Our fearless leader’s instructions pertaining to the global fuel crisis were nothing if not definitive. In his historic national address, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese unequivocally exhorted us to “go about your business and your lives as normal”. Or words to that effect, at the very least.
First published in the July 2026 issue of Street Machine
For 40 morons loosely associated with Oxytech Powder Coatings, going about our business as normal meant clambering aboard our many and varied shitboxes and racking off to the Tea Gardens Hotel for a weekend of tap beers, whiskey and escapism on the utterly unmissable Oxytech Pub Run.
It mattered not that the cost of 98-octane unleaded had soared to north of $3 per litre; that’s just the cost of doing business – the very business Albo himself instructed us to carry on doing.
So, buoyed by a sense of obligation to fulfil our civic duty, we assembled at Oxytech HQ at Smithfield in Sydney’s west one Friday morning, where we were met with a coffee cart and a pizza truck dishing out A-grade brekkie pizzas.
There was a drivers’ briefing, where we were instructed by Pub Run idiot-wrangler Iain ‘Marv’ Kelly to kindly avoid driving like dickheads, and it was revealed that your humble scribe had been immortalised on all the Pub Run 5 merch, on account of my Hard Luck Award win at Pub Run 4. Classic stitch-up.
Vehicle-wise, Pub Run is a broad church, with everything from Aussie and American muscle to Jap imports, hot rods, and mini-trucks in attendance. It’s an invite-only deal full of mostly automotive industry people, all of whom are connected to the Oxytech family in some way.
So, it was a motley crew that rolled out of the Oxytech gates bound for the Full Throttle BBQ & Café in Beresfield on the outskirts of Newcastle for yet another awesome feed.
From there, we ducked around the corner to Mach1 Motorsport to suss out their workshop and impressive array of projects. Among old-school street machines, spicy Beemers, a wild turbo V6-powered Mitsubishi Evo and an actual V8 Supercar, my favourite was Mach1 frontman Adam Lever’s beautifully engineered XR6 Turbo drag-and-drive ute.
With the workshop tour complete, Adam grabbed the keys, yanked down the roller door, hopped in the ute and joined us for the run north to Tea Gardens. Unfortunately, Steve Alldrick’s beaut little ’32 roadster suffered a dizzy issue, and after flat-towing it into Mach1 behind Jason Gauci’s 1JZ-powered Vauxhall gasser (a sight to behold), we had to leave it behind. Steve and passenger Dain Souter jumped in with other pub runners.
We rolled into the Tea Gardens Hotel late Friday arvo, feeling awfully thirsty. For many of us, Pub Run served as a deadline for finishing or significantly upgrading our projects, so the sense of achievement that washed over us as we pulled into the carpark was very real indeed. Brenden Anforth is a prime example of this – Pub Run was the debut drive for his stunning airbagged Poncho after a marathon 12-year build. You can bet his beers tasted sweet that arvo!
It happens every year, but despite the Saturday night being the ‘main’ night on Pub Run, First Night Fever remains an ever-present challenge for aspiring pub runners, with many of us swinging for the fences, peaking early and presenting somewhat the worse for wear at Mumm’s on the Myall for a remedial riverside brekkie the following morning. Lucky we were about to head to a brewery, eh?
With our tails between our legs, we hopped back in our cars and rumbled to the local servo to top up with some more $3-per-litre premium unleaded at Albo’s behest, and headed west to Dungog to sample the wares of Tinshed Brewery. The roads en route to Dungog were a little rough, and Marv’s Harrop-blown LS-powered Pontiac Bonneville suffered a split fuel line as a result. Despite several roadside MacGyver attempts, without any replacement hose on hand, we were left with no choice but to summon a tilt-tray and send the Poncho to join Steve’s roadster at Mach1, making it a problem for Sunday.
After scoffing burgers and a schooner or two at Tinshed, we returned to the Tea Gardens Hotel to settle in for the evening. A new addition to Pub Run for 2026 was that Saturday night’s festivities were fancy dress, but it was up to everyone to guess the theme, resulting in everything from a sumo wrestler to a pimp to a lifeguard, and everything in between.
A night of bench racing, boozing and yarn-spinning ensued, with Pub Run newcomer, Alain ‘Uncle Puma’ Sihaphone best on ground in the comic relief stakes, regaling the boys into the wee hours and almost guaranteeing himself a guernsey for Pub Run 6.
The next morning, we headed south once more, but not before racking up yet another mechanical casualty. The turbo on Oxytech bossman Scott Barter’s RB30-powered HZ Holden cried ‘enough’ before he even got to the highway, and giventhe long odds of a suitable replacement being available in Tea Gardens on a Sunday, the tilt-tray was again called into service.
The first port of call was Mach1, where we managed to successfully revive both Steve’s roadster and Marv’s Pontiac, before continuing on down the motorway towards Sydney.
Just when we thought we were home and hosed, I noticed my Torana’s temp gauge creeping further north than I was comfortable with, so I pulled over by the side of the M1 to discover my thermo fan wiring had melted. Fortunately, sparky Jason Gauci swung into action, working with Kris Reberger to knock up a patch loom to get me home. Funny how only the green cars broke down, huh?
With nary a mechanical niggle on the previous Pub Run, the headaches we experienced this year meant we were kept busier on the tools than usual, but all but one car made it home under its own steam, and it just added to the overall experience.
Pub Run remains one of the highlights of my year, and as far as opportunities to escape reality and decompress by enjoying tough cars with a great crew of people, it simply can’t be beat. I’ll be buggered if I was going to let a $500 fuel bill get in the way of that.
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