The new Corvette Pro Mod of Robin Taylor was out early for some testing on the morning of the Jamboree and is seen here in qualifying. On the far right is the Pied Piper of Pro Mod, the amiable Camp Stanley, who was over giving Taylor some assistance. “The car ran a planned shut off earlier today”, Stanley informed me, “but on this pass it got 1.2 seconds into the run and spun the tires.” A broken rear end housing ended their weekend early but they were still happy with their progress.

The number one and two qualifiers in Factory Extreme, Scott Porter in his SPR Nissan four litre powered 300 ZX  (near lane) and Nathan Hagenson in the 2JZ powered Toyota Camry lined up for the gold. As can be seen here Hagenson took a slight lead off the line while Porter has some smoke coming off the tyres, however at the 1000 foot mark the Z Car caught and passed the Camry recording a 6.398 to 6.523 victory.

For genial Queenslander, Scott Porter in his SPR Nissan four litre-powered 300 ZX top qualified in the seven car Factory Extreme field with a 6.343 at a slowing 200 mph on the Friday night and then he completed a perfect weekend by returning on Saturday to take the win in eliminations. “I must admit I am a fan of the two-day race format,” Porter admitted. “It was good to not have to turn around after qualifying to identify any problems, fix them and then have to go straight into eliminations. We managed to make some really good power this weekend. In the final the track was slippery and I had to peddle it at the 200-foot mark. While it wasn’t as good as yesterday’s 6.343 qualifying run, it was enough for the victory,” he went on to say.

When I caught up with Nathan Hagenson after the race he was upset with himself after recording his third straight runner up in a row. “We had the best car on the day but recorded our worst run in the final (a 6.523 – Ed),” the despondent Sydney driver revealed. “Our sixty-foot time was the worst on the day too and despite getting out first he ended up coming by me around the 1000-foot mark and that was that.” Still, Hagenson should be able to take some comfort in the fact the car was the best of the bunch over the two-day event.

While the majority of motors used at the Jamboree come from Japan there were some Australian engines used as well. Ford Australia has produced a six-cylinder turbo “Barra” motor from 2002 and Dion Amato of Dyno-Mite Performance runs the de-stroked 3.9-litre DOHC motor in an ex-US Pro Stock Dodge Avenger body. Aided by a 102mm Precision billet turbo it recorded a best of 7.987 in the first round of competition.

What can one say about Phil Penny’s awesome little Honda S600. The car is powered by a 3.2L Toyota 2JZ engine with a huge Billet Turbochargers 88mm turbine sticking out of the bonnet. As can be seen here the estimated 1000 horsepower turns the little car into a tyre smoking weapon; however this is not what you want to happen on the money run when you are in the final of Modified 10.5 and thus he fell to opponent Vince Rigoli.

The Toyota 2JZ 6cyl Turbo 275 powered VL Commodore of Danny Lansdowne reaches for the sky on this pass. It was the second time in two days that the car had gone on to its back bumper. Amazingly the wagon had sustained no suspension damage when it sky-hooked. When I caught up with him after the race I asked him if he was going to put wheelie bars on the wagon. “No we’ll have to change the suspension around a bit but it will be OK,“ he admitted. Needless to say, Lansdowne won the trophy for the best wheelstand – “Sky’s the Limit”.