Monday, 19 March 2018
With a record number of entrants for the 15th running of the Sydney Jamboree at Sydney Dragway, there was always going to be a jam packed schedule which started at 8am and finished at 10.30pm.
From the Pac Performance stables we had 16 cars entered across 6 classes, Street 289, Modified Compact, J275, Pro Turbo, Pro Compact and Factory Xtreme.
In Street 289 we had Grant Henderson in his RX3 coupe and Kevin Awadson in his 20B powered RX8.
Grant made it through the first 2 rounds of eliminations with his best time of the day a 7.707 @181. With his dial in adjusted to 7.50 for his 3
rd round, Grant ran a 7.765 @180 to his competitors 8.20 on a 8.05 dial.
Kevin struggled to get his car down the track in qualifying setting his dial in to 7.69 for the eliminations. After a round one win Kevin went on to run a new pb in his second eliminator of 7.582 @186 breaking out on his 7.69 dial in.
Modified Compact saw Emmanuel Mann in the ‘GADGET’ RX3, Todd Peovski in his ‘KMKAZE’ RX3, Mirko Peric in his ‘ROT4RY’ 1300 Sedan, Jay Sadek in his ‘SADEK3’ RX3 coupe, Ray Chakti in his ‘BOWDWN’ RX3 and Rami Gambino in his ‘CALHLP’ RX3 sedan.
The Go Go GADGET RX3 had no more go after his burnout with the gearbox letting go ending Emmanuel’s day before it started.
Todd’s ‘KMKAZE’ RX3 didn’t miss a beat all day running a best of 9.570 @141 in the eliminations. Todd made it through to the 3
rd round but an early shut off before the line would see his competitor sail past for the win.
In the ‘BOWDWN’ RX3 Ray managed a best of 9.2 in qualifying and won his 1
st elimination round but wheel spin in his 2
nd round saw his competitor run away with the win.
Mirko had a wild wheels up launch in his ‘ROT4RY’ 1300 Sedan in his first qualifier and ran a new pb in his second qualifier with a 9.23 @144.
After winning the modified compact class at the last 2 Jamboree’s, the pressure was on for Jay to try and do it again. After running well in the first 2 rounds of elimination running a best of 9.161 @146, Jay lost the 3
rd round ending his hopes for a hat trick.
Debuting his car for the first time since being built, Rami went out strong in his full #BilletbyPac plated, 13B RX3, ‘CALHLP’, recording an insane 8.98 @146 on his first pass. On his second qualifier Rami went even quicker again running 8.87 @143. With the car going strong, Rami set his dial in to 8.70 for his first eliminator running an impressive 8.800 @151, but a mistake with his dial in at 9.30 saw Rami lose, due to a break out.
J275 saw Eric Wolf entered in his 20B powered RX3 ‘TRIPLE’.
In his first major event since having his car built and with only a handful of passes under his belt, Eric was keen to see what his new toy could do. After qualifying with a best of 8.65 @158, Eric was looking to step it up in the heats. First round Eric ran a new pb of 8.417 @164 to his competitors 8.443 @166 but a slower reaction time would see him lose the race. Wheel spin off the line in the second round saw Eric concede another loss, ruling him out of any contention for a place in the finals.
Pro Turbo saw Sam ‘The Godfather’ Sadek entered in his RX3 coupe
Qualifying well with a 7.274 @186 Sam managed a first round win with a 7.313 @184. In his second round though the car wouldn’t engage reverse after the burnout and the team were forced to call it a day.
Lining up in Pro Compact we had Anthony Daquino in his RX3 Sedan, Mario in his Starlet, Andrew Maratos in his RX3 coupe and Rodney Rehayem in his RX3 Sedan.
A mechanical issue in testing the day before unfortunately ended Anthony’s Jamboree campaign early.
Mario also suffered an issue from testing and could only manage 2 qualifying passes before packing the car in the trailer with a damaged convertor.
Rodney was on a mission in his #BilletbyPAC RX3, top qualifying with a 7.070 @192. Rod ended up in the sand trap though with his parachute getting tangled in his wheelie bar and not opening. Staying cautious in his first round of the Chicago shootout, Rodney had the bye and clicked off early to a 7.431 @139 making sure he didn’t have a repeated issue with his parachute. Round 2, Rodney was up against Andrew Maratos, with the Dentist crossing the line first running a 7.281 @184. In round 3 Rodney took the win against Shane Bugeja with a 7.425 @180 but just missed out on the finals with Kelly Bettes running a quicker time with a win in the same round.
Andrew Maratos aka The Dentist won all 3 of his rounds with a best of 7.281 @184 against team mate Rodney and moved onto the finals against Kelly Bettes in her Datsun ute. With Kelly running consistently in the 7.0’s all day it was going to be a hard race to win, but an issue with the Datsun off the start line saw Andrew drive off with the win and a big J trophy.
Entered in Jamboree’s premiere class, Factory Xtreme, we had Jason Both in his #BilletbyPAC 20B RX7 and George Rehayem in our Mazda 6 SP.
After fitting a new Quick drive convertor to his RX7 Jason took his car out to test on the Friday, but unfortunately Jason came across some gremlins and a decision was made not to run the car at the Jamboree until further testing was done.
Our Mazda 6 SP struggled to get down the track in the heat of the day in qualifying, but with the Chicago shootout format George had 3 rounds of racing to adjust to the conditions. Round 1, George was paired up against Dion Amato in the Barra powered Ford it was a peddle fest with both cars shaking the tyres off the line and racing down the track, George took the win with a 7.338 @ 174 to Dion’s 8.15 @128.
Round 2, George had a bye and was paired with Rod Harvey who was also on a bye. Rod ran away with the win after George deep staged and tripped the beam for a red light loss.
George was matched up against Rod Harvey’s Toyota Celica in round 3. In sweet revenge, his lightening-like reaction to the tree saw him win with a hole shot, running a 6.808 @205 to Rod’s 6.725 @228 and moving on to the finals against Ben Bray.
The final run was an all automatic affair, with both cars running Quickdrive convertors. This was a classic piston V rotor and NSW V QLD rivalry which would be settled at the drop of the lights. Sharp on the lights all day, George cut a .113 to Ben Bray’s 0.841 light and crossed the line with a 6.470 @215 to take the win.
Thank you to our sponsors, Penrith Mazda, Honeywell Garrett, MicroTech, Turbosmart and Custom Bodyworks. Your support is truly appreciated and we look forward to the racing year ahead.
We would also like to thank Ray Box, Collin Willshire and the entire Jamboree team for organising such a great event and the Sydney Dragway staff for their continued dedication to the sport.
Thank you 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 unwavering.
With the Sydney Jamboree now behind us we will now start preparing for our next major event which will be Rotary Revival #7 held on the 8th of April. We hope to see you there.
Check out our highlights video of the event here
