Monday, 11 April 2016
The staff at the Australian Pro Street Association (APSA) always know how to put on a good show and last Saturday was no different with a full on day of action packed racing. In a predominately V8 event we had 11 of our cars entered. Dom Perri with his RX2 Coupe and Rami Gambino in his RX3 Sedan racing in X235. Andrew Zada with his 20B RX3 racing in X275. Grant Henderson in his RX3 coupe, Emmanuel Mann in his RX3 Sedan, Michael Battaglia in his RX3 Sedan and Luke Philps with his R100, all racing in Modified Street Blown. Andrew 'The Dentist' Maratos and Sam 'The Godfather' Sadek each had their RX3 Coupes entered in 10.5 Outlaws. In Outlaw Extreme Mario Rehayem was entered with his Toyota Starlet as well as his cousin George Rehayem with our Mazda 6 SP.
We had perfect conditions on the day with blue skies and sunshine and the team was hoping for a good showing across the five classes.
Kicking it off in Mod Street Blown was Emmanuel Mann, aka GADGET in his 13b powered RX3 Sedan.
After a few sketchy runs in qualifying, Emmanuel raced down the track to a 8.521 @165 in round 2 of eliminations.
Returning to the track for the first time since his car arrived back from New Zealand, Luke Philps was looking to run a new pb in his ‘STUTTA’ R100. Coming close with a very impressive 8.764 @155 and making it all the way through to the semi finals.
Grant Henderson’s day was over before it started after an issue was found with his RX3 Coupe, but instead of packing up and making the trip back home, he and his ESP Racing team stuck around to help crew on Emmanuel’s GADGET, RX3.
Out racing his freshly built RX3 was Michael Battaglia, after racing the car at Sydney Jamboree and placing 3
rd overall, Michael was back looking to take it all the way. Unfortunately in his 2
nd qualifier the diff let go on the start line and Michael’s day was over.
Coming late to the party, Rami Gambino signed up his ‘CALHLP’ RX3 for X235 and was keen to get racing. In qualifying Rami ran a new pb of 9.686 @142, which sees him sitting just outside the top 10 of our
#PACSTREETKINGS leader board, not a bad effort considering it was only his second time racing at the track.
Also racing in the newly formed X235 class was Dom Perri in his ‘GODRX2’ RX2 coupe. After not being happy with his results at the Sydney Jamboree, Dom was itching to get back to the track to see just how fast he could run on his new 235 radials. From his first run of the day, Dom was on a mission, pulling a huge 50+ metre wheel stand. With a consistent string of 9.1’s throughout the day Dom stepped it up and ran a very impressive 9.07 @150 on street radials and with no wheelie bars, which sees him enter our
#PACSTREETKINGS Leader board in 4
th place. With an index bracket of 9.500 for the X235 class, Dom’s wins were unfortunately disqualified, but all in all he had a very successful outing.
Since having his 20B ‘PAC275’ RX3 build completed late last year, Andrew Zada has had his eyes on the
#PACSTREETKINGS number 1 spot. With a car of this caliber, Andrew was out at a private test session the day before. In his first ever drive down the quarter mile he managed to run a 9.8 @102mph in a shake down pass with a lift at half track. Anticipation was high for his next pass but unfortunately it started raining and the team would have to wait until the next day.
First pass of the day and Andrew blasted out a new pb of 9.297 @131, again backing off before the end of the track. In his third qualifier, the little green rx3, flew down the track to again top his new pb with an 8.881 @155mph earning him his crown and 1st place on our #PACSTREETKINGS leader board. A very impressive time for this 100% Street driven RX3. We would like to congratulate Andrew on this awesome achievement and look forward to seeing him hit the track again soon.
Racing in the hotly contested 10.5 Outlaws class, Sam ‘The Godfather’ Sadek, ran a string of mid 7’s in qualifying against a field of 6 second cars. His best pass of the day coming in the first round of eliminations, a 7.337 @184.
After having his car repaired from the damage caused at the Sydney Jamboree, Andrew struggled to get the car down for a full pass suffering bad tyre shake. No doubt Andrew will be back out racing very soon in pursuit of that elusive 6 second 13B pass.
In Outlaw Extreme, Mario Rehayem was entered with his little pocket rocket, 13B powered, El Sniper Toyota Starlet. First pass of the day saw him matched up against the Moits’ 5 second Mustang. This didn’t phase Mario in the slightest, setting a new pb of 7.883 @168mph.
Also running in Outlaw Extreme was George Rehayem in our Mazda 6. Still testing out the cars new combination we were hoping to run some consistent passes. Our fastest pass of the day came in the first round of qualifying with a 6.49 @210. Unfortunately the team encountered some gearbox issues and the Mazda 6 SP was done for the day.
Check out our video coverage of the event here
With some great and not so great results for the day, the team all had a blast. We now look forward to our next major event which will be Supernats on the 23rd of April.
We would like to thank Peter Pisalidis and the APSA team for putting on such a great event and also the crew at Sydney Dragway for preparing such an awesome track. More importantly we would like to thank our amazing sponsor's Turbo by Garrett, Microtech, Turbosmart,Mainline Dynalog Dynamometers, Custom Bodyworks and Castrol your support is truly appreciated.
Also we would like to thank all of the PACsters that come to support us at all of these events, bring on Supernats!!!!
