Previously known as Top Overall Street, the Street Machine Summernats Street Champion award is the ultimate prize for genuine street cars at Australia’s biggest car festival. Like the iconic Grand Champion award, Street Champion requires entrants to perform well in both the show and go disciplines. However, no points are awarded for undercarriage, and all contenders must be 100 per cent street-registered.

This year’s Street Champion is Chris Bonello in his tough VL Calais. He also scored 3rd Top Sedan, 2nd Top Standard Paint and the PPG Supreme Entrant award! Chris is the son of legendary car builder Simon Bonello, but don’t think for a minute that his dad did all the work.

“My son is a concreter by trade, but he’s done so much of the work on the VL himself,” Simon said proudly. “He did the bodywork, the tubs and all the welding; all I did was the final prep and laid the paint on. It’s great that he’s following in my footsteps.”

Here’s what Chris had to say after he was presented with the big gong yesterday on the Castlemaine Rod Shop burnout pad.

Chris, this isn’t your first time at Summernats. You debuted last year, and you’re back this year and taken home the choccies!

Yep, last year we were an unveil, and we’re back this year in Street class and come out with Street Champion. I couldn’t be happier! I’ve had the car for 10 years, and it took five to build it.

You’re a second-generation street machiner, with your dad Simon a legend of the sport. Tell us about your upbringing and how that shaped your affinity for cars.

My dad’s been bringing me to Summernats since I was a little kid, so growing up around cars, it was just inevitable. To be here and finally do it and have him supporting me is a great feeling.

I think we’re seeing a new generation of VL Turbo domination at Summernats, with MAKDDY winning Horsepower Heroes last year and you taking out Street Champion this year. It is hard to do something different with VL Turbos, so run us through some of the features of your build.

I wanted to build a very clean show car that was still streetable. I didn’t want to go too custom, so the trim and the paint are true to the tags on the car. Cerakoting is something I saw in the US but hadn’t seen here, so I thought we’d do that instead of polishing components, and it worked out fantastic.

You debuted the car last year with a stock RB30, but you’re back in 2025 with a big banger?

It’s a ProFlo Performance-built, 3.4-litre RB34 stroker with a solid cam, all the head work, half grout-filled block, Pulsar G42-1450 turbo, 6boost manifold and all the Plazmaman gear, backed by a Powerglide and nine-inch.

The car has a fat stance with 275s on the rear; looks like you’re fixing to go racing?

We ran a 10.0@137mph with the stock engine, so with this engine now, we’re hoping to go straight into the eights. It should make close to 1000hp at the tyre, so it should be an eight-second car. It is all teched and ’caged.

Have you had much time behind the wheel other than at the track?

I took it to Bathurst Autofest last year and won Grand Champion there, and we’ve done a lot of street driving. It’s a real street car, all right!