WEST Australian Mark ‘Happy’ Williams is this year’s Street Machine Summernats 30 Grand Champion, taking out the gong with his stunning Holden HQ One-tonner. Mark came from nowhere, cleaning up in the driving events to take home the coveted Grand Champion sword.

The cool thing about this year’s Grand Champion car is that it was genuinely built to be driven – and driven hard, despite being built to a very high level. Mark drove the wheels off the car in the slalom and heads-up drag racing, getting the sideways and smoking the rear treads to take first and second place. And after collecting his sword, he celebrated with a smokey burnout – once he gets back to Perth, Mark reckons he’s going to smash a set of tyres for Motorvation 31.

The tonner isn’t certainly isn’t lacking in the horsepower department. With a 406-cube Procharged small-block Chev under the bonnet, Mark says it’s been built to handle ‘a lot’. It’s still a fresh combo with a bit more tuning to do – for Summernats it was on a really soft setup and already making 560rwhp.

It really was an incredible end to the week for Mark. Sadly his dad who put a lot of work into the HQ passed away on the Friday of Summernats 30. Mark’s dad pushed him to go to the ‘Nats despite being ill and as a tribute to his father, Mark swapped his ‘2HAPPY’ number plates for ‘4MYDAD’ as a tribute. “I know he would have been smiling watching down on me,” said Mark.