2006/2007 Sport Compact Group Drag Racing Series

TOYO TYRES COMPAK ATTAK

 

Sydney’s Western Sydney International Dragway was the home of the fourth round of the Sport Compact Group Drag Racing series. The Toyo Tyres Compak Attak featured strong fields in most classes and with plenty of interstate competitors battling it out with the locals there was plenty of close racing and some intense action.

McKern & Associates Pro Turbo was a great battle with Joe Signorelli heading the leader board with a string of 6-second passes in the GAS Motorsports 2JZ-powered Camry. Just outside the 6-second zone was George Rehayem who returned to the driving seat of the Pac Performance MX-6. Nick Tsoltoudis stunned the crowd with an amazing 7.39 at 186mph pass in his Mazsport RX-3, amazing numbers from the little brick. Shane Flaiban’s beautiful black RX-3 also impressed with some clean runs. At the end of the night it was an all RX-3 battle with Nick Tsoltoudis and Ivan Skaramuca lining up. Joe had been knocked out by Mal Glassett who left Joe on the start line with a blistering reaction time, despite Mal running the slower elapsed time. Ivan showed his experience in the final by taking it out over Nick, adding once more to Ivan’s win tally.

Pro Compact was dominated by the little Mazda 13B rotaries, although lone piston racer Rod Harvey debuted at Sydney for the first time. The New Zealander making the most of the racing opportunities now that the car is based in Australia. The final was an expected match up though, with good friends Jim Magliveras and George Marcevski with Magliveras the better on the night in his super-consistent 13B Corolla.

Outlaw Sports Bike in Sydney was certainly one of the highlights. With a good depth of racers it was not all going the way of Leonard Azzopardi who is usually at the top spot. With three bikes dipping well into the seven-second zone it was Alex Borg who topped the qualifying sheet by knocking two-tenths off his PB with a stunning 7.70-second pass. Borg also reset both ends of the Outlaw Sports Bike record with a 7.705 @ 201.89 mph - 324.91 kph. The final saw Leonard back on top though with a very closely fought battle with the help of a hole shot seeing him just edge out Alex Borg across the line. Jamie Bezzina was keeping them honest all day with a number of seven second passes.

Street 289 was home to the ever so experienced Wayne Dyson, who finessed the RX-3 down the WSID strip with an easy 8.25 at 164mph qualifier. It was a close battle for second quickest on the day with Bill Nabhan, Richard Gauci, and Damien McKern, all running in the 8.4-second zone, interestingly using different engines with Mazda 12A, 13B, and 20B respectively! It’s not always about the cubes! One of the highlights was Paul Palermo in his “MR 124” Fiat, which with V&E Rigoli power twisted hard on each launch with low 10-second elapsed times. The other Rigoli’s (Rob, Tony, and Dom) also had the VL turbos cranking all weekend with some tough 8-second passes. Paul Palermo made the most of his consistency with a win over Wayne Dyson in the final.

Extreme was a good mixture of competitors; Rocco Tamburello was taking it easy in his 2JZ-powered RX-7 with an 8.3 ahead of Andrew Dyson who went 8.67 at 151mph for a PB in Todd Smith’s 12A RX-2. Victor Arcuri debuted his immaculate BOS-100 Mazda R100 which ran flawlessly all weekend and ended up with Victor taking home the trophy.

Super Mod was as always chock full of rotaries, although topping the qualifying sheet was John Geri who had the Toyota 2JZ (certainly a popular engine!) running hard for an 8.40 at 159mph in the unusual blue wagon. The rotaries made a comeback where it counts with Emmanual Mann’s Pac-prepped RX-3 taking out the final over Rob Rigoli, who smoked it on the line.

Street AWD is a great reflection of what is regularly driven on the street and it was good to see Queensland racer Shane Hackett make the long drive down the coast worthwhile with another Winner’s trophy to add to his cabinet. Shane defeated local Telly Pieratos in a closely fought final.

Street RWD was dominated by a Toyota Cressida. Yes that’s right, a Cressida. Usually more accustomed to a local journey to the Bowls Club Shane Crichton’s Cressida has stepped up again with Justin from Blacktrack Performance Dyno Centre it into the 9-second zone after just missing out at Toyo Tyres Mini-Jam. The silver Toyota went 9.91 at a massive 149mph on street tyres! Shane also took out the win in the final with some clever racing, defeating Shane de Smet. By the end Crichton also reset the Street RWD with a 9.952 @ 149.58 mph - 240.72 kph.

Street FWD saw a huge range of cars from 10-second Front Mod weapons all the way down to 17-second stockers. Luki Soldatic top qualified Street FWD with a 12.23 in his MSTCHF CR-X but the winner saw James Goodsell hand the win to Adrian “2RISMO” Hodgson, who swapped from his usual Sport RWD R33 to a Mitsibushi Lancer for this round. A small number of Front Mod cars also battled it out in the Street FWD Class with Iliya Vrankonic smashed the Front Mod Record in the process with a 10.201 @ 144.21 mph - 232.08 kph.

Sports Bike had Steve Reimann on the top of qualifying with a 9.43 but it was a state of origin battle in the final with Jason Hammelswang making the ride from Queensland worthwhile defeating Danny Deste in the final.

All Motor was well supported in Sydney, with everything from late model Hondas, to the brap-brap sound of a peripheral port rotary, to the old dak-dak VWs. Despite all the late model Honda tech the final saw Telly in his 13B “SAVANA” RX-3 edged out across the line by Morgan Smith’s VW beetle.

Unfortunately there were also a few incidents on the day. Scott Pope had a wild ride in his Pac RX-3 doing a great job of keeping her in one piece after a two wheel stunt trick crossing the centre line, he was the lucky one. Michael Baghdadi was flying in the Mick’s Motorsport Lancer, but after running low nines at 150+mph the Lancer snapped hard right from the left and lane before a quick pirouette with the rear hitting the right wall quite hard. Possibly the worst of the day was Peter Demetre who was behind the wheel of the stunning (and multiple show award winner) “BLO DIS” RX-3 which went 8.81 at 150+mph across the finish line before snapping hard left and clouting the wall almost head on before bouncing back and tagging the right wall. Fortunately both racers were relatively OK after the incidents, a testimony to the safety employed on these quick vehicles.

Although the action on the black surface was the highlight of the show for many, the pit area saw a number of quality show cars on display presented by "2 Freak U Out Custom Re-Sprays", many utilising the huge marquee, which took centre stage. Standout cars included the stunning makeover on the Queen St BMW, which won Best of Show, and Roni Tarabay’s RX-7 which won Top Rotary and Top Trim. Alongside the show the girls battled it out in the Babe competition and the Bikini Competition with Jacqui and Allison the respective winners.

The final round of the 2006/2007 Sport Compact Group Drag Racing Series is the return to where it all started, at Willowbank Raceway for the Castrol EDGE Jamboree. The Jamboree is running a little earlier this year on August 25 and 26 (Saturday and Sunday). With many classes still up from grabs the championship battle will add another element to an event which is always the pinnacle of the Sport Compact world. We’ll see you there!

 

For all the Toyo Tyres Compak Attak Results click HERE.