CASTROL EDGE JAMBOREE - VER 2
After the weather dramas plaguing Castrol EDGE Jamboree in August it was great to see the sun shine brightly on a beautiful Queensland day, for what was quickly nicknamed “Version 2.0”! It was great to see the support of many racers who made the long tow back to Willowbank Raceway for the continuation of the event, although of course some were unable to make it. The slick-tyred cars including all Pro Classes were yet to complete qualifying so there were some great qualifying sessions throughout the day and then racing eliminations headed late into the night time, allowing the fans and racers to enjoy the cooler night temperatures and we really enjoyed the flame show from a number of the top cars. The Castrol EDGE Jamboree is the final round in the championship series and with ten out of eleven classes still up for grabs it was interesting to see who made it and who cracked under the pressure. There were plenty of close battles along the way and once the numbers were crunched and the presentations completed there were plenty of happy champions at the end of the late night. Congratulations to all who supported the Sport Compact Group Drag Racing Series throughout the year, we’re already looking forward to a return to the next season kicking off at Heathcote Raceway in Victoria on February 2, 2008 with the Summer Slam.
McKern & Associates Pro Turbo has been a hotbed of rivalries over the year and there was some great clashes during the meeting. The Queen St Racing BMW had the fresh 1600+hp single turbo quad rotor under the bonnet and Bill Nabhan from Mazsport was once again behind the wheel of the beast. A 9.0 at a huge 194mph shows the potential under the bonnet, and once sorted we expect it to be very quick, the 7.7 at 188mph was still a good result considering the wild run. Gold Coaster Scotty Weildon has been slowly stepping up his NUT003 RX-3 and thanks to the Dyson team went 7.84 at 163mph with his 20B under the bonnet. Sam Sadek always puts on a smoking show for the fans and his no mercy attitude saw him never back off on a pass, 7.69 at 180mph was his best of the weekend. Toowoomba’s Tony Wedlock used the extra time between Jamboree V1.0 and v2.0 to get some more seat time in the new TRD Toyota Camry/Solara, but encountered a few issues on the day with a 7.30 at 196mph best. Ivan Skaramuca had he weekend he would probably rather forget, struggling to complete a pass and watching the championship slip from his grasp. Joe Signorelli had signaled his intentions early with a smooth as you like 6.98 at 194mph pass off the trailer for the GAS Motorsport Toyota Celica. George Rehayem is always up for a challenge and the ever-consistent Pac Performance MX-6 went 7.28 at a big 197mph early in qualifying in the heat of the day. By the time the finals rolled around it was Smokin Joe Signorelli vs George Rehayem with the championship in the balance, Joe’s 0.437 reaction slightly edged George’s 0.481 and they were side by side the whole track with George’s 7.31 at 195mph not enough to catch Joe’s 7.22 at 194mph pass. The Jamboree win also saw Joe accumulate enough points to overtake Ivan for the Championship Title, with Joe collecting plenty of prize money at night’s end!
The split of the “little engines” from PRO RWD has been a good success over the series, with the 13B rotaries and four cylinders now battling it out in Pro Compact, a class with close racing and where anyone can win it. Rodney Rehayem from Pac Performance recorded the best pass of the weekend with a 7.88 at 170mph off the trailer in his yellow RX-3 to show that he meant business. Brisbane racer Collin Willshire had his Jett Racing Datsun Ute launching hard and went 8.27 at a lifting 147mph, Jim Magliveras also impressed with an 8.02 at 168mph from his purple people eater Toyota Corolla. Another stand out was Mohammed Ibrahim in the stunning Queen St Racing QSR-100, a relatively new car that recorded the best mph for the event in Pro Compact with an 8.45 at 175mph pass, impressive indeed. The victory though was one of the crowd favourites, with Peter Donchos from Lalor Towing making the long haul up from Melbourne with his stunning Mazda 1300 wagon. It’s light, it’s loose, and it’s one powerful little machine, with Peter taking an easy victory over Rodney Rehayem in the final. Peter also took home the Pro Compact Championship title.
Outlaw Sports Bike is the place for wild runs as the racers put huge amounts of horsepower through small tyres, with not a wheelie bar in sight! The bike racers have taken to the Sport Compact format and there is always some action for the crowd as the traction limits are reached and often exceeded! Shane “Shredder” Alletag took out the final on his wild turbocharged Hayabusa with an 8.74 at 166mph pass too good for Alex Miller in the final. Leonard Azzopardi had already wrapped up the championship and did not contest the final round.
The challenge of going as fast as possible on as little rubber as possible is one that Street 289 racers and fans love, and with a good field of cars there is bound to be something happening as they slide down the track. Archie Kajewski from Mazfix has entered the fray in his black Mazfix RX-7, the 13B ripping a strong 8.44 at a big 169mph in early qualifying to set tongues wagging. Damien McKern has been a long time supporter of Sport Compact events and had his hands full in his GRUMP2 RX-2, the PAC 20B turning the tyres effortlessy and after his opponent red-lit in eliminations, Damien drove it out the back door with an 8.39 at a huge 170.84mph pass, being the first to eclipse the 170mph mark. McKern 170.84mph pass wasn't backed up within 1% but he still reset Street 289 MPH record with a 167.72mph. The man who is involved in Sport Compact racing before there was Sport Compact racing is none other than Wayne Dyson who had a mixed weekend with some wild rides. After a wild ride with an oil leakage on the line saw Wayne’s reflexes do well to avoid a crash, a quick repair was in order before Wayne recorded the low ET with a 8.33 at 163.93mph. Unfortunately a gearbox issue ended is event prematurely. Ben Hunt from Rotary Motorsport has stepped up his ISEEU RX-7 with the 20B but launch issues forced a 9.23 at 159mph instead of his usual eight second slips. Street 289 is Dial Your Own (DYO) racing and being quick isn’t all it’s cracked up to be with the final seeing Rod Boyd from NSW in his 10-second 12A RX-2 face Phil Thompson from Townsville in his 10-second 13B R100. Both had knocked out their fair share of heavy hitters throughout the day and Phil just edged home victorious in his first event, making the long tow from North Queensland worthwhile!
The Extreme class saw the long awaited debut of Ben Bray at the Castrol EDGE Jamboree. Ben Bray is well known for his wins in six-second Top Doorslammers and five-second Top Alcohol Funny cars so it was great to see him join the ranks of the Sport Compact world in his Castrol Edge “MR 1200” Datsun 1200 ute. The SR20DET helped Ben clock an 9.63 at 145mph pass in early qualifying before he was knocked out by eventual winner Rocco Tamburello. Rocco proved that age is no barrier breezing through the field in his 2JZ powered RX-7 to take the win over Mark Williams in the unsual Ford X-flow powered Cortina. Rocco was also a clear winner in the Championship race, taking home the title.
Super Mod was flooded with racers of the 4WD kind, with Mark Jacobsen leading the way with a string of eights in his Godzilla Motorsports GTR, including an 8.55 at 163mph best. Rob Barac has made some tricky changes to the rear end of his yellow APC-prepped EVO and the Mitsubishi was back its consistent pace with a string of nines. The final saw Sydney-sider Raymond Sunder take the win in his tough Datsun 1200 coupe defeating Rob Barac who red lit. RX-2.
Sport AWD saw plenty of Subaru's battling it out, with Jon Blanch from Microtech Global taking out the win in his borrowed Subaru Forrester. Jon competed in a different car each round, much to the rental companies delight no doubt! Jon defeated Damien Kane’s WRX in the final and Jon was also the Championship winner with ease.
All Motor brings back to the early days of Jamboree when there was hardly a turbocharger in sight! The class has built a great following and the variety of old school rotors, Volkswagen Beetles and late model Honda's provides something for everyone. It could have been an all VW final but Dave Butler had a breakage in the semi-final and Morgan Smith red lit by just eight thousandths of a second in the other semi-final race. The final then was contested by Sam Raunio who had a stunning meeting in his 20BPP RX-7. Sam proved the doubters wrong and his 10.35 at 128mph pass was a great performance which saw him reset the ET & MPH Records. Alongside Sam in the final was Glenn Alcorn in his little Honda Civic, Alcorn is a name you are quite likely to see in All Motor with both brothers Glenn and Jason racing well. Victory was Sam’s though in a close double-breakout situation. The Championship chase was the closest of all classes, with Glenn Alcorn and Morgan Smith tied for points at the end of the night. The final round of the series decides the winner with the racer progressing further taking the title, thus Glenn Alcorn just edged out Morgan for the championship win. Morgan is probably still wishing he could have been just eight thousandths later!!
Street RWD is by far the largest field in general and it was great to see plenty of old school Datsun's mixing it with the Nissan Skyline's and Toyota Cressida's. The final saw Dave “DAT71” Spieker face Adam Hackett for an all Datsun 1600 affair! Dave took the win after Adam handed it to him by way of a red light, uh oh! The Championship Title though went to Shane Crichton in his ultra-tough Blacktrack Performance-prepped 9-second Toyota Cressida (Can a Cressida be tough? We think so!) Shane traveled to every round and racked up enough points to take out the Championship.
The Street FWD and Front Mod classes were again combined due to numbers and the winner was Daniel Harding who took out a well-deserved win in his “ZUBOO” Suzuki Swift defeating Matt Sullivan’s Nissan Pulsar SSS. Andrew Bode was knocked in the first round when he red lit but after traveling the length of the country throughout the season Andrew had enough points for a deserved championship title
Sports Bike was won by Keg Garland who defeated Josan Hammelswang in the final after Jason red lit by just four thousandths of a second, ouch! Jason was still happy though as he took home the championship title by a huge margin thanks to almost always making the final.
The ET class is a mix and match of cars that don’t quite fit the other classes, but it was great to see long time Jamboree racer Lee Thomas in his Thomas 4 Parts Gemini take the win at the end of the night. Those of us who were at the early Jamboree's would remember Lee’s turbocharged Gemini that was one of the few turbocharged racers of the era. Nowadays almost all the cars at Jamboree are turbocharged with only a select few (in All Motor) sticking with natural aspirated engines. How times have changed!
There was plenty of action on the track throughout the day but the pits were also kept busy with the Northfield Moorooka Babe and Bikini contested popular with the crowd. Although Show-N-Shine had been decided at Version 1.0 there were a number of trophy winning cars who came back for a second display, and also a number of car clubs including the Queensland Performance Datsun Club who put on a good show. The trade alley also let spectators check out the cars on show and enquire about various performance products for their vehicle.
The Sport Compact Group Drag Racing Series makes a return in 2008 with the first round of the four round series kicking off at Heathcote Raceway in Victoria on February 2, 2008 with the Summer Slam, and culminating again in the final at Jamboree on August 23/24, 2008 at Willowbank Raceway. Special thanks to all the competitors and fans who made the journey back for Jamboree 17 (Version 2.0) and we look forward to seeing you at the track next year!
don't forget to checkout the Event Gallery from the Castrol EDGE Jamboree Ver 2 HERE.
______________________________________________
2006/2007 Sport Compact Group Drag Racing Series
