Gazzanats 2008 at Calder Park

First published in the May 2008 issue of Street Machine

Were you an entrant at the Calder Park Gazzanationals? Do you feel like you destroyed enough rear tyres? If not you have one of two problems: either you need help for your addiction to tyre smoke or you need to learn how to do burnouts properly. Though there’s also the possibility that you killed your engine, radiator or transmission by pushing a little too hard. Entries poured in for the event so quickly that you’d think Victorians hadn’t had many opportunities for this sort of thing. In the end, organisers capped the list at 220 to ensure that everyone could have enough track-time. And they got it. Cruising, burnouts, straight-line skids, drag racing. And repeat the next day, plus an extended round of night-time burnouts on Saturday evening.

Now, there are rules to cruising and they included a speed limit of 140km/h on the track and a strict injunction that there would be no smoke during the cruise. The speed limit was observed very well — with a couple of make-shift chicanes made of those red and white water-filled barriers, there wasn’t too much space to go much faster. And the smoking ban, that lasted three or four seconds. Extremely short-sighted officials seemed to struggle to see the far side of the circuit from the pits and regular walls of smoke drifted across there. Pretty soon it was the same all the way around and with all that smoke, it was hard to see who was to blame. Just to prove how hard some people were pushing during the inaccurately named cruise, a number of cars limped back to the pits with flayed rubber slapping the guards.

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Breaking up the track time, and giving entrants time to fit yet another set of boots, there were demonstrations by drift cars, Nigel Benson in his Aussie Bandit HZ wheelie ute, Mad Ron and his jet truck as well as Russell Clarke from Heathcote, with his jet-powered van and a tiny silver RX-7 with — you guessed it — a jet engine in the back. That little monster sprinted down the length of the track so fast it was hard to keep your eye on it.

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With the trolley jacks having done their work, the hordes gathered again to hit the burnout pad. The standard was generally high with a range of cars and drivers displaying an ability to make smoke, keep the revs up and use every inch of the pad. In still conditions, the smoke barely moved at first, making it hard for the judges to see what they were judging but thankfully a breeze soon rolled the clouds away to give everyone a clearer view of the action. Saturday’s qualifying sessions were split into two groups, with a one-minute limit.

That didn’t hurt too many entrants — it was Sunday’s finals, with a two-minute minimum and up to three minutes that did the damage as the track surface turned into sticky, molten rubber under the kind of sun that Sydney events could only dream about this season. But before that, Saturday night brought a decent firework display and the destruction of an old HR ute (that was more bog than car) and something Japanese under the twin afterburners on the jet trucks. Then there were more burnouts, with Gary Myers, Clint Ogilvie, Milan Dokic, Leroy Rees, George Separovich, Mark Dall’Acqua, Shannon and Tony Peterson, and Tony DeOliveira showing why they and their cars are a step above most on the pad.

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On Sunday morning, there were 60-odd cars lined up to try their luck in the DYO drag racing. With the usual ANDRA limit on cars without cages, a lot of drivers had detuned their rides to prevent them running faster than 11 seconds. A couple of entrants chose instead to blow through the lights well under the limit — setting a fast time is as good as winning for some. Sunday’s format served up another full day of skids and cruising. So much, in fact, that it all ran over. That was at least partly to do with the number of cars that blew their cooling systems apart in the burnout finals, giving the clean-up crews a lot of extra work.

For the crowd, it was all good entertainment, though it has to be said that neither day had a huge turnout. It hard to say what happened as far as crowd participation went, it may just have been that there were other events looming on the horizon, but you’d have to say the gate numbers wouldn’t excite many promoters, especially after a similarly small crowd for the Vic Super Cruz (SM, April ’08). Entrants, on the other hand, were plentiful for both and at the Gazzanationals, everyone we spoke to had a ball and would like to see it run again.

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HIGHLIGHTS:

1. What do you do with Nanna’s 1979 Corolla? Scotty Woodyard stuffed a 308 into his. It has a manualised T350 behind that, with a mini-spooled nine-inch making the burnouts easier, though it looked to be a handful everywhere. “Because it’s short, it’s twitchy as hell. All the weight’s on the front; there’s nothing on the back end.”

2. All round Iron Maiden of the event was Helen North, once again thrashing the living daylights out of husband James’s LX Torana, just as she did in Adelaide. She insists her own Torana is nearly ready but it’s not going on the burnout pad as it’s being built as more of a show car and driver. James took third burnout overall; Helen scored eighth overall.

3. This LJ Torrie belongs to Michelle Hufer, but despite the plate, it runs a 360 stroker backed up by a T350 auto and a nine-inch. “It was all built at home except the tubs and chassis,” Michelle said. “It was [husband] Robin’s blood, seat and tears in the shed! I made it to the third round of the drags, which was a surprise as I usually knock myself out by breaking out.” Michelle’s advice for entrants: “If you’re not having fun, you shouldn’t be doing it.”

4. Michael Taranto is steering this neat ’55 Ford Customline, which runs a tough 351 Cleveland that he had to detune to avoid breaking the 11sec barrier in the drags. That’s not all that might get broken. When he got it sideways in the straight-line skids, a voice in the crowd said: “His brother’ll kill him! That’s his car!”

5. David Mizzi’s RX-4 runs 351 power with 150hp nitrous, and it’s no stranger to the drags. His personal best is 9.88@138mph but he backed it off a long way for this event: “I’d expect to run a 12.0 — it can do that all day.” Sadly, he lost the DYO finals without turning a wheel.

6. Emily Searle in her Holden V6-powered Gemini picked up the Best Cruiser award. Her partner Scott Briant built the car for her, so what says love more? Diamonds or having a car built for you? “I definitely have to say the car.”

7. The scariest car sticker around — Bubba in the raw! He spent as much time under his car as he did behind the wheel. “I cracked the shits and pulled the rev limiter off. I’m gonna turn it to 8200rpm! Let’s see if we can’t detonate it.”

8. When is an XD not an XD? When you’ve spent 250 hours putting a BA interior into it, 300 hours in the engine bay and at least as much again under car to make it handle. Shane Stephenson’s added an RRS front strut, rack and 3-Link rear to his 408 stroker-powered machine. “I didn’t want a cage in it so I built the body up to make it stiff so I can drive it like I stole it!” He did, too, as well as winning Top Paint.

9. Known to his mates as Wazza, Warren Eustace had his 383-powered HQ along for a fun-filled weekend. Running a ’Glide and nine-inch, the flamed blue beastie had a bootful of gas. “We’re not using it but it’s there if we want to,” Wazza said. “It’s mainly for burnouts but hopefully I’ll use it for a bit of drag racing later.”