As entrants and spectators filtered through the gates of the Ballarat Airport in regional Victoria for the 2025 Western Highway Shootout, it felt like it had been a bloody long time coming. But boy, was it worth the wait!

Since the Shootout’s successful first run back in 2022, COVID-19, fires and other forces got in the way of several more attempts at bringing this one-day drag-and-drive event back. Happily, the day finally came on 8 February this year.

The Western Highway Shootout is organised by brothers and Ballarat locals Luke and Kade Preston, in conjunction with Street Machine Drag Challenge veteran Kai McPhee.

“We were nervous coming into today; we had no idea how the turn-out was going to be,” said Luke the morning of the event. “Even right up until this morning we weren’t sure, but it’s bigger than we ever could’ve imagined.”

Plenty of big hitters rolled in from all across Victoria, including Drag Challenge aces like Luke Foley with his VH Commodore, Robbie Adamo’s MRCUBE Ford Bronco, and Riccardo Pontonio’s sleepy classic Mercedes wagon, just to name a few! In total, there were 87 entries, filling the pits to the brim – an awesome sight for a grassroots event like this.

For a gate price of just $15, spectators were able to get super-close to the action, and there was even a local DJ on site. It was a fantastic example of how cheap but truly cheerful a local motorsport event can be if done right.

“We had people who’d come to spectate asking if they could come back with their race cars this morning to race, so I said, ‘Hell yeah!’” said Kai McPhee. “It’s great to see so many people come out to watch; it’s great for the Ballarat and local community.”

The format for the day was a neat one, with the racing followed by a street drive an hour up the Western Highway to Ararat, where competitors joined in a massive show ’n’ shine and the awards for the racing were handed out.

The drag racing part of the day ran from 10am until 3pm across four classes: Outlaw, Street Car, Aspirated and Dial Your Own. Instead of an elimination format, entrants simply ran multiple laps in class sessions, attempting to run their quickest ET in the allotted timeframe – or closest to their dial-in for those in DYO. They’d then take their best timeslip with them on the drive to hand in at Ararat, with the quickest times in each class determining the placings.

The retired airstrip has been given a leg-up since the last Shootout with the installation of a concrete burnout box and start pad. Launching from there didn’t prove much of a drama for competitors, but even in the sign-on shed, there were signs warning drivers to be careful of the piano-key paint marks halfway down the eighth-mile racing surface.

A cool and dry day saw some quick times posted, especially given the largely unprepped strip. Outlaw-class front-runners Luke Foley, Robbie Adamo and Theo Diamond’s VH Charger all cracked low sixes over the eighth. Both Theo and Zoran Makarovski in his full-fat ZD Fairlane had some wild moments trying to get power down, but thankfully everyone kept their toughies on the black.

Once the racing wrapped up, the convoy hit the road for the one-hour, 90-kay drive to Ararat’s Alexandra Gardens Park. The sight that greeted the racers when we all lobbed into Ararat was mega. A bunch of the locals had bought their cars out to join the show ’n’ shine, and with food trucks and live music on hand, it was an awesome way to cap off a mad day of racing.

While the Shootout was a fun, no-prep, easy-going day at the track, the results in a number of the classes were very tight. In the Outlaw ranks, for instance, Robbie Adamo and Theo Diamond were crowned equal first-place winners for their identical 6.01 passes. Second place in Outlaw went to Luke Foley with a 6.09 best from the day.

The Aspirated class had two orange HQ sedans duking it out for top honours, with Adrian Mammoliti’s 7.00sec best just pipping Trav Flintoft’s 7.07.

In Street Car, Anthony Balletta’s HJ Holden clocked a 6.70 to take the class win, with Simon Stapleton’s full-fat HK Prem not far behind in second with a 6.90.

Even the DYO class saw a tight finish, with the dial-in split between the top two competitors not enough to separate the pair. Instead, organisers awarded the win to Aaron Hollingworth in his VN Commodore for a better reaction time over Nic Mould’s VK Commodore.

Keen to build on the success of this year’s event, Luke Preston and the lads are already in talks for the next Western Highway Shootout. “We’ve just secured the Ararat Airport for the next one, so it’ll be great to give back to the locals again,” Luke said. “We went out there and did some test hits with great success, so we’ll be looking to do a flag-drop, heads-up day later this year. “There’s a lot of tough cars in this area and quality workshops, so it’s great to see those cars out, and also have people travelling from Geelong and even the other side of Melbourne for this one,” Luke concluded. “We can’t thank them enough for their support.”

With his Corolla burnout machine currently Stateside, Andrew ‘Lynchy’ Lynch threw together this HQ Statesman to have something fun to party in. It runs a basic 6.0L LS turbo combo, and the Shootout was Lynchy’s first real crack at racing, which saw plenty of powerskids!

Daniel Dimcevski’s VS Acclaim is a tough 90s Holden done right! Rocking an apso, 600hp 355 plastic, EFI, a Trimatic ’box, 235 tyre and the factory IFS with the original ‘swirly’ Acclaim hubcaps, the street car has run mid-11s over the quarter when the air cleaner was still under the bonnet.

You may remember Bruce ‘Stork’ Callow’s HDT-inspired HZ van from when Ryan Ford raced it at Drag Challenge with a Roots blower. Stork’s since ditched the air pump, and at the Shootout he shared driving duties with Charmaine for her second time racing.

The joys of racing at airports! Although the track was briefly sprayed with glue after practice runs, plenty of the big-horsepower machines still found trouble on the piano keys in attempting to stick to the strip, but luckily everyone stayed right side up.

There were plenty of different methods among entrants to improve strip adhesion, with Drag Challenge veteran Luke Foley strapping a bunch of gym weights to the back of his 7sec VH to help with rear grip.

Matt Brame’s WHIPYA LH Torry was a poster child for the event but was sadly one of the casualties of the day’s racing. The nitrous-huffing small-block pushed out a head gasket, ending Matt’s day before the street drive. Luckily, his two kids had cars entered, so the Ballarat local copped a lift with the convoy to Ararat.

Gavin Stoneham’s tidy FC has been around for decades, originally running FC350 plates for those of you who’re big into early Holdens. She’s recently been overhauled with a 400-cube Dart-block SBC in the engine bay.

Competition Engines’ Zoran Makarovski’s full-weight, twin-turbo small-block ZD Fairlane recently copped a full cosmetic going-over after a big wheelie at the track a few years ago. He was one of the front-runners in the Outlaw class.

Matt Bouvet was one of several Melburnians to make the trip out to Ballarat, bringing his 1977 LX Torana sedan. It runs a basic LS1 combo with rods, pistons and a Pulsar S480 turbo for simple but effective propulsion.

Riccardo Pontonio drove his LS-swapped, twin-turbo Mercedes 230TE wagon all the way from south-east Melbourne for the event. He had the car loaded up with mates and their luggage, so the spare E85 was carried Drag Challenge-style in the rack on the tow bar.

Alexandra Gardens Park in Ararat hosted the event after-party, with a bunch of locals who didn’t race bringing their hotties out to fill the park to the brim with awesome machines. With food trucks and a live band on site, it capped off the event perfectly.

This was Ballarat local Nic Mould’s first proper event in his VK party car, which runs a basic carby stock-bottom-end LS1. Despite being such a fresh combo and Nic not chasing any sort of result, he came a bee’s dick of claiming top brass in DYO. What a debut!

Lee Roberts’ 1955 Plymouth Belvedere was one of the more unusual – and therefore cool – cars at the Shootout. It rocks a 360 small-block punched out to 410 cubes, and Lee ran it – still in left-hook – in the Aspirated class.

As an added incentive to make the drive from Ballarat Airport to Ararat, all entrants had to wait until they got to the Alexandra Gardens to hand over their best timeslip for the day, as seen here with eventual Outlaw equal first-placer Theo Diamond.

2025 WESTERN HIGHWAY SHOOTOUT – RESULTS

OUTLAW
1st. Theo Diamond – Valiant Charger & Rob Adamo – Ford Bronco
2nd. Luke Foley – VH Commodore

ASPIRATED
1st. Adrian Mammoliti – HQ Holden
2nd. Travis Flintoft – HQ Holden

STREET CAR
1st. Anthony Balletta – HJ Holden
2nd. Simon Stapleton – HK Premier

DIAL YOUR OWN
1st. Aaron Hollingworth – VN SS Commodore
2nd. Nic Mould – VK Commodore