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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
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
Tasmanian Tarmac Challenge: Report and Results
An eventful, if wet, weekend of racing on the northwest coast of Tasmania, Australia this has seen the AWD competitors streak ahead of their two wheel drive competitors and dominate the top positions. Good thing for GT-R fans as even the heavy R35 was competitive on the soggy tarmac.
Saturday saw the race begin with rain and it wrapped up on Sunday the same way. Some great early pace saw the Hi Octane and Donut King Nissans in contention for top five spots and looking great doing it.
After SS2 (Hellyer Gorge South) Newman in the Hi Octane GT-R was 4th in class with Alford right behind him in 5th. Driving the GT-R fast in the wet presents a huge learning curve but the guys are having a lot of fun doing it.
A very slight off for Newman in stage 2 however caused the R35’s pedestrian safety airbags to fire raising the bonnet at an angle and reducing visibility. It took another stage to get back into the groove but was making solid top 10’s in every stage until that happened.
Click Read More link to continue reading and see the rest of the photos from the race.
Images & On Scene Reporting: Joel Strickland
Link: Related Stories
Quit Targa West: Steven Jones in Nissan GT-R Takes Outright Victory!
The Steven Jones driven Nissan R35 GT-R has taken outright victory in the 2008 Quit Targa West making this the first competition win worldwide for the production GT-R. Jones takes a second honour of being the youngest winner of the Targa West at just 24 years old.
Steven really shows how strong he as a driver is and how good the Nissan GT-R is when you consider the experience and speed of the teams he has beaten out in this event. Jim Richards in his Porsche 911 GT2, for example, is a Targa winning machine taking victory in the Targa West and the Targa Tasmania more often than not in the past 10 years.
To top it off, the Nissan GT-R was on factory run-flat tires while competitors were on R-compound tires.
Congratulations to the Fabcar team, amazing job at winning the first time out in the new GT-R!
Images: Tom Jakovljevic (teejay) from Skylines Australia and Paul Brockbank @ AntiLag.com
Quit Targa West: GT-R Results After Day 2
The Quit Targa West has concluded day two of racing and the Fabcar Nissan GT-R is leading the field in front of some extremely tough competitors.
Steve Jones in the GT-R started off the day running second or third in each section to Jim Richards in the Porsche 911 GT2 or Kevin Week’s Superleggera but come stage 14 he picked up the pace and aced every section.
Fabcar are in a great position for the continuation of the race tomorrow. Hopefully they can bring the prize home. Good luck guys.
Images: Dan from Skylines Australia Forums
Link: Quit Targa West Home Page
TargaWest This Weekend – Fabcar GT-R Prepared
The annual Quit Targa West is being held this weekend in Western Australia. Fabcar have been gearing up for this since first importing their JDM Nissan GT-R into Australia back in January this year.
They’ve now got the GT-R stickered up for the action and are ready to go.
The Quit Targa West is on from the 4th – 7th of September 2008 and will attract some top notch cars and drivers. Last years winner was Jim Richards/Barry Oliver in a Porsche GT3 RS followed by Tony Longhurst/Jahmeil Taylor in a Skelta G-Force. The GT-R will have it’s work cut out for it!
We’ll try and keep you updated on how the event goes through the weekend!
Image Source: Skylines Australia Forums
Link: Fabcar Home Page
Link: Quit Targa West Home Page
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