> HOT GOSSIP

$50K RACE!

SYDNEY racer Po Tung has got his Grudge Kings concept firing again, with a meeting at Sydney Dragway scheduled for 14 July. The headline class will be a 32-car field of toughies racing over the eighth-mile. It is open to pretty much any tough sedan – including full-chassis cars – providing the car has factory steel roof and quarters. Buy-in is $1000 per car, with a winner-takes-all prize of $50,000. Some of the big hitters who have already laid their entry money down include Perry Bullivant in his Camaro, Tristan Ockers in his legendary Capri and Craig Burns in his new Mustang. There will be a bunch of other classes too, so if you like this style of racing, get out there and support it!

GASSIN’ FOR AUSTRALIA

ON EASTER Saturday, four of Australia’s toughest gassers will be in New Zealand competing in the Transtasman Challenge at the Bay Rodders Nostalgia Drags at Meremere Dragway. The four cars in question are Damien Kemp’s notorious ‘Funderbolt’ Compact Fairlane and three shoebox Chevs: Stephen Biggs’s ’56 (Loose Cannon – below), Ashley Hayley’s ’55 (Haywire) and Peter Raines’s ’57 (Bad Ass To). The guys will also be visiting the legendary Beach Hop event for some friendly cruising. We reckon they’ll be pretty popular!

NEXT!

THE front cover of the May edition is set to stun with one of the star debut cars from Street Machine Summernats 31. Other feature cars will include Wagga wild man Jarrod Wood’s wheelstanding XT Falcon, Nathan Patterson’s THELMA Corolla, and Dave and Robert Stephenson’s killer WH Statesman ’Nats cruiser (below). Show-wise, we’ll check out both the Adelaide Chrysler Festival and the Geelong All Ford Day, and provide a handy guide to the upcoming Meguiar’s Motorex in Melbourne. We’ll wind up our ‘three-part’ Commodore history series with a bonus fourth instalment focussing on the VE-VF, and – if we have space – feature all the action from Racewars in Albany, WA. The May issue of SM goes on sale 19 April.