and Styling Spaces for their ongoing support and encouragement.
After getting to know the car a little better, the team were able to push a little harder on the familiar day 2 stages which took them out to Pizzini Wines at Whitfield and back.
With the crew and car performing faultlessly they were able to finish the day 3rd, up 2 places from yesterday. Adam, Erin and the crew are thrilled with the day’s results.
The team are looking forward to tackling the challenging stages of day 3 which takes them out to Eildon and back. The biggest challenges of the day ahead are the two 30km stages and the final run up Mount Buller however temperatures tomorrow are set to be a welcoming 10ᵒ cooler which everyone will be looking forward to.
Today was the first day for Adam and Erin in the Nissan GTR.
The team in the car are forever gratefull to their service crew, who worked through the night to get the car to the startline. We would also like to thank JustJap for their help with car parts and Alpine affair who loaned us their workshop.
Today was a steep learning curve in the new car but an enormous amount of fun and we are looking forward to learning the car further and enjoying days 2 and 3.
After a massive effort from our incredible team of service crew and supporters, Erin & I are about to tackle Targa High Country in the modern/outright category for the first time.
Preparation and testing on our new GTR has gone perfectly and although we admit to some nerves, we are more excited than ever to be getting out to race on some of Australia’s best roads.
If you happen to be in the Victorian High Country on the 7th, 8th or 9th November, be sure to stop by and say hello, we would love to see you. Those of you that cant get up close, we will be updating the website and our social media pages throughout the event to keep you abreast of our progress.
The big question at the end of last years season was where to go next…
So after a few discussions within the team it was decided that new RedbackRacing Branding and a new car for the coming season ahead.
We started literally the day that Targa Tasmania 2014 finished looking into options and a path forward.
So, with a huge amount of work and effort from so many people we are extremely excited to launch the teams new look branding coupled with our new car.
A 2011 Nissan Skyline R35! We will be competing in the competitive Modern Category of Targa High Country 14 and Targa Tasmania 2015.
We hope you like the new branding and come and say hi to the team at these events.
The team would like to thank our loyal sponsors that have believed in us and have come along for the journey and our new sponsors for this new season. Together you have enabled a dream!
Without you and the team who all donate their time we would not be here.
