2024 Sydney Jamboree – what a cracker event!! After a rocky few years past for this event, it was so good to finally have the stars align for the Jamboree team and mother nature play ball so we could all enjoy the event to the fullest and put on a show for the fans!
The boys took full advantage of it too, putting in work on the track and producing the goods, with PBs, exciting side-by side racing and a Factory Xtreme finals win for the Pac Performance team!
Fresh from running a 7.22 PB, testing in his recently acquired 20B RX8 prior to the event, Peter ‘Bunga’ Finianos was eager to push the envelope even further on Saturday and while things didn’t go to plan through qualifying, with the car either heading skywards or turning the tyres, things come good in the afternoon with Peter putting down an impressive 7.17@184 PB in round 1 – very close to the cars best of ET of 7.14 but still 10mph short of the 194mph trap speed the car has been!
Peter then backed up that pass with a round 2 win with a 7.32@163, despite the car getting skatey at mid track. These efforts saw the boys head into the finals however, an issue prevented Peter from putting down a pass, handing the win to the opposition.
Running on-point from the moment it left the transporter, The Billet By Pac / Hi-Tek Steel Framing RX8 did laps all day, with Rodney putting down solid passes all day and showing great consistency running in the 6.7 – 6.6 zone throughout the day with a best of 6.55 and scoring #1 qualifyer in Pro Compact!
As always, Rod was on the money with his reaction times and the crew were confident of another finals appearance, but a scary pass against fellow Pac racer Lee Docherty in his MX5 in round 3 unfortunately ended the night for Rod… Thankfully, a near miss was all it was, with both cars and drivers shaken up but still in one piece.
Another team heading into the event on a high from running a PB in testing, team Archer were keen to continue the charge on Saturday and their first pass of the day looked like they were going to do just that – an impressive 8.85@154 backing up their 8.7 in testing. Unfortunately though, a few gremlins and less than perfect passes during the day put a downer on their efforts and while they were still in the running for a finals appearance, an 8.9 pass in the evening wasn’t good enough to push them through.
With the Mazda6 not in attendance, it was up to Jason Both, Queen Street Racing & Jay Sadek to fly the Pac flag in Factory Xtreme and go head-to-head with the piston crews. Unfortunately for the QSR team, the BMW was suffering from what seemed to be some boost issues which saw the car unable to put down any clean passes.
Jason Both’s return to the track in ‘The Joker’ Mazda6 went well with the team ironing things out and slowly stepping things up during the day. After getting a feel for the car and track with a few 7.0 runs, Jason wound things up with a pair of 6.7 passes, the best at an impressive 217mph!
Continuing to go from strength to strength and show great promise, Jay and his new Mazda3 Pro Car were on fire and on a mission straight to the top of factory Extreme, going up against the big guns like a veteran racer! Kicking off the day in the best way possible with a new PB 6.42@212, confidence was high as this pass was backed up with an equally impressive 6.48@212, much to the team's delight!
Jay would then go on to continue his charge towards a finals appearance with an exciting 6.50@213 win against Zoran in the Gas Racing BMW before taking another 2jz scalp in round 3 with a flying 6.45@214 pass, sending Jay and Team Sadek into the factory Xtreme finals where we would see a re-match against Zoran in the BMW.
With both cars matched quite well, albeit the BMW having run a low 6 PB during the day, the boys went into the final confident after their earlier win, and after a stellar drive from the young gun, Jay walked away with the race win, class win and yet another piston scalp, with a shot-gun 6.45@215 pass sealing the deal!
Needless to say there was plenty of celebration after the win which was a perfect way to top off what was an awesome day of racing!
Team Pac was also represented in the Jamboree Show n Shine, with PAC747 & WLD20B both taking home billet Js for 'Best Sedan' & 'Best Coupe' amongst some tough competition
As always, we’d like to send out a HUGE thank you and well done to the Jamboree team & Sydney Dragway crew for putting on a wicked event and for persisting to make it happen for us racers and the fans! Your hard work does not go unnoticed!
To everyone who came out to cheer us on the track and those who stopped by the merch trailer to pick up some new gear, and to all our sponsors, we thank you for your continued support and none of this would be possible without you!
