At the conclusion of another ripper edition of Northern Nats – the ninth running of North Queensland’s premier horsepower party – Dennis O’Brien’s HZ-fronted HQ One Tonner has taken out the top prize of Northern Nats Champion.

Since Summernats partnered with Springmount Raceway to run Northern Nats from last year, elite car judge Owen Webb has been tasked with picking a Northern Nats Champion, similar to Summernats’ Grand Champion. He was impressed with the quality and ability of the cars in contention for the top prize in 2025.

“There were some really good cars this year, with a lot of locals, and the points were really tight,” Owen said. “It was good fun, and it was great to showcase some top-tier cars up here.”

To decide this year’s Champion, Owen hand-picked eight cars for both the show judging and the all-important driving events, the latter taking place on Saturday afternoon. Those chosen included Lee and Anna Povey’s JKLHYD VL Calais – last year’s Northern Nats Champion – as well as our former giveaway Monaro, HQFORU, with current owner Rodney Menso on steering duties.

For the driving events, Owen had all eight cars complete two eighth-mile passes down the Springmount Raceway drag strip. As expected, Lee Povey’s JKLHYD was the quickest by some margin, with the seven-second, 2000+hp VL more than capable.

Daniel Di Bella’s twin-turbo Coyote-powered XB Falcon struggled to get its power down, spinning for most of its first run.

After two drag runs each, contestants then had to tackle a slalom that also incorporated a go-to-whoa, which is where a few front-runners came unstuck. There was only one go at this, so it was crucial to nail it.

Lee Povey was one who didn’t quite manage it. An aggressive launch got him off the mark well, but then the VL crossed up, and he stopped short of the timing markers.

Daniel Di Bella’s wife Kaylene also had her VK in the Champion race, throwing the bright-pink machine fully sideways in her run for the go-to-whoa motorkhana.

We had to wait until Sunday afternoon to find out who’d taken the Champion crown, and this year, Dennis O’Brien’s HZ-fronted HQ One Tonner earned top brass in what was a super-tight field.

The Townsville local not only drove his purposeful but beautifully presented Tonner to victory in the Saturday arvo driving events but also took part in the roll racing, cruising and Skid Row over the weekend.

“I never built the HQ for something like this; it’s just a car to go out and have fun in,” Dennis said. “I definitely didn’t expect the win; I just came here to have a good time, so I’m happy, as you can imagine.”

Dennis built the majority of the car himself at home, slowly improving it over his 27 years of ownership. “It’s had a few different drivelines over the years, and then six years ago, we did the build to what it is now,” he said. “The colour is a base Barbados Green that we modified. It has a custom sheet-metal dash that a mate made, and I built the tray.”

All in all, the Champion contest at Northern Nats 9 was a fantastic showcase for the elite metal coming out of northern Queensland, and entrants were already chin-wagging about what they could build to try to take the crown next year.