2005 Fast Fours Jamboree - Willowbank Raceway 18-19/09/04

Event Report: Ben Winstone

Pictures from the event can be found on www.hioctane.com.au (Thanks to Matt for the link).

The annual Fast Fours Magazine Jamboree event held at Queensland's Willowbank Raceway on September 17/18 once again proved its reputation as Australia's premier Sport Compact event. With 277 competitors entered in a massive variety of cars, the event had something to please everyone from Pro RWD drag cars through to All Motor FWD's and everything in between with plenty of old school classics and late model imports vying for class honors and that was just on the drag strip. Behind the scenes, spectators were entertained by bikini competitions, live DJ's, a show and shine section and the sound off for those more interested in DB's rather than ET's.
The event was once again run under ANDRA's Sport Compact Series rules and the record books for nearly every class were rewritten as racers set the track alight with fast and furious racing.
In the premier PRO RWD category competitor numbers were down on last year however it did not stop those racers who turned up from putting on a great show.
George Rehayem in the Pac Performance 20B Twin Turbo powered MX-6 quickly set the pace over the weekend running several low 7s (7.04/196 and 7.15/190) before breaking the Australian record for the quickest rotary powered vehicle with a stunning 6.96/196.25 pass late on Sunday on his way to winning the event. Fellow Pac customer Robert Stanbury also ran well in his red RX-3 sedan with a best of 8.22/163.
M & M Racing had two cars entered in the bracket as well with the newly acquired ex-Rotormaster 3/4 Chassis 20B Twin Turbo Series 6 RX-7 piloted by Malcolm Glassett running several seven second passes with a best of 7.67/175 (runner up against George Rehayem in the final) while Matt White in the yellow 13BT R100 ran 8.70/152. Chris Dalton made the trip up from Victoria once again with his tough looking 13B Turbo powered black Series 6 RX-7 full tube car and ran into the 7's with a 7.95/161 and 7.90/163.

The Sport Mod category also had its records rewritten by George Marcevski in the purple 1/2 chassis 13BT Pac Performance RX-3 Coupe. George ran a 7.9/168 pass before improving with a 7.89/167 and 7.86/168 to claim number one position for both ET and MPH in the class. Fellow Pac customers Anthony Daquino, Dean Crook and Billy Dimovski provided plenty of entertainment in their mini-tubbed RX-3 sedans, with Anthony's 13BT powered dark blue car running into the low 9's with a 9.20/146 and 9.14/150 before winning the final against Dean's green 'ROMPER' 20BT sedan which launched hard all weekend with several consistent 8-second passes (8.83/155 and 8.82/146) while Billy's 'PANNIC' pale blue 13BT powered sedan also ran into the low 9's with a 9.29/138 pass.
RX-3's were very popular in this class with two other Dyson Rotary sponsored examples also competing. Scott Wheildon's light blue 13BT tubbed coupe ran a PB of 8.60/153 while Daniel Hall's blue 13BT sedan '12ENV' also ran a PB with a 9.66/148 pass.
Michael Silk in his SR20DET powered Datsun 1200 wagon got the crowd on their feet over the weekend with a number of massive wheel stands off the line, at one stage the car actually came down along the wall from one of its launches. On one of the passes that Michael actually got the car to stay down to an extent he ran 9.83/135.

The OzMod class was eagerly anticipated this year, with a tyre size limit of 28x9-inches and minimal chassis modifications. A number of entrants improved their times over the weekend although racing was sidelined for a while on Saturday when Andrew Maratos ran an 8.8/144 in his blue 20B RX-3 sedan before the car became unstable in the braking area and rolling several times. While Andrew was fortunate to not be injured the car was a write off.
Veteran Wayne Dyson set the pace in the class in his white 20BT RX-3 coupe with an 8.44/158 pass. Mazfix customers Tim Kreis and Grant Dixon were also in the 8's with Tim running a PB with a 8.85/152 pass in his yellow 13BT Ford Cortina, while Grant transplanted the running gear from his mid-8 second Datsun 1200 sedan into his 1200 ute and ran two consistent high 8-second passes (8.89/157 and 8.87/154). Justin Gregory in the RX Engineering red 13BT RX-3 Coupe 'DRAGME' ran a PB with an 8.78/152 pass, the car really hooking up off the line. Not far behind were Dyson Rotary racers Bryce Miller in his blue '13BEE' 13BT RX-3 sedan with a 9.04/150 and Damien McKern in his new-look 'GRUMP2' methanol fuelled-13BT RX-2 sedan running a 9.08/153. Splitting the two in the ET list was Mark Borg with his green Mr Enforcer Engineering 20BT RX-3 coupe running 9.06/152 and carrying the front wheels well into the air through the first few gears.
Steven Cockerill debuted his 20BT powered Series 1 RX-7 and had a big moment on one of his runs when the car hit oil that was spilt by a previous competitor and went into a number of side to side slides until Steven was able to bring it back under control. The big lose didn't deter him with the car later running a 9.28/153 pass.
A couple of other RX-3s also ran well in the class with Pac Performance customer Tony Kavalieratos in his red 'HYP300' 13BT RX-3 sedan recording a 9.31/144 while Patrick Long in the dark blue 'CRITTA' 13BT RX-3 sedan ran 9.57/135. The class was won by Daniel Grech in his 2.6lt turbo four cylinder powered Galant wagon, with Daniel proving that consistency and not outright speed is the key to winning in DYO situations as he ran in the low 13s with a best of 12.91/99 on his way to victory.

The Sport AWD/RWD class provided a couple of highlights, most importantly being Keir Wilson's record pass of 8.89/160 on street radial drag tyres. His silver R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R ran into the low 9's (9.06/157 and 9.01/158) before breaking the 8-second barrier. Mark Jacobsen's black R32 GT-R also impressed on street rubber with a couple of 9.6-second runs before a 9.59/145 pass, Mark was runner up to Jeff Rimes 'JRBOOM' FJ20T powered Datsun 1600 (11.83/119). Shane Crichton's silver Toyota Cressida sleeper 'IJZ747', powered by a 1JZ-GTE engine ran a 10.91/125.

While Front Wheel Drive racing isn't as popular in Australia as it is in the USA, there were still some standout performances by the FWD machines. Dave Homer broke the records for the Front Runner (FWD) class with a 11.22/129 pass while running as fast as 130mph in his turbo Suzuki Swift GTi, going on to win the class.
Online Performance debuted their new All Motor early model red CRX (powered by a H22A Prelude motor) at the event with an 11.33/116 while Glenn Alcorn won the class in his early B16A powered Civic with a best pass of 13.62/101.

This year's event also featured two of the fastest Mitsubishi EVO Lancers in the world, with Zoheb Razak and Andre Simon making the trip over from New Zealand. Zoheb's black EVO III ran several low 9-second passes before nearly breaking the 8-second barrier with a 9.05/164 pass, while Andre's blue EVO III was not far behind running a best of 9.13/164.
In the Sport Compact Extreme bracket for cars which did not fit under current Sport Compact rules, Tony Khoury in his orange twin-turbo V6 Ford Focus set the pace with a 7.50/183 pass in qualifying.

When the dust had settled, many people were saying it was the best Jamboree yet, with plenty of spectacular highlights and personal bests set by many of the competitors. Nine out of fourteen national records were broken in the classes and as the Sport Compact scene continues to evolve things will only get better. See you next year!

Pictures from the event can be found on www.hioctane.com.au (Thanks to Matt for the link).