J18.........THE BEST YET !!!
Queensland and Willowbank Raceway presented their best faces for J18
with almost perfect conditions, blue skies,warm temperatures and a
westerly head-wind on the Saturday.The track had 'teeth' and 14 PAC
cars presented for qualifying runs.The street-tyred cars ran in the
morning and the slick-tyred cars in the afternoon.Three qualifyers were
allowed and the PAC team were running cars in Pro Turbo,(George in the
MX6,Ivan in the pink RX3,Sam in 'The Godfather' RX3 and Rob Stanbury in
the old 'PACMAN'yellow RX3),Pro Compact,(Rodney in the RX3,George
Marcevski in 'Eat20B' RX3 and Jim Magliveras in the Corolla),Street
289,(Damien McKern in GRUMP2 RX2),Street RWD,(John & Russell
Archer's RX4,and Paul Katar's RX4) and Super Mod,(Fred Sadek in the
RX3,Karim Balloot in his RX2, Jamil Jaafar in the RX3 and Mohamed
Majzoub in the RX3).At the end of the day the best qualifying times by
each were as follows:
Russell Archer 11.17@120.1mph.
Paul Katar 10.09@131.37mph
Damien McKern 8.15@170.65mph
Fred Sadek 9.03@145.87mph
Jamil Jaafar 8.63@153.27mph
Mohamed Majzoub 9.53@114.77mph
Rodney Rehayem 7.50@168.73mph
Jim Magliveras 7.81@172.22mph
George Marcevski 7.71@174.82mph
Ivan Skaramuca 9.92@93.95mph
Sam Sadek 7.26@187.58mph
George Rehayem 7.12@196.94mph
Robert Stanbury 8.01@120.26mph
Karim Balloot 9.5@143mph
Saturday
was a mixed bag with some good performances,but nothing that set the
world on fire.Perhaps the highlight of qualifying was Damien's early
evening run against Wayne Dyson when even a 0.402 light by Damien could
not hold off the wily old veteran at the end !!! Great stuff and
another great match up between these two.
Sunday and race-day
! The weather was even better than Saturday and there was the promise
of some great racing ahead.It was time to get down to business ! First
on the track of the PAC team was Paul Katar and a first round
win.Russell Archer was next and another win for the PAC team.Damien
McKern was next up and the lone St289 in the PAC team,but once again
another win.Jamil Jaafar was next and yet another win ! Round one of
eliminations was looking good ! Fred Sadek was next up and once
more,another win. Mohamed Majzoub was next and unfortunately out to the
fearsome VL Calais of Anthony Maatouk. Karim was having a great weekend
with the debut of his new yellow RX2 until his left axle snapped on a
launch, that was his racing over for Jambo 08.
The first round
of Pro Compact and suddenly the place comes alive ! Younger brother
Rodney was up first and a great win 7.55@178.22mph.Next up Jim
Magliveras against Ben Bray and double red lights ! Ben takes the win
as Jim red lights by the bigger margin ! EAT20B next up,but a little
snooze on the lights by George,hands Mark Borg the win.
Into
Pro Turbo and after an indifferent weekend,the MX6 lifts her skirts and
George pulls off a 6.90@198.85 win for the team's first 'six' of the
meet.Next is Sam Sadek against the the fearsome might of Tony Wedlock's
Toyota Aurion and even another brilliant 7.29@186.26mph is not enough
to win.Rob Stanbury is next and after a troubled Saturday with
transmission problems,Rob pulls out a 7.59@176.89 to lose to a stronger
result from Smokin' Joe Signorelli.
Russell Archer takes
another great win in Street RWD to progress to the third round,but Paul
Katar is not so fortunate and bows with a red light.Damien Mckern is
next and another great light sees him progress to the third round.Jamil
Jaafar has a bye run and runs it out the back door to check his
dial-in.Mohamed Majzoud meets Mark Jacobsen's awesome R32 Skyline and
is beaten by a great reaction from Mark. Fred Sadek is next and takes
the win against Neil Penboss's VW.
Next round of Pro Compact
sees Rodney with a bye,so wisely takes the green and backs the car
out.Next out George Marcevski against Ben Bray and this time the
bragging rights go George's way after Ben slows with a problem.
Pro
Turbo and a bye to Rob Stanbury sees him drive it out the back door to
another consistent 7.56&176.68mph run.The MX6 is on a solo as well
and George checks out the launch but shuts off early.
Russell
Archer is having a dream run and takes another great win.Damien is on a
bye as well and just accepts the green.Next up Super Mod finds
team-mates together with Jamil and Fred pitted aginst one another.Jamil
is a little eager on the lights and hands the win to Fred.
George
Marcevski finds himself on a bye and decides to go for it with a
brilliant p.b.of 7.64@174.49mph !! Rodney is next against Billy Nabhan
and out -reacts Bill for another strong win at 7.59@179.07mph.
Pro
Turbo again and this time Rob Stanbury against Tony Wedlock.A strong
7.58@177.73mph is not enough to keep the Aurion driver out this
time.George is on another solo in the MX6 and can't repeat his previous
six with a 7.41@164.41mph pass.Sam is also on a solo and drives the
'Godfather' out the back door for another great 7.25@186.34 pass.
Russell Archer is on a bye in Street RWD and progresses to the semi-final.
Damien has made the semi-final of St289 and takes a great win over Darryl Parker in the T.A.S. RX7 to progress to the final.
Jamil
Jaafar is next and takes a great 8.7 win on an 8.7 dial-in.Russell
Archer is next and takes a great win to progress to the final.Russell
cuts his luck a little fine and pulls a 0.366 light in the final,but is
a deserving runner-up.Well done John and Russell !
The final
of SuperMod sees Fred Sadek against Mark Jacobsen and a sharper light
sees Fred triumphant and a deserving winner.Well done Fred ! This also
gave Fred overall Champion in the Toyo Tire Series for this class.
The
final of St289 sees Damien against Gary Halpin in the 2JZ powered
Datsun 1200 coupe and this time Damien is the victor.Well done Damien
and his win at this rounds secures him second place in the championship
as well great effort !!
The final of Pro Compact sees the
youngest brother Rehayem,(Rodney) fighting the 'old enemy',Anthony
Rodrigues in the swoopy Cougar and even a great 7.58@165.08mph pass
from Rod is not enough to keep the hungry cat at bay !! Well done to
both drivers,you have done the sport proud. Although not taking the win
in the finals, it was still enough to see Rodney take out Championship
honours for Pro Compact. What a great achievement in his first year of
racing.
Sam has made the 'B' final of Pro-Turbo and this time
prevails against an ailing Rod Harvey,with a great 0.494 light from Sam
and an 8.04@183.45mph pass.
The team had a great time at the
event and would like to congratulate John and Russell Archer on being
runner-up in StRWD,Damien McKern for winning St289,Fred Sadek for
winning SuperMod, and Rodney for a great runner-up result in Pro
Compact. Congrats also goes out to Mohammed Majzoub whom also took out
Best Wheel stand of the weekend.
After the points were all allocated from the event, the Championship standings for the PAC team were as follows:
George Rehayem - 3rd place - Pro Turbo
Anthony D'aquino - Runner up - Pro Turbo
Rodney Rehayem - Winner - Pro compact
George Marcevski - Runner Up - Pro Compact
Fred Sadek - Winner - Super Mod
Damien Mckern - Runner Up - St 289
John & Russell Archer - Runner Up- Street RWD
We
are so proud of all the achievements of the whole team and hope the new
season of 09 will be just as successful. Congratulations to all, great
job!!!!!!!!!!!!
Also a big thank you to all the fans and
supporters and the Team's valued sponsors,Castrol
Edge,Turbosmart,Garrett Turbochargers and VP Racing fuels.
Next
meeting is the Fuchs Australian Nationals at Western Sydney
International Dragway on Sept 12-14,so make sure you come along and
support the team !!!!
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