Day One

Nine weeks out from Targa Tasmania and the team at Redback Racing headed into Hobart this weekend for Targa Wrest Point, a two day event that many teams use as a preview to the big event taking place this year in early April.

This year had Redback Racing team up with Targa Racing and MX5 Racing to enter a team of 6 cars, 4 Mazda MX5's, a BMW 130i and our purple Starlight Supporter Mazda RX7.

Day one is a big day for a two day event with us covering over 150km in 7 stages. The cars looked great lined up on the start line and we are hoping for some great racing.

2011 had us welcome back some familiar faces in Lee Challoner-Miles, Andrew Sutcliff, Geoff Kennedy and Matilda Mravicic teaming up with Alex Hailstone, Geoff Neale and experienced Navigator Kelly Handley. This coupled new competitors in Adam Dodd and Hartley Sutcliffe Snr and Hartley Sutcliffe Jnr, ensured we were in for a great weekend..

The weather was kind with perfect sunny conditions.

After stage 3 and over some sensational Tasmania roads we all seem to have found our footing and the current standings are:

The Starlight Supporter Mazda RX7 had a fantastic first run into the
Tahunae Airwalk stage of 26km's and set the 4th fastest time out of 37 cars equaling a time set by the Perini GT3 Porsche 911. Not bad going given the brake issues we are experiencing.

All our other cars are running in the Showroom class and are currently sitting in 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th & 7th. I can feel a podium finish coming on for at least one of us.

The BMW specifically is performing perfectly, a great result for its
first outing.

Stage 7 completed and that's the end of day 1. Our brake issues
continued to play havoc with our times and at the end of day we sit in 12th position. We will spend a few hours tonight fitting new brake lines (thanks so much to Max Griffin) for coming to our rescue with a borrowed set. Hopefully we can get back on track to a top 10 finish after another 7 stages tomorrow.

Day two

Up and about early today after a long night working on the car... thanks so much to my service crew for a sensational effort.

Today has us covering just over 80km through Pelverata, Woodbridge, Cygnet and Oyster Cove, all famous Tarmac Rally Stages from Previous Targa Events.

It became apparent with the speed of the Dodd/Challoner-Miles car that a podium finish was on the cards and as the day finished this is where they ended up. 3rd in Showroom!! Great result.

Our RX7 still experiencing braking issued managed to be the quickest 2WD car home in Early modern and took out 7th Position and a category win!

In the showroom category we managed to take our 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Positions!!!

Stay tunned for news as we prepare for the final event of the year,
Targa Tasmania.