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RDA Brakes Sponsor Jackson Rooney.
Representing RDA Brakes this twenty year old Heavy Transport Engineer from Hastings has certainly found a new gear since moving into the Toyota 86 Championship. Having raced Karts since he was six, and winning numerous titles here and overseas, he felt the transition to the Toyota would be natural given the close nature of racing and the high level of competition. He also acknowledged it’s a great place to be noticed if you’re doing well … and this strategy seems to be paying dividends already!
It’s been an incredible performance for Rooney’s first season in the Toyota 86 Championship. An unbelievable second half performance saw him winning five of the final six races – including a ‘Triple’ at Hampton Downs.
Jackson’s dominating performance at that final weekend gave him maximum points and qualified him to start on pole position going into the Supercars debut weekend at Taupo. Winning two of his three races there, he gave spectators quite a thrill with an impressive performance, including the fastest qualifying lap at just 1 minute 43 seconds!
Finishing fourth in the overall championship was incredibly well deserved, but the best was yet to come with Rooney awarded the Tony Quinn Foundation Supercar Test prize. This coveted award is sponsored by Triple Eight Race Engineering, spending time with their engineers and touring their workshop, and even includes time in a Gen 3 Camaro with Red Bull Ampol Racing at Queensland Raceway. It’s a massive personal growth opportunity for Jackson, but almost more importantly, it could be just the open-door Rooney needs to break into the Australian racing circuit.
And with the door opened … Rooney walked right through to his international race debut! Driving in the Pro-Am class alongside the man himself Tony Quinn, at the second round of the Monochrome GT4 Australia series. Quinn was excited to see what the youngster would be capable of with a little more horsepower in the Mercedes-AMG GT4 and knew this would set Jackson up well as preparation for his Gen-3 drive later this year.
Having never driven a GT4 car until the practice on Friday, the youngster got quicker and quicker during his 10-minute training in wet conditions and finished up qualifying in 10th place going into race day. With Jackson able to get comfortable on the first half and getting them into a decent position, he handed the wheel over to Tony who brought them home in P3.
Sadly, Race Two saw a pit stop infringement after a great start from Tony, which took them out of contention due to a drive through penalty. However, for Rooney’s first GT4 drive, it was the stuff dreams are made of and a podium in their class was simply the icing on the cake.
Of course, in racing you win some you lose some. But for Jackson Rooney the experience was a win win on all levels, and here at RDA Brakes we can’t wait to see what unfolds next!