Well 2020 certainly has been an “unprescedented” year… so with restrictions lifting in NSW, the North Shore Sporting Car Club’s Twilight Rallies at Sydney motorsport park were able to run in November and December. So after not having the opportunity to get out racing all year the Redbackracing team of Adam Spence and Lee Challoner-Miles, supported by Steve Clarke and Wayne Lardner, grasped the chance to go and take the RBR Renault Clio out.
The November event was well attended with 97 cars and the Clio did well for its first time out in a couple of years. Racing against a wide variety of cars from many classes and categories, finishing 33rd was a respectable result for the team.
When the December event came around, while there were still over 90 competitors, the conditions changed… the race was suspended for an hour due to an lightening storm and torrential rains, the course had to be cleared as there was so much lying rain, but after that the team got the car back out and didn’t miss a beat, finishing 27th and still the opportunity to improve further!
The twilght rallies continue again in the beginning of 2021, so watch this space for more updates!
The team at Redbackracing, would like to thank all of our sponsors and wish everyone a happy Christmas and a Safe New Year, we look forward to seeing you all in 2021!
Targa Tasmania 2019, 1st & 2nd in Class, 5th & 6th in Category!
The cars of Adam Spence & Lee Challoner-Miles, Andrew Bollom & Ryan Preston competed in this years Targa Tasmania 2019. The event known as the ultimate tarmac rally, lived up to its namesake this year, with weather conditions that would test the most experienced of drivers and navigators.
The first day of the six day competition, saw the crews test there cars on three stages North of Launceston as a shakedown and to set the starting order for the subsequent day with very little between the two RBR cars and the early front runners of the Early Modern category that the team were competing within.
As with previous years day two stages were based in the central northern area of Tasmania with the largest and last stage of the day Mountain Rolland providing a real chance to race the cars over a greater distance (27kms). Andrew & Ryan were edging out a lead over Adam & Lee by increasing their lead through each stage with just a few seconds separating the two RX8’s.
Day three was when the weather turned on the competitors, torrential rain set in and made the racing conditions challenging due to the amount of rain fall but a number of the stages reduced visibility through dense fog added to the level of difficulty of completing the stages while trying to compete with tough competition from other cars in the category. It was the Cethana stage where Adam & Lee took full advantage of their combined experience and Adam’s ability to still be very competitive in such challenging weather conditions, so much so they took a 1 min 38 second lead on their sister car of Andrew & Ryan and also were in the top rankings of all cars competing.
The forth and fifth days had similar conditions and the two redback racing cars would continue to drive hard and the time difference on each stage was between 1 and 5 seconds, showing how the freshly built RX8’s were a competitively built car and how when the cars were being driven to their best, could compete with cars ten times their value.
The final day of Targa Tasmania 2019 had the teams race around the Southern Hobart region, while Adam and Lee retained a 1 minute lead, the weather again caused havoc with changing conditions within stages, which continued to make such challenging conditions that competitors would make mistakes and unfortunately not complete the rally, this was not the case for the two redback racing RX8’s as Adam & Lee finished by winning their Class and coming 5th in the Early Modern category, Andrew and Ryan were not far behind finishing 2nd in class and 6th in category, with a gap of just 48 seconds separating the two, when considering the amount of distance they had both raced over the prior 6 days is testament to the sheer determination of both crews and the quality of the build of the two Mazda RX8’s.
The team would like to thank all of their sponsors who helped make this happen and fulfil an achievement of a two car team competing day in and day out throughout the beautiful Tasmania countryside and both being able to finish in the world’s longest tarmac rally.
Click here to view the photo gallery from the event.
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)
To kick off the 2019 season, the team at Redback Racing are excited to be back running a two-car team. Adam Spence & Lee Challoner-Miles are teaming up again for the season, having come off wins in Showroom 2WD for the past two years in the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship in the Renault Clio.
Adam and Lee have been joined by long-time friend and highly experienced racer, Andrew Bollom. Andrew who is no stranger to Tarmac Rally had close friend and RX8 Cup founder Ric Shaw as Navigator. Andrew will be joined by experienced gravel rally specialist, Ryan Preston, for Targa Tasmania.
Having raced together previously, running identical Renault Meganes in 2015 with class wins in the Targa Australia Championship, the team are hoping to repeat those successes in the Mazda RX8’s, familiar territory for the Rotary loving Spence and Bollom. In fact, it was the love of Rotary engines that instigated the friendship many years ago.
Over the last 6 months the team have worked to prepare two Mazda RX8 Cup cars specifically to RX8 Cup specifications and will enter both for 2019 in a combination of Mazda RX8 Cup circuit events and selected tarmac rally events throughout the year including the AASA Australian Tarmac Rally championship event on March 23rd, Lake Mountain Sprint. The team are also very pleased to be returning to the CAMS Australia Targa championship event in April 2019, Targa Tasmania.
Not only does 2019 bring new cars to Redback Racing but also new sponsors. We welcome IAS (Integrated Asset Solutions), CIA (Consolidated Insurance Agencies), WrapStyle and Bahco to the team and want to thank CIA Promotional Products, Cyara, City Generators and Odyssey Batteries for the ongoing support.
2018 Showroom 2WD, Australian Tarmac Rally Champions
The team are chuffed to announce that that is back to back championships for team Redback Racing.
Day one say us punching well above our weight, mixing it with the big boys in Evo X’s, Audi TTRS’s and chasing the 5.0L Shelby Mustang. All this whilst competing in possibly the worlds longest single day of tarmac racing – all 186km’s of it. The little Clio was well suited to the undulating roads throughout the Victorian High Country.
Day two, was….. more challenging, with long fast straights, suited more to our higher horse powered competitors. And whilst the Clio had some issues with breaking, we doubled down knowing the championship was at stake.
So all in all, a terrific weekend and year of racing, finishing 2nd in class and 13th outright today, which makes it two firsts and two seconds to win the 2wd Australian Tarmac Rally Championship. A huge thanks to everyone who has supported us this year.
The team spent a great deal of efforts over the break period to do a number of upgrades on the car. These upgrades ended up being successful and the team featured a number of top 10 outright times and ended up with a 12th outright result and win in showroom 2WD.
The rain on day 2 of the event helped the team achieve these results.
This leaves the team in the lead of the 2018 championship in showroom 2WD with 1 round to go on the 13th and 14th of October.
Mt Baw Baw Wrap-up – Electrical Gremlin almost steals the show
Mt Baw Baw Rally is an event where the tight and twisty roads really suit the teams Renault Clio RS220.
On the Saturday the team ran solid top 10 times and captured the lead of showroom 2wd.
Then just before lunch on the Sunday the team half way through a stage collected a large stick under the car that dislodges some of the car wiring which meant the car was not able to select a gear.
With some quick thinking and reaction time from the service crew they arrived at the car and made some quick repairs. These repairs allowed the team to compete the final stage of the event and take out the Showroom 2wd category to put us in the lead of the 2018 championship.
The rally last weekend was the teams best performance to date with 6th outright out of 33 starters and 2nd in 2wd Showroom, as well as taking out the Championships first Renault Cup.
The wet weather conditions on Saturday really suited the Clio well, the team where very happy that a couple of long standing small issues with the car, where ironed out over the course of the weekend which will help provide confidence in the car for the coming rounds of the championship.
The team are now really looking forward to the second rally of the year, Mt Baw Baw a team favourite happening on the 10th and 11th of March if you are in the area come and say hi!!!
As always a high thank you to the team and sponsors.
2018 season is go!! The team are launching their new livery and team uniforms this weekend in Victoria at the first round of the championship. We are also very excited to announce some new sponsors for this season to sit along site our existing gold sponsors Cyara and Corporate Impressions Australia. For this season the team would like to welcome City Generators, Syzmik Workwear and Datagames as new sponsors. Sitting along side RenoTech and Odyssey Batteries.
The new Livery was applied by Wrapstyle Sydney who have done an amazing job to transform the appearance of the 2015 Clio RS.
A great deal of work has been put in by the team at RenoTech to try and improve the performance of the car with some mild enhancements performed over the New Year break.
As always a huge thank you to all our sponsors and crew in getting us to this point.
The final round of the 2017 championship was a success for the team taking second place at the rally and in doing so taking out the 2WD Showroom Category in the Australian Tarmac Rally Championship. The team would like to thank everybody involved in giving us the opportunity to compete in the 2017 season where the team secured 4 second positions.
