Finally, after three years, the organisers of 2022 Garrett Brisbane Jamboree have been able to sign off on a Jamboree that has been void of COVID restrictions.
The racers and spectators returned for two fantastic days of racing, and enjoyed the sights and atmosphere that Australia’s premier Sport Compact event can only deliver.
We have already wrapped up day one qualifying which you can revise here: https://dragnews.com.au/2022-brisbane-jambore-qualifying-results-gallery/
Racing got underway in the headline Factory Xtreme bracket, sans Tony Wedlock who was released from hospital over the night after his massive crash in the Solara, and Frank Tarabay who suffered uncertifiable engine damage after a 5.88 at 243 mph – a automatic backed, six-cylinder world record – run at the back of qualifying in the Scion.
Collin Willshire had the Eclipse dialled in all event, running undefeated through the three racing rounds, finishing with a 6.24 round three win to easily slot into the final. He was scheduled to face Anthony Maatouk in “The Don’ GT-R, unfortunately for Maatouk who fought hard with the world record holding RB machine, despite winning all three of his rounds, wounded the engine on his 6.25 round three win, and would not be able to comeback for the final.
This left Willshire to crank up the Eclipse on a solo, punching out a 6.25 at 228MPH for the event win.
Maatouk found more success in Pro Turbo, VLGOD returned to the track after some time sitting in the shop, and a late engine drop and switch to a auto before the event, the iconic VL went to the final against Gary Halpin. Maatouk had a best of 6.65 in the earlier rounds, and Halpin is still sorting out his newly built 2J Dato, however the little Dato gave it shot with a 8.07 in the final, until Maatouk stormed past with a 6.80, with a wild ride on the top end.
It was a battle of the 13Bs in Pro Compact, Steven Barnett improved on his top qualifying run with a 6.55 win in round one from the Blue Print Racing Mazda6, Simon Ioannou turned heads with his new RX8, with a monster 6.68 PB in round one, but sadly couldn’t return for the rest of the event.
Barnett went to the final unchallenged to face the PAC Performance RX8 of Rodney Rehayem. Despite finding themselves having to compete in the final, the PAC team were having somewhat of a torrid weekend with the RX8 that didn’t want to play ball most of the weekend. The car tore up a diff centre in their round three race, and the thrash was on to just reach the start line for the final.
Fortunately the teams heroic efforts were rewarded, and the RX8 was prepped and on the two-step waiting for the green light. Rehayem blitzed Barnett on the leave, but spun the tyres further down track allowing Barnett to just drive around for the win light with a 6.64 to a 7.40 in a race much closer than it probably should of been for Barnett.
Pro Mod was short on numbers and further attrition left Paul Cannuli as the last car standing for the final, as he pedalled to a 6.16, and J-trophy.
Likewise, Extreme suffered the same fate as Pro Mod, and Damien Boyce was the sole remaining competitor and the end of competition in his very nice Nova.
The GT-R shootout saw some spectacular wheel standing Nissans. Rob Marjan in JUNII rocked a 6.66 in round one, but lost to fellow CRD team mate Peter Symon in round two. The race turned all kinds of ugly for Symon in the braking area, as the RH6 weapon turned hard into the braking wall and flipped over, fortunately Symon was uninjured.
This left Aaron Stubbs on his own in the final, clocking a nice 7.22 at 199MPH.
There was plenty of action in Street 289, including a wild final when Scott Hoffman’s little Corolla four-banger wheelstood, then took a big look at the wall before Hoffman reeled it back. The spectacular antics though cost him the win, with opponent Teejay Graham overcoming some wheelspin to go on and run straight in his RX8 for a 8.76 win.
The J275 radial bracket was all Steve Bezzina in his weapon Pro Line powered twin turbo XW. Ryan Holz’s 2J powered LC Torana was consistent in the 7.0s all day, and was turned up for when the pair met in the final, but the power went away in the little Torrie during the run trying to hang with Bezzina’s winning 6.92.
During round one of Modified 10.5 we witnessed one of the biggest converter explosions ever seen when George Josevski transmission cried enough and went viral on social media. Check it out here: https://dragnews.com.au/video-jamboree-racer-walks-away-from-vl-fireball/
Josevski walked away uninjured in the incident, with all the safety gear doing its job. In the other lane, Adam Popovic’s bumper scraping wheelstand in his VL just played a cameo in one of craziest races in a long time. Popovic found himself in the final against fellow VL racer Giovani Inturrisi, and kept the wheels on the flight deck this time to come out on top of the all VL RB powered final tussle with a 7.99 to 8.67.
Modified Compact eliminations shook down to Nathan Peters’ gorgeous VC Valiant and Ben Clark’s VL turbo. During ‘bump city’ the Valiant hopped through the beams for an instant red light handing Clark the win. The Clarke VL put on a show with a big wheelstand on the way to victory.
All Motor, just using what oxygen nature can supply, Connor Fakinos red lit RX4 out of contention the final, and Jason Stoodley raced away in his Barra motivated Cortina for the event win.
Euro was between Aleksanda Gajic and Stuart Twidale who matched race each other all day, with Gajic winning out in the end.
Street Compact run over eliminations saw gun sportsman racer Simon Isherwood switch to his BMW street car and take the win over a red lighting Toyota Hilux of Michael Osbourne.
That’s wrap from this year’s Brisbane Jamboree, the show moves to Victoria for the first time in a long time when the Melbourne Jamboree debuts at Heathcote Park Raceway on Oct 15.
Thanks to Drag Photos for the images.
