Wednesday, 30 August 2017
The Honeywell Garrett Brisbane Jamboree is over for another year and what an event it was! With 4 Sport Compacts from Puerto Rico, 2 from Japan, a few from New Zealand and over 200 from here in Australia it was set to be huge and it did not disappoint.
From the PAC stables we had 13 cars racing across 6 classes - Michael Battaglia in the MIK20B RX3 & Luke Philps in his STUTTA R100 were in Street 289, Jay Sadek was entered in Modified Compact with his 13b powered RX3 coupe, Andrew Zada hired his old car PAC275 from new owner Adam Warwar to race in J275. In Pro Compact we had Chris Fakinos, Anthony Daquino, Alex Hayward, Mario Rehayem, Steven Barnett and Rodney Rehayem all in their 13B weapons. Pro Turbo saw Sam Sadek debut his new 20B powered RX3 at its first event and in Factory Xtreme we had Jason Both in his #BilletbyPAC 20B powered RX7 and George driving our Mazda 6 SP.
Michael Battaglia struggled with traction all weekend racing in Street 289, recording a best of 9.264 @161 in his 8 second RX3 sedan. With not enough opportunity for testing before the event Mick is still settling back into the car after a year off from racing.
Also racing in Street 289 was Luke Philps in the STUTTA R100. Straight off the trailer Luke was into the 8’s recording an 8.946 @150. In the next 2 qualifiers Luke went on to run a 9.046 @149 and a 9.048 @152.
With his 8 second qualifying pass Luke was put into the Pro 289 class for race day. After struggling with traction in his first 2 rounds of competition with a suspected suspension issue Luke decided not to run in his last heat.
In Modified Compact Jay Sadek was ready for action after stepping off the plane from his European holiday the night before. In Qualifying Jay warmed up with a 9.248 @126 on his first run then smashed it out of the park on his second run, passing the finish line with a new pb of 8.895 @150!!
On race day Jay won all 3 rounds of Chicago shootout moving on to the finals. Jay had a bye in the semi-final running a 9.027 @131. He then went on the win the final against Graham Burton in the South Coast Rotaries Gemini with a 8.962 @139 on his 8.900 dial in. A great weekend of racing for Jay with a new pb, 1
st place trophy and biggest wheel stand trophy, he has to be happy with that.
After selling his PAC275 RX3 almost a year ago to one of our other customers Adam Warwar, Andrew Zada has been away from the racing while he builds his new RX3 coupe. Still wanting to race at the Jamboree Andrew got the chance with Adam offering him the keys to his old 20B powered beast.
Straight off the trailer Andrew was into the 8.0’s with an 8.006 @168 then backing it up with a 8.002 @173 in qualifying for 275.
After qualifying in 3rd place, Zada was placed in the Pro class up against some very quick cars. He went on to win the first round after an epic staging battle against the Dandy Engines XY Falcon but lost in the second with the RX3 launching hard from the line to a huge wheelstand. In the third round Andrew took off strong and raced down the track to a new pb of 7.951 @173.
With limited time behind the wheel of his newly purchased full chassis drag car, Sam Sadek was still settling in to the car. On his first pass in testing Sadek ran a 7.20 @179 then came out again to run a 7.03 @194 making it the World’s Fastest Automatic 20B.
In qualifying Sadek managed a best of 7.413 @176 to qualify 3rd in the Pro Turbo class. With a loss in the first round of competition Sadek came back to win the next 2 rounds but it wasn’t enough to make it to the finals.
In Pro Compact Chris Fakinos had a few issues getting down the track straight with his best time over the weekend a 9.107, way off his usual pace.
Alex Hayward was looking forward to a great weekend of racing in Pro Compact also but his car had other ideas after the gearbox let go in his second qualifier. In the first qualifier Alex recorded an 8.314 @163.
With his new Turbo 400 gearbox installed in the last hour, Mario Rehayem came in to the Jamboree with limited seat time with the new combo. On his first pass though in qualifying Mario reset his own 13B Automatic world record with a 7.66 @176.
He then stepped it up further in the first round of competition with a new world record time of 7.579 @181 taking the win, then went on to win his next 2 rounds. Mario would have to settle for third though with Kelly Bettes and Makoto Watanabe recording faster times in last round both to move on to the finals.
Qualifying with a best of 7.34 @186, Steven Barnett was looking to step it up on race day to make it back to back wins in Pro Compact.
First round Steve took the win with a 7.291 @186 but lost the second in a close run against Simon’s Promaz RX8 with Simon getting the holeshot to run a 7.483 @186 to Steve’s 7.451 @187.
Anthony Daquino was running consistent all weekend in his 13B powered RX3 Sedan, Qualifying with a best of 7.154 @190.
Anthony won in his first round with a 7.129 @190 to David Clarks 8.41 @166 and had a bye in the second round running his best pass of the weekend with a 7.053 @190. A mechanical issue would unfortunately end his day early though with the Daquino Racing team not able to make the third round.
Running a best of 7.057 @189, Rodney qualified in 2
nd for Pro Compact looking to make an impact on race day against a tough field. In his first round match up he faced one of our old customers Stuart Turnbull in the ‘FREAKY’ RX3 taking the win with a 7.270 @190 to Stu’s 8.61 @162.
Rod had a bye in the second round but a loss in round three against Makoto Watanabe with the car getting loose off the line would rule him out of the finals.
Now running a #BilletbyPAC 20B engine, Jason Both was looking forward to running rounds in his RX7 and he couldn’t be happier with how the car performed. Jason qualified with a best of 7.130 @179 also running low 7’s in his other 2 qualifiers.
On the Sunday Jason was ready for battle with his first match up to be against Isaias Rojas in the 5 second Scion. This didn’t distract Jason though as he launched hard from the line with a .035 reaction time to beat Isaias’ time of 7.562 @160 with a 7.206 @184. In the second round the throttle cable came off at WOT and Jason coasted across the line and another minor issue would slow him down in the last round but after a full weekend of racing the #BilletbyPAC 20b was still going strong, much to Jason’s delight.
In the first round of qualifying our Mazda 6 SP looked to be on a solid pass but with the 2-step flame tripping the beam the time slip didn’t reflect the run recording only a 7.153 @163.
Our first round match up was against Rod Harvey in his 5 second Celica. George looked to get the jump racing down to a 6.506 @206 but Harvey steam rolled around to take the win recording a 6.359 @247 in what was a close race.
In round 2 George was up against the MechTech Scion. The Mazda 6 took off strong from the line but broke traction at half track still taking the win against Rojas who had an issue with the car.
With a mechanical issue arising after the second round and with the short turn around the team did not have enough time to repair it, so the call was made to bow out and concentrate on the customers cars.
It was great to see the international flavour come back into the Jamboree with one of the biggest crowds we have had in recent years. This event will be a hard act to follow but we will see what happens as Sport Compact drag racing continues its resurgence in Australia.
We would like to thank Ray Box, Collin Willshire and the whole Jamboree team for putting on such a great event and the Willowbank Raceway staff for preparing a killer surface for racing.
We would also like to thank all of our fans from here and overseas who came to see us race. and to all of our PACsters that tuned in to the Live Feeds (when we could connect)
With the Brisbane Jamboree now behind us we will now start preparing for the Melbourne Jamboree which is just around the corner on the 28th of October.
Check out our full gallery below. Pics by our media man James Collins and Mike Rodriguez from xtremedragphoto.com
