Thursday, 20 September 2018
After 5 rounds of racing in the Gulf Western Oil Workshop Wars it all came down to last nights Grand Final.
Six workshops entered the competition, Motor Sports Mechanical, Westend Performance, C & V Performance, Maatouks Racing, Gas Racing and Pac Performance all battling for Workshop Supremacy!
The competition was fierce from the very first round with 4 different workshops featuring on top of the points standings. In the end it came down to just 2 workshops moving on for the grand final, Gas Racing vs Pac Performance, Pistons vs Rotary.
Racing for the Gas Racing team was Michael Elkhouri in the 2JZ powered FD RX7 and Zoran Gajic in the V8 powered HQ Monaro.
From the Pac stables we had Eric Wolf in his 20B powered RX3 Sedan 'TRIPLE' and Andrew Zada made a return to racing in his old 20B powered RX3 'PAC275' on loan from current owner Adam.
The first heat of racing saw Eric take on Elkhouri and Eric had a settle to score after losing to Michael in Round 5. On the start line it was all 20B power with Eric launching out on Michael to an impressive 8.05 @170 to Michael's 9.36 @158.
Zada was then paired up against Gajic in the Monaro for their first heat battle. Gajic went on to take the win driving around Zada running a 7.96 @173 to Andrew's 8.122 @170.
In the second heat Andrew was scheduled to race against Elkhouri but an gearbox issue with Elkhouri's RX7 ended his night early. In his place Tony Grgich stepped up to race in the 2JZ powered 'GAS275' RX2 with the Gas team utilising their substitution car.
After a staging battle PAC275 and GAS275 both rolled in for their race and the race that the fans have wanted to see was on. Andrew and Tony both left the line together but the little RX2 ran away with the win running a 7.80 @176 to Andrew's 8.123 @171.
The next pairing in the 2nd heat was Eric vs Zoran each with one win a piece both keen to continue their winning streak. This would turn out to be the race of the night with Eric cutting a .001 light on Zoran and running away with the win with an 8.001 @172 et, Zoran didn't go down without out a fight though trapping at a slightly quicker 7.991 @173 losing the race on the tree!
The final heat of the night saw the 2 quickest from each team take on each other and the 2 slowest.
This matched Andrew Zada and Zoran Gajic up against each other as the slowest of each team. After losing to Zoran in the first heat, Andrew was looking for redemption and redemption he recieved running a 8.176 @170 to Zoran's 8.53 @158!
Eric lined up against Tony in the final heat knowing his only chance of winning against the 7.7 second car was to get him on the tree. Unfortunately Eric was a little too eager and left the line early handing the win to Grgich who went on to run a 7.791 @173 to Eric's 8.435 @129.
After the dust had settled each team were tied with 3 wins and 3 losses. This meant the winning would be determined by points. Throughout the heats, points were awarded for the win, running a clean pass, quickest et and consistency.
Back in the pits the Sydney Dragway team tallied the points announcing that the 2 teams were seperated by just 1 point, with the final score PAC - 74 to GAS - 73. We had done it, we took out the first ever Workshop Wars!!
We would like to thank Rusty Gregory and the team at Sydney Dragway for inviting our team to be a part of this great concept. We also like to thank Gulf Western Oil Pty Ltd who sponsored the series and OVO Mobile.
A huge thank you to our fans and supporters who came along to each of the events or tuned in to our live streams. We are so humbled by all of the support you all show.
And directly from Rocky's facebook page to our team
"To the WHOLE PAC Performance Team on and off the track, this includes the boys and girls at the workshop and the owners/drivers, crew members, support team, media team etc.... a HUGE THANK YOU to you all. Collectively we have once again proven that PAC PERFORMANCE are a Supreme Team and a force to be reckoned with and I could not be prouder at this moment. There is a lot of blood, sweat and tears that go with this accolade and we should all share this with pride. CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU ALL, A JOB WELL DONE!!!"
On the way home Eric & Andrew cruised to the Kebab Club along with the team for a feed. Thank you to the boys there who look after us after most of our race nights, you guys are the best.
