Team Redbackracing this year have again returned to the Whiteline Twilight Rally Series at Sydney Motorsport Park. However the first outing this season had a very retro feel about it…. The BMW M3 was away having some maintenance work in preparation for future Twilight rounds. So instead the team brought out an old fan favourite…. Renault Spider!
We had 4 sponsors from Bahco join us at the event to see the hundreds of cars participate and again the spider stood out from the crowd, not only for its unique looks but also the engine note that would have to be one of loudest in the field!
A great run out for the team and great conditions to be enjoyed by all, next Twilight rally is mid December where we look forward to sharing an update and pictures of the BMW returning to Sydney Motorsport Park.
Until then, click here to see the gallery of pictures from this months twilight rally.
Targa Tasmania 2022 was a special year, as the 30th Anniversary of the Ultimate Tarmac Rally, which also corresponded with Adams 14th and Lee’s 11th Targa, the 3rd year with both Adam and Lee competing together in the same car with the ultimate aim of taking the top step of the podium.
Before the race began, the team at Redback Racing hosted a number of sponsors at the Symons plains raceway, just outside Launceston. This gave a great opportunity for Bahco Sponsors, friends and families to get up close and personal with the BMW M3 CSL, including laps of the challenging supercars track. It also provided a great warm up event for Adam to get some time behind the wheel so the team could start the 30th running of Targa prep’d and ready in the best position to take on the most challenging of tarmac rallies!
However, it was very unfortunate that while the team were ready, on the very first stage the car has a computer related issues, which put the engine and gearbox into “Limp Mode” meaning the car would only run labouring and not attacking the first stage as the team would have hoped and lead to the team losing some 45 seconds on the first stage and putting them way down the position order.
The issue was initially resolved, which led to the crew having two solid stages to close the gap that had been caused from the first stage, but unfortunately the issue returned. They had however learnt to fully reset the car and computer, which they had to do mid stage on the side of the road, again costing more time.
Root cause for the issue was still not understood but a tactical work around, resetting the car before each stage to give it a chance to complete the whole stage, hoping that it did not reoccur during the stage… which worked as the team went on to take stage win the next 3 stages and closed the prior lost time to put team Redback Racing into to top position for the Early modern category.
Its with great sadness that unfortunately a competitor lost their life in a fatal accident, which after the loss of lives in 2021 the Targa leadership team made the call at the end of day 2 to downgrade the rest of the event from competition to drive through. This led to Team Redback Racing to an Early Modern Category & Class win by the most slender of lead, 1 second!
It was never a way the team wanted Adam & Lee to share their first collective Targa Tasmania win and everyone at Redback Racing would like to share their thoughts and prayers with the family of their former competitor.
The car was put on display with a local Mitre 10 dealership before being returned to NSW and the team will reset, resolve the issue that had occurred throughout the event and the team look forward to coming back even stronger at our next event!
Click here to view the gallery from Targa Tasmania 2022
On April 21st, as our last test for the BMW M3 the team from Redback Racing took to the Eastern creek circuit of the Sydney Motorsport park, to participate in the forth and final round of the Whiteline Twilight Rally Series. The event this time round was dry so the team were able to put the M3 through its paces to make last minute checks and alterations to the configuration of all elements of the BMW prior to the car being sent to Tasmania in preperation for a sponsors track day and then the following Tuesday the commencement of the 30th Anniversary running of Targa Tasmania.
Sponsors from Uniphore and Superloop were able to join the team for the evening to see the specticle that is twilight rallying, a very entertaining and successful evening for all involved.
Our next update will be from the apple isle as the team participate in the Ultimate Tarmac Rally!!!
On Feb 17th, after a couple of upgrades were made to the teams BMW M3 car the team competed in round three of the Whiteline Twilight Rally series at Sydney’s Motorsport park.
After a number of delays due to covid it was fantastic just to be back in the car again. As you can see from the photos taken at the event (You have the google drive link so you can also use some of these) the event was delayed in starting due to the weather and each of the runs in the car had varying levels of rain.
The upgrades were successfully tested and the team are now very excited about bringing one of the teams sponsors out for rides in the car on the final round of the series on the 10th of March.
Thursday night a week before Christmas… team Redback Racing had a night out at Sydney Motorsport Park, to enter the first round of the Whiteline Twighlight Rally Series. The team were joined by our friends from Bahco and PumpCX for the ride of their life!
The guests got t0 experience the opportunity to learn how to navigate using pace notes and then put them in action around the Sydney Motorsport park stage under lights.
Team Redback racing will be back for on the 10th February at Sydney Motorsport Park! If you can join us please come along and enjoy the action!
Until then, Adam Lee and all of Redback Racing team wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Safe, Happy New Year! See you in 2022!!
The team from Redbackracing again took on the challenge of Targa Tasmania in April of 2021, competing in the Dutton’s Garage Early Modern 2 wheel drive category. This year competing in the BMW M3 CSL that was built and prepared through the COVID 19 Pandemic, which caused its challenges, but the car was setup for the tough challenge that was to be faced while racing throughout Tasmania in the worlds longest Tarmac Rally.
The car ran really well through the first two days, as the crew go to grips with the new power and control changes since stepping into the BMW. Day 3 the service team were called into action with overnight work to repair suspension lines that had worn against the rear wheels. While a challenge to get fixed with no garages open, the car was back racing the next morning.
Conditions throughout the event were very mixed with rain showing an apperance every day throughout. The latter stage of the rally of the final two days, unfortunately led to the passing of three fellow competitors. Shane Navin passed away on the fifth day while tackling the Mt Arrowsmith stage. While Leigh Mundy and former Redbackracing team member Dennis Neagle passed away on the Cygnet stage of Day 6. Our thoughts and prayers remain with Shane, Leigh and Dennis’s family, while time passes memories will not fade of our fellow competitors, Rest in Peace.
The BMW finised the race in fine form, having spent the majority of the race tusseling with Henry and Henry in their Porsche Cayman for third spot. In the final stages throughout Southern Tasmaina the BMW helped the crew get into 2nd spot, but unfortunately the stages were downgraded based on the accident that had occured, so the team finished in a very worth 3rd position, with the passing of the colleaugues there was not celebration or podium but instead all competitors spent time with each other and their familes.
An inquest was performed on Targa Tasmania and some further safety recommendations were put forward and the Targa leadership team have put these into place for all future Targa Events. With further COVID lockdowns all other events were delayed or could not be reached due to border crossings, so we await 2022 when Redbackracing will be back at Tackling Targa Tasmania 2022 – 30th Anniversary.
Click here to view the gallery from Targa Tasmania 2021
As the 29th running of Targa Tasmania draws closer, the team at Redbackracing are proud to partner with Can4Cancer, a challenging 3-day cycling event in New South Wales.
Can4Cancer is a community initiative run by the Australian charity, Tour de Cure, which raises vital funds to support researchers working towards curing and preventing cancer.
Can4Cancer has been running for 7 years and this year aims to raise over $2 million dollars in much needed funds.
The team’s principal, Adam Spence, and his long-term navigator, Lee Challoner-Miles are both participating in this exciting and challenging event.
Since joining the board of Can4Cancer this year, Lee has been instrumental in the planning of the event and has helped bring more than 140 riders on board to ensure the $2 million target is met.
Every single dollar counts, and with your help we can be one step closer to reaching the $2 million goal.
Adam and Lee can both be sponsored for this challenging event by clicking below:
Adam and Lee, along with 140 other riders will take on the 375kms over 3 days, with more than 4600 meters of climbing.
The ride commences on the 16th of May 2021in Belmont in the NSW Hunter Valley, making its way to Sydney via Polkobin and Wisemans ferry, before finishing at the Can4Cancer festival at Commonwealth Banks newly opened South Eveleigh campus on the 18th of May 2021, where the riders will finish alongside 5000 walkers and runners who are participating in sister events.
Unfortunately, most of us have been impacted by cancer, whether it be us being directly impacted or through family or friends contracting the dreadful disease.
The team at Redbackraing were especially touched to hear of the untimely passing of motoring legend, Sabine Schmitz, who lost her three-year battle with cancer last month at the age of 51.
You can find out more about Can4Cancer and the event here:
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.
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.
