05: Sam Surace made
the lights go out with
the BNR Engines blown
small-block in his Capri,
with the orange smoke
so thick the arena was
almost pitch-black06: Colin Byrne loves
blazing rubber with his
mates in the car – it
doesn’t get much better
than that. He chewed
through that many sets
of tyres we’re surprised
the wheel nuts weren’t
stripped!07: As well as his
UNWANTED ute, Matt
James also brought downhis ’64 Compact Fairlane,
recently repowered with
a blown small-block of
the Bowtie variety. He
kept Adam from Cronic
Customs and George
from Blown Motorsports
busy all weekend!08: Anthony Page has
to be one of the most
consistent wheelmen
competing at the
moment. He’s an all-
’round great guy that
just loves to skid, and
the blown small-block
Chev in his HZ ute was
on-song all weekend,
placing third in the
Blown finalsinjected big-block rattling their windows at
dinner-time!
Great – the left-hand extractor was leaking,
making the ute sound like it was misfiring.
Further inspection revealed a two-inch split
on the inside of the extractor. This needed
repairing or it was definitely going to lead to
an engine bay fire.
By the time I finally got the exhaust system
and extractor removed it was 9pm, and with
the welding repairs done and the header
bolted back up by midnight, it was off to bed
I went.
Friday morning was a bit of a rush loading
the car, but eventually I hit the road and it was
a nice drive to Collie heading down South
Western Highway.
The Collie burnout pad is different to other
pads around Australia, with no run-in and
surrounded by huge earthmoving tyres. It’s
big, but the gaps between the tyres make it
harder to judge the distance and they have
caught me out in the past, forcing me to
select reverse.
Pushing the car up to skid, I watched the
last car before me so I would be aware of any
oil or water spills on the pad. When I lined
up I reminded myself to hold the brake at the
start, then get off the brake and push as far
down the side of the pad towards the bar as I
could; turning the car around and saluting the
bar always gets them going and cheering for
you. I always try to push to all four corners of
the pad and run up and down along the tyre
walls, getting as close as possible – just not
too close, as those tyres don’t move much if
you hit them!
Having the finals on the Saturday night saw
a huge crowd filling the hill and grandstand,
while the bar area was absolutely going off.05
06