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.
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.
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.
With a huge thank you to all our sponsors, we are proud to show you all our car with new sponsors livery, ready for Targa High Country in a few weeks time and then Targa Tasmania 2016 which is the events 25th anniversary.
Over the last week the team have been testing and doing setup work on the car. The team spent a day at both Wakefield park and then Eastern creek which both have characteristics that will replicate the roads of Targa High Country. The team were joined by Targa winner Steve Glenney who gave invaluable assistance and advice.
Click here to view the gallery from the testing track days.
The team are now looking forward to Targa High Country.
Redback Racing team up with I Love Qatar entering the QMMF Qatar Challenge race series
Redback racing are entering the QMMF Qatar challenge race series for 2015 with a 2006 Honda Integra Type R.
The Qatar Challenge Championship is a seven round championship organised and run by the Qatar Motor and Motorcyle Federation (QMMF). Now in it’s 4th year, the championship is hosted at Losail International Circuit, the only circuit in the region to be both FIA and FIM licensed.
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.
