Street Machine

BURNOUT SCENE PART 1

AS THE BURNOUT SCENE CONTINUES TO GO FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH, WE SIT DOWN FOR A CHAT WITH SOME OF THE BIGGEST PLAYERS

- STORY MATT REEKIE, BORIS VISKOVIC & ANDREW BROADLEY PHOTOS SIMON DAVIDSON ADDITIONAL PHOTOS BRIGHT DESIGN & NATHAN JACOBS

Part 1 of our chat with some of the heaviest hitters in the Aussie skid scene

WE DON’T have actual figures to back it up, but it’s fairly safe to say that the sport of burnouts is the fastest-growing motorsport pursuit in Australia. At a time when many fine racing discipline­s are struggling to maintain car counts, sponsorshi­p dollars and spectator interest, burnouts is bucking that trend big-time.

The growth of the sport over the past three decades has been exponentia­l, with everything from entrant numbers to engine sizes to attendance figures getting bigger year on year. And just as no one back in the early days could have foreseen how massive this was going to become, it’s anyone’s guess as to when this rising popularity will plateau.

Ross Heasley of MRBADQ fame sums things up well when he says: “The competitio­n continues to step up. Guys are going out there now and they don’t care if they burn the car to the ground or bang it into a wall, as long as they get a set off and entertain the crowd. To compete with that, you’ve got to lay it all on the line every time.”

Rest assured, folks, what we are witnessing here is a golden age for this burgeoning outlaw sport. To get a deeper insight into how things currently stand, we spoke with some of the heavy-hitters and up-and-coming skidders on the scene. Here’s part one; we’ll have more next issue.

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 ??  ?? During the week, Paul runs a Melbourne-based earthmovin­g company, but on weekends he moves the earth with BLWNVC, his ’81 Commo armed with a 16/71blown, 532-cube big-block
During the week, Paul runs a Melbourne-based earthmovin­g company, but on weekends he moves the earth with BLWNVC, his ’81 Commo armed with a 16/71blown, 532-cube big-block

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