Tuesday, 2 April 2019
Wow, what a day it was at Sydney Dragway for the Garrett Sydney Jamboree.
With the original run date of the 16th of March postponed due to impending rain the forecast wasn't looking very good either for Saturday's event. We tested on the Friday night on a dry track but through the night the rainfall started and caused havok at the track with ezy up's destroyed and cars flooded.
The Jamboree crew made the decision to proceed with the event on a revised schedule with the weather forecast showing it should clear by mid morning.
By 1pm the staging lanes were filling up with cars ready for their first and only qualifying pass for the day which was scheduled to start from 1.30pm
The first cars on track from the Pac camp were the Modified Compact RX3 sedans of Simon Sadek, Todd Peovski and Moey Hamdan. Here's how their days panned out.
Looking to continue on from his new pb earlier in the week Moey was excited for his first Jamboree in his 'PAC747' RX3 Sedan. His first match up in qualifying saw him line up next to fellow Pac team mate Todd in the 'KMKAZE' RX3. As soon as the green light dropped Moey was up on 2 wheels with a massive wheelstand before coming down hard on the front end, cracking the radiator and ending his day of racing.
Todd qualified in his 'KMKAZE' RX3 with a 9.686 @139 on a soft launch setting his dial in to 9.40 for his upcoming rounds. First round Todd ran an impressive 9.504 @141mph but lost the race on a slower reaction time. In the next round Todd showed his consistency racing to a 9.510 @140mph and round win. Unfortunately due to time constraints the racing was cut short to just 2 rounds ending Todd's day early.
After running an 8.089 @162mph in qualifying with his 13B powered RX3, Simon Sadek was hoping to edge into the 7's during eliminations setting his dial in at 7.95. His dream of a 7 second pass would have to wait for another day though with the car breaking traction on both rounds of elimination.
In J275 Kevin Aouad struggled with traction, unable to get the power from his 20B RX8 to the ground on the 275 radials.
Our only non rotary powered car at the event was Jimmy Cannavo's J275 RB powered R33 Skyline. After losing traction in the qualifier running a leisurely 12.3 seconds the car was turned around for the first round of eliminations. Off the line the car stuck to the track racing down to a new pb of 8.358 @175mph making it the quickest and fastest IRS R33 GTST. Congratulaions to Jimmy and the entire 'TRYNC' team.
Returning to his first Jamboree since his unfortunate accident 4 years earlier, Lee was looking to pick up where he left off then and go for a new personal best on his quest for a 6 second pass. After a successful day of testing the week before, running a best of 8.06 @169mph Lee's nerves were settled and he was ready to send it.
First pass out in the Pro Turbo qualifier, Lee rolled across the finish line to a 10.56 @111mph.
Back in the pits Lee's team found that 4th & 5th gear were not engaging so went straight to work trying to fix the issue.
Lining up for the first round of eliminations Lee's #BilletbyPAC 13B powered MX5 shot out from the hole and was on a run, unfortunately though 5th gear would not engage and what could have been a new pb ended up being a 7.624 @147mph.
After running a 6.96 @191mph the night before in testing and top qualifying at the rained out Brisbane Jamboree last year, Jay was on a mission to take his 20B powered RX3 coupe all the way to the finals.
On his qualifying pass Jay veered towards the wall forcing him to back off and roll across the finish line.
First round of racing in Pro Turbo and Jay had his game face on ready to do battle, shooting out of he hole with a .189 reaction time Jay drove through the gears of the Turbo 400 passing the finish line with an insane 6.777 @197mph and taking the win. A new world record for the quickest automatic rotary powered car!
What makes this time even more amazing is Jay did it with the 2-step not working launching off of the foot brake.
To prove it wasn't a one hit wonder Jay went out in the 2nd round and took the win again with a 6.801 @199.5mph!!
With the event called early due to time constraints racing in the Pro Turbo class finished with no final run. The winner was awarded by the quickest time in the 2nd round which was Jay with his 6.8 pass. a huge congratulations to Jay and the Sadek Motor Group team.
Pro Compact saw our biggest field of racers from the Pac camp with 4 cars ready for action.
Anthony Daquino in his 13b powered RX3 Sedan was hoping to lay down some quick passes on the day but an electrical issue after his first burnout would end his day early.
Still getting used to his new car Ibby Aouad was unable to complete a full pass on the day and will look forward to running the car at a private test day soon.
Elia's first run of the day saw his 13B powered RX8 take off towards the wall forcing him to get off the throttle and roll across the finish line
On his second pass though the tail shaft broke ending his day early.
Still reeling from his new world record the night before in his 13B powered Starlet, Mario was ready to get stuck into a full day of racing.
On his first and only qualifying pass of the day, Mario rattled off another new world record for quickest automatic 13b running an insane 7.091 @192mph! It won't be long now before we see him enter into the 6's.
To add to the excitement of running a new world record Mario also won top qualifier for Pro Compact and the PWR Cash boost for most consistent qualifier. Well done Mario!!!
In Factory Xtreme we had 3 cars ready to do battle with the Dentist unfortunately unable to race due to a cracked front end sustained in testing the night before.
When it comes to drivers with no fear, Sam Meindanis is on top of that list for sure.
Unfortunately the Queen Street BMW didn't come to play on Saturday with the 20B beast stepping out on each launch heading towards the wall.
Jason Both hoped to continue his form from the night before after running an impressive 7.0 pass but an issue with the car would force him out of racing after qualifying the a 7.942 @158mph
George was looking to make it 2 from 2 in Factory Xtreme after winning the billet J at last years event. Qualifying 2nd with a solid 6.489 @209mph the stage was set for George to take it all the way.
The first round of Chicago shootout was the highly anticipated Grudge Match between our Mazda 6 SP and Joe Signorelli in the Gas Racing Celica. After holding George out on the tree Joe got the holeshot but a transmission issue with the 2JZ powered Celica would see the 20B powered Mazda 6 drive around him to take the win with a 6.414 @210mph et.
George went on to win the 2nd and final round against Nathan Hagenson with a slow 8.013 @119mph after breaking traction at half track, but this was only enough to secure the runner up trophy for Factory Xtreme with Rod Harvey taking first place honours with a faster time of 5.82.
Representing our team in the Show and shine we had Dom Perri's immaculate 20B powered RX2 coupe 'GODRX2'
And Bobby Livrinski's show stopping RX2 coupe 'HEV15T'
Bobby's coupe won Top Rotary Engine Bay on the day with his Pac built 13B Turbo engine.
The god of all RX2's 'GODRX2' though won a Billet J for King of Jamboree taking out top honours at the event. Congratulations Dom!! What an achievement.
Dom has now told us he will be retiring from showing the car and is ready to start racing keen to feel the full power of his Pac built 20B Turbo!
Thank you to our sponsors, Penrith Mazda, Garrett - Advancing Motion, MicroTech and Turbosmart. Your support is truly appreciated and we look forward to the racing year ahead.
We would also like to thank Collin Willshire, Kelly Bettes, Steve Bettes and the entire Jamboree team for organising such a great event and the Sydney Dragway staff for their continued dedication to the sport on what was a difficult day of racing.
Thank you also to our fans from both here and overseas who came to watch us race and to all of our PACsters that tuned in to the Live Feeds, the support you guys give our team is incredible.
With the Sydney Jamboree now behind us we will now start preparing for our next major event which will be Rotary Revival Sydney which will held on the 14th of April. We hope to see you there!
Check out out highlight video here
