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VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R Finishes Second in Targa Wrest Point Tarmac Rally
The inaugural Targa Wrest Point short course tarmac rally was held this weekend in southern Tasmania, Australia. Three Nissan R35 GT-Rs were entered into the event, the VIP Petfoods GT-R driven by Tony Quinn and the two Donut King Racing Nissan GT-Rs driven by Tony Alford and Peter Leemhuis.
Tony Alford’s GT-R suffered brake pad issues on day one of the event. The front brakes weren’t biting hard enough causing the rears to be overworked. Overheating the rear brakes caused their pace to slow near the end of the day. Team Donut King Racing had experienced the same type of issue during the Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge tarmac rally in October 2008 so saw that pads were changed overnight.
The pad changed proved to be successful and day two was better with Alford’s pink GT-R finishing in 9th position overall.
Peter Leemhuis started off the rally in great shape in the second Donut King Racing R35 choosing to start with a different brake pad compound to Alford. They finished in 8th position after day one.
Day two was not so great for them however, they set a quick pace in the morning but had an off just after lunch time, they chose not finish the race.
Tony Quinn’s rally got off to a great start, being the second rally Quinn has driven the GT-R in he now “believes in the car” after spending the time with it competitively. The experience gained is giving him insight into what the car will do under certain conditions and he’s quicker for it, even managing to have the top speed record of 191km/h on stage TS3 Geeveston.
In comparison to the Porsches Tony has driven throughout the years, he says the GT-R is a lot easier to drive fast. His GT-R remains almost completely standard, standard suspension and tires. An upgraded exhaust is fitted since Tony prefers the car to be loud and finds the standard exhaust to be far too quiet.
Overall he was very happy with the performance of the car;
“The car has gone brilliantly all weekend, we’re really pleased. Look out if it’s wet in Targa in April, we’ll be hard to beat.”
Quinn finished in second place on day one, 16 seconds behind the race leader but poised for a great day two.
Day 2 was a continuation of day 1 for Quinn as the consistency of both driver and GT-R shone through. Tony was able to nudge ever closer to first place, at one point being within 2 seconds of the lead. After some hard work and great driving the VIP Petfoods GT-R finished in second place just three seconds behind the Porsche 911 GT3 RS of Greg Garwood and in front of Targa super-star Jim Richards in his Porsche 911 GT2 and tarmac rally veterans the Whites in their Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.
Congratulations to Tony, Tony and Peter on your work racing the GT-R in real competition and great work being so successful at it.
Thanks to Joel Strickland for his Targa Wrest Point report and for allowing us to use his photos. Video below and more photos and videos from Targa Wrest Point after the read more link below.
Link: Targa Wrest Point Website
Link: Joel Strickland Photographics Website
Link: Tarmac rally related articles on GTRBlog
VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R Outright 5th in Dunlop Targa NZ
Tarmac rallies aren’t usually the natural stomping ground for a car weighing just this side of 4000 pounds but you don’t see that stopping the Nissan GT-R from excelling at it. All last week and over the weekend, over 130 teams were attacking the roads of the North Island of New Zealand in the annual Targa New Zealand.
Tony Quinn and his brand new VIP Petfoods Nissan R35 GT-R managed a 5th position outright finish after some exciting racing in the treacherous, wet conditions. (video link)
This finish in a basic standard (but obviously targa prepared) GT-R backs up recent tarmac rally results in Australia where Nissan GT-Rs finished 5th and 9th in the Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge and outright first in the Quit Targa West.
Photos: Aaron Hape
Link: Targa New Zealand Home Page / Results
Dunlop Targa NZ: Nissan GT-R Leading After First Day of Racing
After finishing fifth outright in the Dunlop Targa New Zealand in 2008, Tony Quinn has campaigned the VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R across the pond in Australia to much success.
Second place in the Targa Wrest Point and first place in Rally Tasmania in February 09. First in Targa Tasmania 2009 in April and second in the Quit Targa West in August. It’s easy to see that Tony is going places in the GT-R.
The Dunlop Targa NZ kicked off today and at the end of the first day Tony is leading the pack in the GT-R making a determined effort to improve over last year.
The Targa NZ runs for 6 days, finally wrapping up on the 31st of this month. Good luck to Tony and the VIP Petfoods GT-R team.
Link: Targa NZ Website
Quit Targa West 2009: Nissan GT-R Dominates First Days of Competition
After an exciting prologue event on Thursday, Steve Jones in his R35 Nissan GT-R got off to a great start in for Friday’s first competitive stage of the Quit Targa West 2009 in Western Australia. The prologue event consisted of two laps of the 3.4 km stage with Jones managing the best time in the LF Performance Nissan GT-R. Not far behind him in third place was Tony Quinn campaigning his VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R entry.
Steve Jones is not a newcomer to the Quit Targa West, in fact he won outright in 2008 in the same Nissan GT-R so expectations are high for a solid performance.
Due to the reverse start order system this meant that Steve was last to start the first of seven stages for Leg 1 on Friday. After the third leg it looked like Jones was right on track to take a back to back win but in SS4 Tony Quinn in his GT-R was to snatch the lead and continue on to put 13 seconds distance between himself and Jones by the end of the day.
So the leadership goes from GT-R to GT-R at the end of Leg 1 on Friday. Reports of rain for Leg 2 on Saturday look like the GT-R’s AWD system might give the leaders an advantage indeed.
We’ll keep you updated but live results and updates can be found at the Quit Targa West website below.
Link: Quit Targa West Website
Link: Quit Targa West Live Updates
Images: Circlework and Travis Barnes
Targa Tasmania 2009: Nissan GT-R Outright Leader for Day 2 in Fine Conditions
An extremely close day of racing sees the VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R of Tony Quinn and Naomi Tillet maintaining their lead over the field. Equal first / second has had one Lamborghini exchanged for another as the 2007 Gallardo of Kevin weeks has overtaken Jim Richards (Porsche GT2) and the Whites (Gallardo Superleggera) to end the day on par with the GT-R overall.
“I think it’s good for the event that it’s so close. There’s some good cars, some good drivers and a few surprises. The Skelta didn’t last and (last year’s winner, Steve) Glenney is nowhere to be seen.
“It’s the old troopers up the front who are pumping out times that are much quicker than last year. We all made it through and we’re ready to fight another day.”
– Tony Quinn
The top five contenders are within 21 seconds of each other including the fifth place Fabcar Nissan GT-R driven by Western Australian Steven Jones. He’s more than 30 seconds in front of sixth place but just 5 seconds behind 4th so has real potential to move up the ranks.
“We’re doing pretty good. The roads today are very bumpy compared to what I’m used to in WA, particularly in the middle of the corners. The car is just a little bit too low, we just need to adjust the suspension bit and make it suit the bumpier conditions in Tasmania. We’re just trying to keep on the road at moment, as there’s still a long way to go. I’m still getting used to it all. I’m happy with where I am and knew the front runners would go quickly, but I can’t let them get away too much if I want to stay in contention. Because this is my first Targa a lot of it is unknown and I don’t know what to expect next.”
– Steve Jones
Russel Newman is doing better today in his RGM Maintenance Nissan GT-R and has moved his way up to end 7 places better than yesterday for 13th spot in leg 2.
Team Donut King were penalised heavily on day two. Each scoring 20 minute penalties that pushed them right to the back of the pack. Minus the penalties Tony Alford would currently be in 12th place and Peter Leemhuis in about 18th. Instead these guys are towards the end of the field.
Day 3 of the Targa will be wet as it rained in Launceston overnight so the GT-Rs may now begin to really shine. Either way day 3 will be exciting indeed.
Targa Tasmania news release after the jump…
Link: Targa Tasmania 2009 Website – Results
Link: Targa Tasmania – News Website
Targa Tasmania 2009: Nissan GT-R Leading the Pack for Day 1
Leg 1 and day 1 of competitive racing for Targa Tasmania 2009 is completed and the results have been tallied and at the end of day 1 the GT-R is king. A fantastic opening day for the the VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R driven by Tony Quinn as he takes the outright lead 6 seconds in front of the White’s Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera which trails in second.
“The day has been fantastic. Our strategy was to keep with the leaders until the rain comes, and then to see what we can do. If we are within cooee of the leaders, or about 20-25 seconds behind, we’ll be fine, hard to beat. If it doesn’t rain, we’ll just have to press a bit harder.”
– Tony Quinn
He’s managed more than that, in the dry conditions he’s shown the epic Porsche GT2 driven by legend Jim Richards why he should get back into a Nissan after campaigning in the Porsche for too long.
Steve Jones in the Fabcar Nissan GT-R is doing great as well managing 5th position at the end of day one at one stage being equal fourth at the end of TS7.
Tony Alford is also a strong contender in 12th position overall. Peter Leemhuis is in 18th and Russel Newman rounds out the GT-Rs in 20th place.
The racing continues tomorrow as the weather turns colder and, probably, wetter. Showers are expected and even anticipated by the AWD Nissan pilots. Things could get very interesting very quickly.
Update: Photos from day 1 added courtesy of Joel Strickland
Link: Targa Tasmania 2009 Website – Results
Link: Targa Tasmania – News Website
Photos: Joel Strickland (C) Joel Strickland Photographics
Rally Tasmania 2009: Nissan GT-R Victorious!
Tony Quinn and Jim Richards again challenged each other on the final day of Rally Tasmania 2009 but Quinn and his GT-R proved too much for the Porsche GT2 and was able to beat it in 5 out of the final 6 stages.
On the penultimate stage Quinn’s lead was just 4.6 seconds but he opened the taps on the final stage to finish 14.4 seconds ahead of second place Jim Richards.
Tony Quinn and co-driver Naomi Tillet’s victory make this the second Australian tarmac rally win for the Nissan R35 GT-R after Steven Jones’ victory at Quit Targa West in September.
“It’s great to win a fantastic event,
“We had to push really hard today to keep Jim (Richards) at bay, but we managed to bring it home.
“We have not had any problems all weekend. The car has been terrific, and will only get better if it is wet in future events.”
– Tony Quinn
Tony Alford and Kelley Handley also finished strongly maintaining their fifth position just 3 minutes 44 seconds behind the race leader.
This year was an extremely close finish but the GT-R is really beginning to show it’s ability in the tarmac rally sport. Tony Quinn is right on the money when he mentions that the competition better look out if it’s wet. Targa Tasmania is coming up fast and any slippery conditions may upset the rear-wheel drive GT2 crews.
Congratulations to the VIP Petfoods and Donut King Racing teams for bringing home these great results!
Don’t forget to check out our photo gallery after the jump!
Link: Rally Tasmania
Link: Joel Strickland Photographics
Link: Rally Tasmania related articles on GTRBlog
Rally Tasmania 2009: Nissan GT-R Leads the Pack on Day Two
An exciting day of back and forth between race leader Tony Quinn in his VIP Petfoods Nissan GT-R and Jim Richards in the Porsche GT2 today which ultimately resulted in an amazingly close finish for the day with Tony Quinn up just 1 second in front of Richards.
A solid day of racing for Tony Alford in the Donut King Racing R35 GT-R saw him climb to fifth position.
Today’s the final leg of the race, we’ll bring you another update at the end of the day.
| Current Position | Car # | Driver | Time Total |
| 1 | 55 | Tony Quinn | 1:09:00.5 |
| 2 | 51 | Jim Richards | 1:09:02.5 |
| 3 | 52 | Jamie Vandenburg | 1:09:57.0 |
| 4 | 53 | Tony Longhurst | 1:10:08.9 |
| 5 | 57 | Tony Alford | 1:11:40.3 |
Link: Rally Tasmania Website
Link: Rally Tasmania related articles on GTRBlog
Rally Tasmania 2009: Quinn’s GT-R Hot on the Heels of Richards’ GT2
Rally Tasmania got off to a great start today for Tony Quinn in his VIP Petfoods Nissan R35 GT-R. At the end of the day he finished second just 3.4 seconds behind Jim Richards who’s driving his Porsche 911 GT2.
Quinn is very happy with the car so far but knows it’s going to be a challenge to chase Richards in the dry conditions.
Donut King Racing GT-R #1 is also entered in Rally Tasmania driven by Tony Alford. Alford finished up 6th overall at the end of the first day and is also happy with the GT-R’s performance after having solved the brake issues which troubled them at Targa Wrest Point. The tyres are taking longer than desired to get up to temperature but are looking forward to the longer stages at Savage River as this is where the GT-R will shine.
Rally Tasmania continues Saturday and Sunday, good luck guys. Stay tuned for updates!
Thanks to Joel Strickland for the photos and story.
Link: Rally Tasmania
Link: Joel Strickland Photographics
Photo Gallery: Godzilla in Action – Action Shots from Targa Wrest Point
It’s not often you get to see Godzilla in it’s natural environment, competitive racing that is. Targa Wrest Point was held a couple of weeks back and friend of GTRBlog Joel Strickland was in attendance with camera in tow. The VIP Petfoods GT-R you see here finished second outright in the race.
Please now enjoy these higher-res photos from our collection! Check out the full story at the link below and more photos after the jump…
Link: Targa Wrest Point related articles on GTRBlog
Link: Joel Strickland Photographics
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