Tuesday, 11 April 2017
The first of the 3 Jamboree events scheduled for this year was held at Sydney Dragway last weekend. For this event we had 13 cars racing across 5 classes. Ibby Aouad in his ‘LOW09Z’ RX3 in Street Compact, Luke Philps in his ‘STUTTA’ R100, Chris Fakinos in his ‘SIK300’ RX3 & Kevin Aouad in the 20B powered RX8 raced in Street 289. Emmanuel Mann aka ‘GADGET’, Jay Sadek and George Rehayem raced their RX3’s in Modified Compact. Steven Barnett, Andrew Maratos, Rodney Rehayem & Anthony Daquino in their RX3’s & Mario Rehayem in his Toyota Starlet all raced in Pro Compact and finally George Rehayem raced the Queen St BMW in Factory Xtreme.
It was an event not without any drama with a few close calls and incidents, PB's were broken and trophies were won, it was an exciting event with jam packed action. Here is how the team went –
During qualifying on the Friday night Ibby Aouad blasted out a new pb of 9.02 @150 and ran the quickest time in Street Compact. First round of eliminations, Ibby had a bye run which gave him a chance to set a dial in. In the second round Ibby ran a 9.294 on a 9.15 dial in, only to lose against his competitor by just 2 thousandths of a second ending his day early.
Luke Philps returned to the track after a break from racing with his immaculate ‘STUTTA’ R100. Qualifying in Street 289, Luke ran a best of 9.57 @118. In the first round of eliminations Luke was matched against Moustafa Sakina in his 7 second first gen RX7. On the start line both racers refused to go in and pick up the second beam resulting in an epic staging duel. Luke would go on to run a 10.63 @87 on a 9.00 dial in, unfortunately losing the race.
Kevin Aouad had an issue with his intercooler and in car water tank bursting on his first qualifying pass, but still managed a 8.62 @177. Back in the pits Kevin, checked out the extent of the damage and found that the issue was unable to be fixed ending his Jamboree campaign early.
Chris Fakinos qualified with a best of 8.296 @178 in Street 289, with his 13B powered RX3. In eliminations, the next day, Chris moved into the Extreme class to make up the numbers. Although up against some faster cars, and running heads up, Chris was guaranteed at least 3 runs in the Chicago shootout format. On his first pass of the day, the team were ecstatic when Chris lit up the time board with a new pb of 7.67 @176. Chris seems to be really starting to get a handle on his stock chassis, small tyre car.
Representing the team in Modified Compact was, Emmanuel Mann, racing in his ‘GADGET’ RX3 Sedan. Friday night saw Gadget run a best of 8.369 @170, earning him the Top Qualifier Trophy, only to bow out in the first round of eliminations.
Jay Sadek ran a new pb in Modified Compact during qualifying, passing the traps with a 9.304 @147 in the ‘SADEK3’ RX3 coupe. Eliminations saw Jay set his dial in at 9.25 where he ran multiple low 9.4 second passes in his run to the finals, where he would meet George, in TOGOOD, for a PAC vs PAC showdown. Unfortunately George had an issue with his converter, which handed the win to Jay who ran a 9.470 @146.
Running our
#BilletbyPAC 13B Bridgeport street car engine for the first time was George in his ‘TO900D’ RX3 sedan, looking to break into the 8’s.
George qualified with a new pb of 9.000 @150 on his last pass on Friday night.
Setting his dial in at 8.97, George launched into the first round with a 8.979 @150, taking the win and becoming the fastest 13B powered car on our #PACSTREETKINGS leader board.
Not wanting to break out in the next round George reset his dial in to 8.90 which proved to be the right decision as he raced down the quarter mile to a new pb of 8.94 @151.
George went on to win his next 2 rounds, facing off against Jay Sadek in the final.
With a fresh new
#BilletbyPAC, 13B Turbo, combo in his Toyota Starlet, Mario Rehayem was keen to start running some numbers, racing in Pro Compact. Mario had tested earlier in the day where he ran a promising, new pb of 7.57 @163 with a lift. In the first round of qualifying, Mario’s differential broke, but the team were able to pick up a spare diff centre from the workshop and got to the track early next morning to fit it up before the first round of racing.
With the new diff installed, Round 1 saw Mario matched up against Kelly Bettes in her Datsun 1200 ute. Out of the hole, Mario’s car looked like it was on a great pass but at half track, oil from the puke tank spilt onto the track causing the Starlet to get way out of shape. Thankfully Mario was able to keep it off the wall but his day of racing was over.
Winner of Pro Compact at last year’s Sydney Jamboree, Andrew ‘The Dentist’ Maratos was hoping to go all the way again. Qualifying in 4
th with a run of 7.528 @175 on the Friday night Andrew would need to turn it up in the heats. The Dentist raced 2 rounds of competition before conceding to an electrical issue with the car. Andrew still managed a best of 7.426 @175.
Qualifying 3
rd in Pro Compact with a 7.037 @192, Anthony Daquino was looking to run deeper into the 6’s at the event. Unfortunately a vibration found in the car would rule Anthony out of racing the next day with the team unable to diagnose the issue.
Rodney came out strong with a 6.94 @184 in qualifying to take home the Pro Compact top qualifier trophy and a new pb.
Rodney went on to win his first 2 rounds of Chicago shootout with a best of 7.023 @194 but a loss in the 3rd round would rule him out of the finals.
Steven Barnett qualified in 2
nd place running a 7.033 @190 in his 6 second, 13B powered, RX3. During the next day of competition, Barnett won all 3 of his rounds which moved him on to the finals.
In a controversial final, Steve was set to race Jurgin Piscopo in the Mazworx Datsun. After waiting an extra 20 minutes in the staging lanes for Jurgin to show, Steve was finally waived through by the track officials to run a solo pass. Steve had completed his burnout and was rolling in to stage when, Jurgin finally appeared, but it was too little too late. With Steve already staging the officials turned Jurgin away. Steve ran through with a 7.139@187mph giving him back to back Jamboree wins in Pro Compact.
In Factory Xtreme, George Rehayem was behind the wheel of the Queen Street BMW taking over driving duties from owner Mohamed. On his first pass in the car, George got out of the racing line at half track and he lost control of the car as it drifted towards the wall. Thankfully George was able to bring it back with an epic save. With a few issues found on the car this was the only pass it would make during the event.
Congratulations to all of our racers and their crew for the awesome results and some really exciting racing. A huge thank you to Ray Box, Collin Willshire and the entire Jamboree team for bringing us these awesome events and for showcasing the Australian Sport Compact scene. To the Sydney Dragway staff, thank you for giving us a great surface to run on and for making sure the event ran smoothly.
Last but not least we would like to thank our dedicated PACsters who came along to cheer on our team.
With the Sydney Jamboree behind us we now look forward to the return of our Mazda 6 from the US. Once it arrives we will be hitting the track at every opportunity to make sure we get enough testing in ahead of the Brisbane Jamboree on the 26th of August. With 4 cars from Puerto Rico making the trip over to race it will be an event not to be missed. Hope to see you there!!
