While the focus has been on testing for the Winternationals there has been much more happening on the Willowbank track front in May, kicking off with a round of the popular Street Series.
The series is a stepping stone into the sport and introduced many of today’s bracket racing heavy hitters to dial your own competition. Josh fletcher was the winner of “Quick Eliminator” driving this Torana. Josh leads the series points table by 35 points over second placed Ray Ross.
Allan Grimsey was runner up in “Quick Eliminator” and currently sits eleventh in the points.
“Hot Street”winner Hank Bowles.
“Street”winner Craig Hay was unstoppable in this BA Falcon.
“Street Bike” Winner Paul Astridge.
“Powderpuff”was won by Tammy Goldthorpe.
Jason King utilised the street series event to test his show winning XB Falcon. The nitrous sniffing beast ran a best pass of 9.28 at 124mph on the night.
A newcomer to the Super Sedan ranks is Andrew Everding with this neat little Small Block Corolla. A 10.16 at 133 MPH was the best pass on May 5 before the car was packed away after an oil line came off at the top end spraying oil throughout the car.
Now this is a cool grocery getter, this XD wagon sports a nitrous assisted Cleveland and runs deep into the tens with a 10.52 second pass at 125mph. The car came back after the 10.52 but struggled with a few backfiring attempts.
Another tough wagon testing at the street series was this manually shifted VL.
The 9th of May played host to a Test and Tune where John DeGraaf was running this Mazda RX4 Super Sedan, tThe 347 power plant propelled DeGraaf to a best of 9.777 from his eight passes on the day.
The immaculate Rotary powered Mazda Wagon of Nicholas Jack ran 13.29 at 102mph on May 5.
Chris Tait was testing the 3RZ combo in his 200SX with a troubled 9 second pass the best for the proven low 7 second car.
Neville Smith has been testing a new clutch setup with the assistance of Wayne Jones. After spending most of the meeting in the pits fine tuning the new setup the team managed two late passes on May 5 with 7.33 and 7.42 second times coming up on the boards.
Roxbee Coultas turned hard left straight off the line on the 1200 Harley Davidson and made heavy contact with the inside barrier before tumbling to the ground.
On May 12 a special event was planned to for friends and family to remember and celebrate the birthday of Steven Davis aka “Phatty 400”who was an influential member of the Queensland modified car scene. “Phatty was everyone’s mate and was one of those guys who would give you the shirt of his back if you needed it” stated event commentator Jason Bean. His popularity evident by the large contingent of “Tuffys” that cruised to the track in his memory, the picture above shows best mate Nudge driving Phatty’s project turbo VL with good mate Nev in the passenger seat. The car has a GT45R booster RB30 with a Trans braked glide and managed a stout 11.62 pass.
Phattys daily driver Maloo utility was driven by his brother Bazza with mother Dianne as a passenger.
Jason Bean interviews Phatty’s brother Bazza on the startline.
Martin Reynolds was out remembering Phatty by racing his F truck.
Joel Blake was running his “Big Cun” Windsor powered Datsun with a best of 11.97 seconds at 113mph.
One of the coolest cars on the day was Tubby’s “Up 4 it” Camaro. The car is powered by a blown and injected big block and destined for burnout competition duties.
After three aborted passes on the 9th May, James Horan came back with vengeance in his twin turbo Lexus Hilux to run a mind blowing 7.92 second pass at 176 mph.
After Phatty’s birthday bash there was a HSV club track hire and then the scheduled Test n Tune. Mark Allan made his first checkout pass at the Test n Tune after a five year absence due to mechanical carnage. An 8.63 was the result and Mark went on to runner up at the sportsman event a week after. Full wrap up of the sportsman event can be found here.
Joe Schembr iwas out for a skid.
Rob Abbott’s 410 Cube Super Sedan Mustang unfortunately had a tangle with the fence ending his night of testing after a big wheelstand, the car was repaired in days to head to Sydney before another wheelstand damaged the Mustang again!
Bain Simpkin and is 393 Clevo XD Falcon ran three passes besting with a 10.28 second time.
Kelly Corbett showed why she is a force in Modified by running two 7.503 second passes both at 178mph.
Street Car legend Mick Varney now races this sweet 632 cube Camaro. Mick ran two passes on the night with a best of 10.07 at 145mph.
Bryce Miller lights up his BB/OM Mazda.
11.47 seconds was all it took David DeMuer to cover the Willowbank quarter in his 347 XM Falcon at the Wednesday night Test n Tune on the 16th.
Scott Boyd made his first test passes in the family roadster. A number of back off passes were the first step before Scott’s debut in Super Gas at the sportsman event.
The 23rd was another quiet night due to the state of origin. Monty Brown’s 350Chev Monaro came out to play with a best on the evening of 12.51 on the first of four passes.
Scott Edwards made ten attempts at a ten second pass in his VK Commodore getting there on the last pass of the night when a 10.989 flashed up on the scoreboard
Saturday the 26th saw a big turnout at the Test n Tune including Super Sedan competitor Dave Foreman who ran a best of 8.91 at 149 in his Camira.
Chris and Tony Hessen bolted some drag slicks to the back of their circuit car for some fun and managed to do just that with this wheel popping launch by Chris.
Running his first nine second pass on the night was Joad Fardell. The RB25 powered skyline managing a 9.902 second pass.
James Dalecki had a new combination in his great looking Modified Altered. The car managed a good first up pass of 9.126 but struggled on the cold track later in the night.
Andrew Searle has moved to a lighter XE body with his True Street combo. Struggling to keep the wheels on the deck Andrew ran a best of 10.05 at a backing off 99mph.
David Hopper had Joe Schembri out helping with the Blown small block Camaro.
Eden Ward ran five passes all within half a tenth of each other. Great preparation for the upcoming Fuchs Winternationals.
George Wegner was also testing ahead of the Winternationals running a bunch of 9 second passes in his Toyota super sedan.
Taylah-Leigh Schluter was running hard in her junior dragster all night. A best 0f 10.24 was had from the five passes made.
Report and Photos by Mal Burgess (Blacktrack.com.au)
