IMPORT JAMBOREE INTERRUPTED

Words and photos by Jon Van Daal

April 6th was slated to be the race date for the Sydney Jamboree but all did not go to plan. While I am not really religious I am starting to heed the old parable about seven years of drought being followed by seven years of plenty – plenty of rain that is. Australia was in the grip of a significant drought when Sydney Dragway opened in early 2004 and from early 2011 there has been plenty of rain. The last three years have almost been a complete washout down the East Coast of Australia and so it was to be no different for the 2013 Sydney Jamboree.

The Sydney Jamboree was to see a one day extravaganza of import racing, drift demonstrations, a show and shine, dyno runs, DB Drag Racing and bass Racing as well as a host of other activities like Bikini comps and the like but rain washed out Saturday’s activities. The decision was made to put the race back until the Sunday (the rain date) and all but twenty of the 150 cars couldn’t return for the next day’s competition. The morning dawned with not a cloud in the sky and a good crowd was in the house to watch the show.

PRO EXTREME

This side by side burnout prior to the round two Chicago shootout race between Joe Signorelli’s Toyota Celica (near lane) and Mark Jacobsen’s Nissan GTR gives you an idea of how awesome these import cars really are. Pity about the race though as Jacobsen had problems and limped to a fifteen second time while Signorelli’s 6.661/220.76 took off into the distance. Signorelli started slowly with a sixth qualifying 6.839 but stepped it up in eliminations turning back Zoran Gajic, the above mentioned Jacobsen and then a broken Rod Harvey to make it to the mooted final against Scott Porter that didn’t happen.

This round one match up between Colin Willshire’s 4G63 powered Mitsubishi Eclipse (near lane) and Archie Kajewski’s 20B rotary powered Mazda 6 was to see both cars have problems despite being neck and neck at half track. Willshire didn’t return but next time out Kajewski ran his best times ever with the car.  “We made it through the day keeping the 60ft times consistent, 1.00, 1.01, 1.02, 1.03 and 1.06 and we managed a best time and only full pass 6.80 @ PB 207 mph”, he said after the race.