The charge for the prized Brisbane Jamboree billet J-Trophy was on once again as Australia’s biggest Sport Compact event – and the largest of its kind outside North America – packed out Willowbank Raceway.
The three-day spectacular delivered all the flame-throwing, high-revving, two-step thunder fans have come to expect from Jamboree, backed by the off-track glitz and glamour of the Show & Shine, Babe Competition, Kids Zone and a huge line-up of traders and automotive displays.
For the first time, the event expanded to three days, with Friday night bringing a fresh twist to the program. Dubbed Rivals Night, fans were handed the power to choose the head-to-head match-ups for the first qualifying session across the headline brackets.
The crowd votes were in, the rivalries were set, and the opening night delivered plenty of entertainment as some of the sport’s biggest names went head-to-head.
The results shook out like this
Precision Turbo & Engine Factory Xtreme
Rob Marjan v Rod Harvey 
Zoran Gajic v Afif Mikael Jay Sadek v George Rehayem Sam Afchal v Archie Kajewski
LongBoost Performance Parts Pro Turbo
Ben Slaughter v Eddy Hawach Jason Payne v Jerry Kehl Justin Cook v Isaak Afchal
The McKern Group Pro Compact Peter Rehayem v Rodney Rehayem Alan Dodd v Lee Docherty
Ben Palmer v Moe Osman
Jurgin Piscopo v Fred Karam
Joel’s Garage Gear Outlaw Pro Mod Stew Walsh v Russ Pavey Steve Smith v Nasser Matta
Joe Gauci v Paul Merry Barry Plumpton v John Ricca
Delving into the results for each bracket, starting with the Factory Xtreme big guns, New Zealand’s Rod Harvey was certainly back to his best in the 2JZ-powered Camry, leading the pack in Q1 with a 5.78 at 258mph and backing that up with a near-identical run in Q2.
Rob Marjan joined the Kiwi in the fives in Zeus with a 5.78 of his own, while Zoran Gajic was next best at the close of qualifying with a 6.004 in the GAS Racing Celica. John Elfes steered the Cranked Motorsports R35 to a 6.11 despite an errant misfire.
Harvey earned the round-one bye and was solid enough with a 6.01 in the warmer conditions, but a 6.16 to 6.04 loss to Gajic in round two ended his Jamboree campaign.
Marjan continued to be the class of the field, recording 5.84 and 5.78 round wins in the Zeus R35, while a bye saw the team through to the final. Facing him would be Afif Mikael in the Maatouks Racing 2JZ Lexus.
It was a monster effort from the Mikael team to rebuild the car following a recent accident, with the team spending much of Jamboree chasing a misfire. Come race day, the gremlin was finally found, and Mikael defeated Sam Afchal in round one before cranking out a 5.96 in round two over George Rehayem. He then uncorked a rip-and-tear 5.73 – low ET of the event – against Archie Kajewski to book his place in the final.
The final was a wild one. Marjan headed for and tagged the wall, while Mikael hugged the centreline and lifted in time to avoid crossing it and take the victory.
Credit also has to go to the Pac Performance team, with Jay Sadek dropping three for three wins in his RX3, only falling short on the ET stakes when it came to making the final.
George Rehayem was fortunate to even be racing after a horrendous clutch and flywheel failure caused catastrophic damage to the RX9 during testing a week earlier. The team was rewarded for its efforts with a string of 6.1-second passes from Australia’s quickest 20B.
All eyes were also on Outlaw Pro Mod, with John Ricca in the house in the RPM Camaro and set to decimate the field.
He did not disappoint.
Ricca fired a 5.415 – a new Jamboree ET record and one of the quickest passes ever recorded by a door car in Australia.
Steve Smith was also on the numbers in the turbo Corvette, slamming down a 5.64 PB with an early shut-off, while Barry Plumpton, the solo warrior for the nitrous fans, ran an epic 5.69.
Kirsten Tucker also joined the Pro Mod ranks, successfully licensing her Pontiac at the event to make race day.
Ricca thundered through to the final as expected, lighting up the timing boards with a 5.47 and 5.42 along the way.
Staging up next to the Camaro would be Joe Gauci. The ProFab turbo Mustang had been pumping through the rounds on consistency and, despite recording a losing 5.93 against Plumpton in round three, the ET was the critical factor and enough to keep Russ Pavey out of the final, with Pavey also sitting on two wins from three starts.
Gauci gave it a real crack in the final with the holeshot, but the RPM Camaro powered past before the stripe, recording a 5.58 to the Mustang’s 6.06 in another display of domination.
In Pro Turbo, a 6.33 from Eddy Hawach’s 2JZ RX7 in Q1 held the top spot for all of qualifying.
The Sydneysider kept the 6.3s and win lights coming throughout race day to race away with the event victory over young gun Isaak Afchal in the final.
Also impressive in Pro Turbo – and unlucky not to make the final after reaching the final at the Sydney event – was the Slaughter Motorsport 2JZ Supra. Ben Slaughter closed out the event with a 6.35 PB for the relatively new team.
Pro Compact was fought as hard as ever, with Moe Osman showing how it was done in his new Evo package, laying down a 6.59 PB in Q1 that stayed at the top of the pops for the event.
Round one was a tough start for PAC Performance, with Peter Rehayem having to face off against Uncle Rodney. The Bumblebee 13B Camaro is still proving a challenge to set up, but young Peter not only won the round, he went all the way to the final.
Unfortunately, a diff failure at half track curtailed his chance of an event win, as Alan Dodd in the ‘can-never-be-missed’ striking green RX7 streaked away for the J-Trophy on a 7.18.
Heads-up racing continued in Radial Extreme, with Danny Lansdowne having no trouble hustling the long-roof Calais on a slick-tyre track.
Living in the high sixes throughout the event, Lansdowne took the event win over Daniel Swanney, 6.856 to 7.151.
J275 is always one of the tightest brackets at Jamboree, and the all-2JZ NSW final saw Michael Elkhouri strap a .003 reaction time on Peter Finianos.
The RX8 stayed hooked up, however, driving around the S13 at the stripe to take the win, 6.84 to 6.91.
The Street 289 final was decided at the start line, with Moose Salina rolling the beams and handing the win to Karl Herbert in the RX3.
The little giant-killing, Barra-powered K20 Corolla of Guy King cracked a six in qualifying at over 200mph before finding itself battling the Grudge King, Po Tung, in the Modified 10.5 final.
After a long burndown, and despite a tardy light from King, the little Corolla stayed glued to the track and powered to a 7.05 win.
Into the dial-your-own brackets, and the anything-goes Extreme final saw the super-nice Mustang of Max Carpenter hit an 8.360 on an 8.35 dial to outdrive Rodney Williams’ altered to the stripe.
A massive Modified Compact field shook down to Daniel Lake’s VL and Harry Thwaite’s Cortina. A 8.95 breakout on an 8.98 dial from Thwaite handed the win to Lake at the line.
Sam Constantinou’s cranky 13B wagon took down Will Sligar’s breaking-out RX3 in the All Motor final.
The VW wagon of Paul Aston was closest to his dial-in with a 12.95 on a 12.93, driving around Conor Webb’s Audi in the Euro final.
The Street Compact final was a classic Holden-versus-Ford duel, with Matthew Barron in the Commodore holding off a fast-charging Falcon of Zach Anderson for the win.
We also said goodbye to VLGOD. Maatouks Racing is retiring the GOAT of the VL Turbo scene in Australia after running a 5 second pass in Sydney. Anthony Maatouk signed off the car with one of his signatory burnouts.
The Jamboree now heads to Victoria for the first time in a long time, with the revitalised Victorian Motorsports Park set to host the Melbourne Jamboree on October 16.
After the three-day Queensland spectacular, the Victorian event is shaping up to be another epic celebration of Australia’s Sport Compact scene.
Bring on Melbourne!
Gallery courtesy of Drag Photos
