NINETEEN-year-old Chloe Board is not only a qualified hairdresser, she’s also a killer driver – both on dirt and the blacktop

This article on Chloe’s VK Commodore was originally published in the October 2017 issue of Street Machine

Chloe has just taken out the Four-Cylinder Sedan Track Championship at Cullen Bullen Raceway, while her V8-powered VK Commodore chucks ripper skids and on-point go-to-whoas, which has seen her bag some of the top spots at Kandos and Bathurst Autofest.

When was your first burnout?

Dad [Danny Board, whose VK one-tonner was featured in SM, Aug ’17] decided to revive a VK Commodore 134-pack for the 2014 Bathurst Autofest, and I was keen to have a go too. A few days out I asked Dad to show me how to do a burnout, so we headed to a tiny three-metre-long concrete slab between two poles and a gate in the back paddock. He told me to drop the clutch and put my foot on the brake. There was a group of people watching – it was torture! I struggled to figure out where my feet went, but it was a lot of fun. That first Autofest I didn’t place in burnouts but came second in the female go-to-whoa class. It’s an experience I’ll never forget; it was pretty awesome!

Tell us about your VK.

I liked driving Dad’s VK Commodore ute and wanted one of my own, but I couldn’t find anything locally. Dad had bought this one years ago for only $100 and sat it in the paddock. Then just before Christmas, Dad came home and said: “I have a surprise for you.” He’d built me the VK – I had no idea he was doing it! It was cool, but I didn’t like the cleared bare metal. Dad convinced me to keep it so that I get noticed on the pad. It does blind people when I’m driving though.

What’s it running?

An LS1 with E85 carb on top of an Edelbrock manifold, making 347rwhp. Behind that is a 4L60E auto with a shift kit, a 3000rpm stall and B&M ratchet shifter. At the back is a VR V8 ute diff, LSD, with 3.08s – soon to be 4.11s. We’re also changing to methanol as Bathurst doesn’t sell E85 anymore.

And you’ve done pretty well in it, too.

At Kandos in January I won the Top Female in the go-to-whoa, while having no power steering. I didn’t realise that the steering had gone before the burnout comp, so when I headed down the entry road I ploughed straight into the wall. Thankfully it wasn’t too hard. I was told afterwards that if I didn’t hit the wall, I would’ve won the burnouts – that was pretty heartbreaking. Then a couple of months later at the Bathurst Autofest I came second in the female burnout comp and won overall Female Champion. That was really cool.

Well done! What’s next?

Dad wants to convert it to a coupe; I’m not so keen. He has all of these big, flash plans, where I’d prefer a simple, clean and crisp VK with nice paint. I definitely want to keep entering burnout comps though; they’re a lot of fun. To go out and go crazy without getting into trouble is cool. I’m limited to where I can compete as I can’t tow until I’m off of my green Ps. So it’s great that my family and partner, Luke Power, are really supportive.