Hello,
Yes, you do need a backburner, but if you were able to send a r3d job, then you have one installed somewhere. If you haven't explicitly installed it anywhere, its most likely running on the same machine as WTC ( wiretapcentral ). When you click submit to send the job theres a field labeled 'Backburner Manager'. This is where your job gets sent.
In WTC, select the Tools menu and then Backburner Monitor. There's a drop-down list at the top labeled manager. If you click it you should be able to see a the manager you sent the job to in the list. Select it.
The grid below should now be populated with a list of backburner jobs and their status. The name of your red job will be whatever you named your session when you were importing red. If you double click this job, you'll be able to see its status. Do you see any errors here? If not, click the Server Assignment tab. Is it assigned to a server?
Hope this helps.
Roger