Monday, 30 January 2017
The Grudge Kings Crew returned to Sydney Dragway last Friday night for the 'Loco Energy Shakedown' event. Even though the team ran a shorter format to their usual Grudge Kings List, there was still plenty of action happening on the track.
There were 2 brackets of racing on the night being ‘Street, Grudge & Testing’ and 'The List' Shootout.
Unfortunately Grant Henderson, who had a firm position in 4th place on ‘The List’ was unable to make the event in his PAC RX3, but we still had plenty of PAC cars hitting the strip representing us in the ‘Street, Grudge & Testing’ bracket. There on the night we had Sam Sadek in the 'SADEK3' RX3 coupe, Jay Sadek in the 'SADEK2' RX3 sedan, Ibby Aouad in his 'LOW09Z' RX3 sedan, Ray Chakti in the 'BOWDWN' RX3 sedan, Kevin Aouad in his PRO289 RX8 and Andrew 'The Dentist' Maratos in his RX3 coupe.
Sam 'The Godfather' Sadek was behind the wheel of his
Sadek Rotary Tours, 'SADEK3' RX3 coupe looking to push it further into the 9's, doing just that on his first pass with a 9.472 @145. Sam was unable to continue racing after this pass due to safety regulations with the car now needing a racing harness as per the
IHRA rules for cars running over 140mph.
In another
Sadek Rotary Tours beast was Jay Sadek, driving the 'SADEK2' RX3 sedan. After the coupe was sidelined, Sam took over driving duties of the little red sedan, he managed to run the car to a best of 10.07 @138 on the night with the car proving to be a handful on the start line after some wild wheel stands.
On the hunt for a new pb, Ibby Auoad was looking to break into the 9.0's in his 'LOW09Z' RX3 which had previously run a best of 9.13 @148. During the night Ibby was consistently in the low 9's running a 9.162 @148, 9.178 @148, 9.210 @148 and 9.210 @146 until finally on his last run of the night he ran a new pb of 9.086 @149. Not a bad time on a 235 street radial tyre!
Determined to crack into the 8 second zone, Ray Chakti was back at Sydney Dragway in his 'BOWDWN' RX3. On his first run of the night, Ray came close to his goal with a new pb of 9.018 @145 after a slight lift. Following that amazing run, Ray ran a handful of 9.0 second passes but unfortunately could not break that 8. However his 9.018 was still enough to move him up to 4th place on our
#PACSTREETKINGS Leader board.
Returning to the track for the first time this year was Kevin Aouad in his 20B powered RX8. After debuting the car with an impressive 7.850 @177 early last year, Kevin has been struggling with traction issues as the power gets turned up. The team have been working closely with Kevin to figure out how to get the power to the ground on the small 28 x 9 tyre, on his first 2 passes of the night, Kevin hazed the tyres yet again to a best of 9.9 @106 before the suspension was adjusted for the final pass. Off the line the RX8 hooked well and raced down the track to a 7.929 @169, not a new pb but a very positive step for the team in taming the power of the 20B.
Andrew Maratos was excited to be back out in his RX3 coupe with his first pass of the night, a promising 7.390 @182. This was Andrew's fastest run of the night with the car stepping out on the launch in his next 3 passes forcing him to lift off the throttle to a 7.673 @184, 8.051 @185 and 7.836 @189.
We would like to thank Po, Brad and the entire Grudge Kings Crew for putting on such a great event and a shout out also goes to the Sydney Dragway staff that helped to ensure the event ran safely and smoothly. Thank you to all of our supporters that made it out on the night, to support us and thanks to all of you guys that joined Karen on our Live stream.
The team will be out again in full force at Full Throttle at Sydney Dragway on the 10th of February, hope you can join us again.
Check out our highlight video here
