Bruce Power temporarily halted

Bruce Power snapped an axle earlier today calling a halt to his day. Jon got down to Tasmania today and is currently helping Bruce swap in a new axle - he sent me the following pic:



And no, the car isn't wavy, think Jon's phone has just been dropped too many times.

Anyway, Bruce should be ready to go for tomorrows racing.

And in other news I just read on the Mazda Aus Twitter Feed () that Glenney has crashed out. Crew OK but that is a big shame.

Targa Day 2

Day 2 was a good day for Team Reliance. Barry Faux moved into 2nd Late Classic Handicap with Greg Sutton not far behind - and Bruce Power not that much further back. The Crowe brothers managed to keep the thirsty car fed (mostly) so their placings improved - as did their stage times. Damian O'Halloran continued to improve his placing and Glenn Ridge maintained his 29th in Early Modern.

A day of mixed results for Mazda Motorsport - Reeves continues to blitz Showroom and Vandenberg has been getting the hang of the RX8 and is moving up through the pack. From the Mazda website it appears that Glenney was having electrical dramas so hopefully that is all remedied and they can make up for lost time today.

Placings at the end of day 2 for the Reliance team:
Car #607 Faux & Mihajlovic - 2nd in Late Classic Handicap (9th Classic Outright)
Car #620 Sutton & Kelly - 7th in Late Classic Handicap (15th Classic Outright)
Car #625 Power & Power (VIC) - 14th in Late Classic Handicap (19th Classic Outright)
Car #634 O'Halloran & Burton - 53rd in Late Classic Handicap (50th Classic Outright)
Car #650 Crowe & Crowe - 68th in Late Classic Handicap (81st Classic Outright)
Car #730 Ridge & Ridge (VIC) - 29th Early Modern

More good luck to all the teams on day 3.

Targa Day 1

Well all the Reliance cars have made it through the first day of Targa with Barry Faux 3rd in Late Classic Handicap (11th Classic Outright) and Greg Sutton not far behind (=9th in Late Classic Handicap and 20th Classic Outright). Mazda Australia are well placed with Glenney in the RX8 in 3rd Modern and and Reeves in the 3 MPS leading Showroom. The Crowe brothers were doing very well but unfortunately had a (non-mechanical) problem that saw them stuck on Stage 6 for a while and missed the finish control getting them a 20 minute time penalty. Luckily they were able to continue and with plenty more racing to go who knows where they will end up.

Placings at the end of day 1 for the Reliance team:
Car #607 Faux & Mihajlovic - 3rd in Late Classic Handicap (11th Classic Outright)
Car #620 Sutton & Kelly - =9th in Late Classic Handicap (20th Classic Outright)
Car #625 Power & Power (VIC) - =21st in Late Classic Handicap (28th Classic Outright)
Car #634 O'Halloran & Burton - 59th in Late Classic Handicap (63rd Classic Outright)
Car #650 Crowe & Crowe - 72nd in Late Classic Handicap (96th Classic Outright)
Car #730 Ridge & Ridge (VIC) - 29th Early Modern

Good luck to all the teams on day 2.

Targa Tasmania underway

It’s a little quieter in the shop now that all the Targa cars are prepped and now down in Tasmania competing. All the Reliance prepared cars have made it through yesterdays prologue (though Barry Faux did damage a wheel) and are ready to go out and have a ball today. Jon will be heading down on Friday to lend a hand and to possibly spectate. We wish all the competitors good luck – especially the following with Reliance prepared cars:
Car #607 Faux (ACT) ‐ Mihajlovic (ACT), 1979 Mazda RX7, Classic
Car #620 Sutton (ACT) ‐ Kelly (NSW), 1979 Mazda RX7, Classic
Car #625 Power (ACT) ‐ Power (VIC), 1979 Mazda RX7, Classic
Car #634 O'Halloran (ACT) ‐ Burton (ACT), 1984 Mazda RX7, Classic
Car #650 Crowe (ACT) ‐ Crowe (ACT), 1984 Mazda RX7, Classic
Car #730 Ridge (VIC) ‐ Ridge (VIC), 1995 Mazda RX7 SP, Modern

You can follow the results here - http://www.rallyresults.com.au/targa/TT2011/index.asp

You can also get updates on the Mazda Motorsport Team’s (yes, there is Reliance input) progress here - http://www.mazda.com.au/Motorsport/Targa-Tasmania.aspx

More Targa Prep

Visiting the shop this morning (dropping my RX7 off for some work prior to this Sunday’s hillclimb) I spied Glenn Ridge’s RX7 SP in for some work in preparation for Targa Tasmania. Couldn’t resist taking a snap – unfortunately just with my mobile so quality isn’t the best. The 3rd Generation RX7s really are a great looking car.

Event report - New engine and new PB at hillclimb

A little late on the update, but at the last SDMA Hillclimb on the 20th of Feb my S1 RX7 debuted its new 13B Bridgeport built by Reliance. It was a last minute thrash but the car was ready (and quietened down with a revised exhaust) to race on the day (actually it was ready days before the race). My previous pb was a 50.76 set earlier last year. On my second run of the day I lowered my PB to a 50.52 so I was pretty happy. On the third run of the day it felt pretty good. I knew when long time rival Teppo walked over and shook my hand something special had happened - and when I found out I had finally cracked a 49 I was stoked, especially when I found out I had dropped my pb to a 49.75. All down to the engine.

Thanks to Mark Neal for the photo.

So a great result for Team Aardvark - never a bad thing when you beat a Porsche and a Lotus. Jon definitely builds a great engine - and the sound of a bridgeport never gets old.

Shop Visit 3rd March 2011

Over the last month 3 second generation RX7s have begun the transformation into rally cars. Two of them are being prepared for customers to run in tarmac events such as Targa Tasmania (one is going to be something a little different but more on that another time) and the last is a replacement for Jon’s RX7 known as the Chainsaw (maybe we need to run a naming competition for the new car). All have been stripped of sound deadener (good old dry ice and a good wipe down with petrol) and caged – this process being made much easier on two of the cars as the roof panels were removed to replace the sunroof equipped cars with factory non-sunroof panels. The cages all sit as close as possible to the pillars and roof as you can see in the photo gallery. There is still much to do but I’ll try to follow their progress as preparation continues. And if you want to know which car will be the Chainsaw replacement – look for the white Compototives that Jon put on there especially for the photos.



If you look through the photos you might notice some other Targa Tasmania regulars in for some maintenance and modifications – which you might recognise if you’ve looked at Mazda Motorsports privateers page.