We had a blast at the first Blacktop Outlaws No Prep event, run by the Growl Racing crew at Casino Airport in Northern NSW in July. As we had hoped, a stack of interesting cars came out of the woodwork to play, check out just some of our favourites below.

First published in the August 2026 issue of Street Machine

1. Casino local Damien Pacitto has previously run at the airport in his HT, but he brought a very cool LH Torana sleeper to Blacktop Outlaws. Under the bonnet is a Dart-blocked, 400ci small-block, force-fed by a rear-mount turbo, and all controlled by a FiTech ECU. “I bought it with the work already done,” Damien said. “I’ve just changed the plugs and leads, swapped out the MAP sensor and started looking at how to tune it”

2. There was plenty of variety at Casino, including Simon Grigg in his bright yellow FE Holden. It’s no slouch either; the classic Holden has gone 6.30 on the eighth thanks to a Dart 378ci SBC with a Haltech-controlled, four-barrel EFI throttlebody atop a little Weiand 144 supercharger cranking out 9psi of boost

3. Peter Kay piloted the hot rod drifter he built for the late Levi Clarke. “I haven’t changed anything from its drift set-up; we’re just here to have fun,” he said. Rocking a tunnel-rammed LS and TR6060 six-speed, the rod sports an R32 GT-R IRS and Winters quick-change at the rear, and Mk4 Supra IFS with cantilevered shocks up front. “We’re working on getting Levi’s S15 back up and running and hoping to have both cars at Time Attack in Levi’s original black-and-gold livery,” Peter said

4. Michael Zdraveski is well known on the Queensland scene as the guy behind Import Media, but at Casino he was in front of the camera for a change in his KE20. “I’ve had the Corolla for 20 years; back then it had a 3K in it,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned is not to sell your car! If you fall out of love with it for a while, just put a cover over it and your mood will change.” These days, the Corolla runs a semi-peripheral-port 13B, with a G40 turbo by Mazfix and a C4 auto

5. Markos Christofis cruised down from the Gold Coast in his ’79 Pontiac Trans-Am. The Firebird still rocks its original Olds 403 engine, which now makes around 500hp and also runs a 200hp nitrous shot. “We’re running in Street Tyre class, on 225 PSR radials,” Markos said. “It’s a great street car, and everyone always wants to come and have a look at it – it’s something different”

6. Garry Podbevsek from Pro Metal Worx in Grafton was rocking a very tidy Mazda 1000 ute. “It was a Kenda car with the previous owner,” he said. “To suit no-prep racing, we’ve changed up the four-link, put better shocks in it for more adjustability, and added more weight in the rear. The engine is just a stock LS1 with G42 turbos on E85 and 12psi, and the best we’ve done so far on the eighth-mile is a 5.8”

7. Ballina’s Fletcher Patterson took the win and $600 in the Small Tyre class, with his VH Commodore up against Dan Meredith’s VC in the final. There’s some serious hardware under the VH’s bonnet, with a single 88mm G50 turbo feeding a 427ci Dart LS controlled by a Haltech R5, all tuned by Hi-Torque Performance on the Gold Coast. “The officials told me we did the quickest time of the event,” Fletcher said

8. Blacktop Outlaws was Lindsay Raska’s first go at no-prep racing, and he did it in style in his genuine V8 VL Calais. “It was just going to be a pub car, but I wanted to put a big tyre under it, and it blew out from there!” he said. He’s not kidding – how does a 1000rwhp, 8/71-blown 427 Dart LS with a Haltech Nexus VCU sound? The VL struggled to hook up in the Small Tyre class on 275s, but Lindsay had a ball and will be back

9. Kevo strikes again! Fresh from his Street Drags win at Rockynats 2026, Ben Wood – aka Woody from The Skid Factory – was a hot favourite in the Gangsta Tyre class in his 2JZ Toyota-powered VR Commodore. Some clever engine management and a shit-ton of weight in the boot helped the car maintain traction all weekend, and it powered away from Tony Bennett’s LC Torana in the final

10. Rhett Bryant’s spectacular ’92 Suzuki Sierra is powered by a built K24 Honda four-pot, with a G35-900 turbo and ZF 8HP transmission! “Before this car, I was into rock crawling in Sierras with turbo Swift GTi twin-cams,” Rhett said. “I thought that was pretty good when I was making 200hp, but this is something else! The 8HP is really cool. At highway speeds, it is just idling at 1300rpm in eighth gear”

11. Running in the Big Tyre class, Greg Trapnell’s ’62 Biscayne suffered traction problems all weekend despite the 33x15in slicks. But then, an 8/71-blown, 520ci big-block on methanol is a tricky thing to navigate down a no-prep airstrip surface. The big Chev has gone 5.0 on the eighth-mile at Warwick, but at Casino, Greg lost to Brian Thomas’s blown ’68 Camaro in the second round