Fuchs Nationals... World Record... Gold Christmas Tree!!!!

The Fuchs Nationals is Australia's oldest and longest running Drag Racing event, having started in 1965 in Victoria and residing today in NSW at Sydney Dragway. It is a National event with all Group One categories represented and is second only to the Winternationals in terms of prestige and competitor numbers.
Held over three days, it is also the opening round of the 2010-2011 ANDRA Drag Racing season, so everyone is fresh and excited and wanting to take points.

PAC PERFORMANCE would be represented by the flagship of the team, the Mazda 6, running BB/SC and Damien McKern in the little green RX2 rocket GRUMP2, AA/OM, both in the Super Compact bracket. Also representing the PAC team would be father and son, John and Russell Archer with their RX4, running in Super Gas and Lincoln Dal Cortivo in his RX3,running SS/BB in Super Sedan........a class with a massive 83 entries and dial-your-own racing.......very tough !!

Friday was punctuated by some wild wind squalls and rain, which put the program behind by a couple of hours, but first qualifier would see Damien run a promising 8.25@175mph pass, very slightly under his 8.30 index. Rocky had nominated to take on the driving duties of the Mazda 6 and his first qualifying effort produced a great 6.88@203mph pass. Damien would improve also with an 8.0 pass.

Saturday dawned a much better day with warm conditions and blue skies with just one qualifier for both Rocky and Damien. This was to be the first crowning moment of the weekend for the PAC team when Rocky reeled off a world record 6.745@205mph pass, on the exact anniversary of setting the world record in the same car and at the same venue in 2009!!!! A magic moment indeed!!! And as an added bonus for the team, Damien ran a 7.98 second pass to claim his first 'seven' at Sydney Dragway. Originally scheduled to run the first round of eliminations on Saturday, a revision of the program would see three rounds of racing on Sunday. Not only did the team reset their own world record in the Mazda 6, they would also take the top qualifier award as well!!!

Sunday, and the business end of the meeting, time to put the real race face on!! Both Damien and Rocky won their first round of racing to progress to the semi-finals, where Rocky would have a bye and Damien would face off against the might of Rod Harvey's 2JZ powered Celica. Rocky tested the 60ft and launch, but aborted the rest of the run to save the car for the final. Damien took on Rod's Celica, but a close race would see Rod take the win light, only to be disqualified after the car was found to be underweight, a bitter blow for the NZ team after a frantic thrash to replace a motor to make the race. This meant Damien was re-instated as the winner and would face off with Rocky in the mighty Mazda 6, in an all PAC and all Rotor final!!!

There would be no 'team orders' here, it would be a determined fight by both drivers to secure the win, and although on different indexes, the first to the finish would take the win!! The sound of the two PAC 20B's on the start line echoed around the complex and they were off, Damien first and Rocky shortly later. Damien was making great progress, but slowly but surely the world record holder reeled the little RX2 in and ultimately took the win and Rocky earnt his first ANDRA Gold Christmas Tree for the Super Compact winner, a very just and deserved victory for all the persistence, patience and sheer hard work put in by all the team over many, many years. To be able to do it at the team's home track, with a fellow PAC team car as runner-up is a testament to the quality of the product and in front of an appreciative home crowd was just icing on the cake !!

Once again, this great achievement could not be done alone and to all the sponsors, Turbosmart, Turbo by Garrett, Castrol EDGE, Mazda Australia,(ZOOM ZOOM), Haltech, Plazmaman, Custom Bodyworks and VP Racing Fuels a massive 'Thank You', also to our tire-less and hard-working crew, and last but not least our great fans and supporters who follow our exploits at the track and around the world..........this is for you all !! We are extremely grateful to you all.

Words by Paul Hayward
Photo’s courtesy of www.cacklingpipes.com