4, 6 and Rotor Rivals - Heathcote Park 20-21/06/03

It had a been a while since the last major event at Heathcote, and racers and spectators alike were eagerly awaiting the 4, 6 and Rotor Rivals which was based around a similar format to last years great Turbo Titles event. Friday consisted of a test and tune session, whilst Saturday consisted of qualifying and eliminations.

With a wide selection of cars, there was some fantastic racing to be had (and seen), with the major highlight of the event being the 7.65 @ 175.9mph pass that Sydney's Joe Signorelli ran in the newly repainted Rotormaster Series 6 RX-7 during Saturday afternoon, snatching the outright number one position from the Pac team, but looking at the way the competition is heating up, no doubt Joe will have a tough battle on his hands in retaining the record. The Rotormaster car had been in great form all weekend, running a couple of 7.8 and 7.9 second passes in the low 170mph region.

There were a number of tough rotaries out in force. Rotorworx had a number of cars out including Marty's 'ETA-V8' RX-4 which ran two 9.76 second passes at 142 and 144mph, Simon's 'FREKNU' RX-7 (featured on mazdarotary.net here...) was performing some massive burnouts and ran a best time of 10.33 backing off, with only 112mph. On another pass he ran 10.43 @ 137mph, lifting the front wheel on launches.

The black KE25 Corolla 'WIKED' was out for the first time, and ran a 10.91 @ 125mph, the car still retains the top-mounted intercooler. Harvey's 'ITUFRX' RX-3 was out on Saturday and had exhaust manifold problems and could only manage an 11.90 @ 134mph.

Dave McPherson's world-record holding Corolla was also out and ran a 8.70 and 8.64, both at 160mph, not too far off its PB of 8.54.

Joe Alba from Mazbiz was down from Sydney with his untubbed Corolla, and it would have been nice to see the number one and two untubbed cars face off, however a broken driveline component late on Saturday didn't allow this to happen, however before the breakage Joe managed to run a 9.63 @ 136mph.

South Coast Rotary had a number of cars attending, including the nicely turned out 'NOS100' R100, the car was launching hard all weekend, and on some passes struggled to stay in a straight line, the driver fighting it all the way down the track, it reeled off a number of mid to low 9-second passes with a best of 9.26 @ 140mph. The tough looking 'WRAITH' first-gen RX-7 made a return to Heathcote and ran in the mid 10-sec region, while the 'SPASTK' RX-2 sedan was lifting the front wheels through first and second to record a best time of 10.46 @ 131mph. The orange RX-3 coupe was running consistently on Friday in the mid 10's with a best of 10.4 @ 132mph.

Dalton Automotive had the 'LOCORX' 20BT RX-2 coupe out and ran a best of 10.0 @ 136mph, whilst the red Series 5 RX-7 ran 11.7 @ 118mph. Chris Dalton had his black Series 6 dragcar out later on in the afternoon but didn't complete a full pass.

The twin-turbo Series 1 RX-7 from Dyson Rotary ran a time of 11.2 @ 131mph, and reportedly ran a 10.8 as well. The MPC 808 coupe surprised a few running a best time of 9.86 @ 144mph. The Promaz RX-3 'HERRX3' ran a 11.11 @ 127mph.

The Mazsport prepped 'RUCUT' Series 6 RX-7 was present, but suffered a breakage.

The VL turbos were also out in force, the main contender being Vas Stojanovski in his JPC drag Calais which improved on its best again with a 8.76 @ 159mph. PET Modifications also had a number of customer cars present including Darko's 'PETMOD' Commodore which after launching massively ran a 9.75 @ 142mph, the yellow 'GMBT-1' ran 10.49 @ 131mph on Friday.

Another VL into the 9's was the black 'VLGMH' Calais from Bresciani Performance with a 9.91 @ 135mph at the end of Friday's test session. Also from Bresciani was Mile's BT-1 'PANNIC', which was reported to have run 9.85 @ 140mph earlier on Saturday, but had a wild launch on Saturday night, nearly ending up in the other lane.

There were a number of VL's down from Sydney with the amusingly plated 'HVATOS' harlequin Calais running 10.96 in the low 120mph region, whilst the gold 'ONO3LT' Commodore ran 10.37 @ 132mph.

A number of Skylines were out, with Keir Wilson's silver R32 GT-R making the trek over from South Australia. Sounding awesome, the car was wheel-spinning hard off the line and managed a 10.45 at an impressive 152mph. The white R33 ran a 11.6 @ 129mph, whilst the white R34 'HKS34' looked tough and ran a 12.49 @ 120mph. The AVO R32 GT-R managed a 11.37 @ 125mph, and the 'FENER' yellow R32 ran 11.18 @ 130mph. The 'HPI34T' R34 GT-t Skyline ran 11.9 @ 118mph.

The V & E Rigoli workshop from Sydney represented the tough four cylinders, with Vince Rigoli's tough Datsun 1200 ute running strong on Saturday to run a 8.58 @ 157 before improving to a PB of 8.51 @ 160mph. The 'CRZYFJ' Gemini using a FJ20T performed some great burnouts and ran a 9.87 @ 143mph, while the 'MR-124' Fiat 124 Coupe ran in the high 10s. The 'DBRONX' WRX could not complete a full pass. Looking different was the yellow TRP Hyundai Accent using a 4WD Mitsubishi turbo driveline, it ran a best of 11.8 @ 129mph.

From the other turbo fours present, the 'CREATD' Lancer GSR ran a 12.42 @ 120mph and the G-Tech S15 200SX ran 12.39 @ 110mph.

A number of older turbo cars were also racing including the 'TWO50T' Cortina, launching nicely and running a 10.9 @ 124mph, while the 'MR2600' Galant ran 10.42 @ 130mph.

Unfortunately, just like the Turbo Titles event held this same time last year, the grey clouds held off during the afternoon, only to return later in the evening during the early rounds of eliminations, the rain was too strong and the event had to be called off.

With the Rotormaster and Dalton RX-7s, along with the Rigoli 1200 ute and the Rotorworx Corolla waiting in the staging lines, no doubt there would have been some great racing to be seen...

Heathcote Raceway is holding the 2nd annual All Performance Challenge event in November 2003. Apart from that they also continue to hold the regular test and tune events, for more details you can see the calendar here...

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