POWERCRUISE USA
Gup takes his breed of Aussie mayhem Stateside to Brainerd International Raceway
MICK Brasher’s ULEGAL Corolla might be familiar to us, but to the punters gathered at Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway for Powercruise USA, it was like something from another planet.
“For atmosphere, there’s nothing better,” said Mick of the Powercruise USA experience as he swapped out a set of destroyed hoops before hitting the track again. “This is the best!”
The Powercruise events have long been fixtures on Aussie revheads’ calendars, but for the past nine years promoter Gup has also run an annual Powercruise in the USA. This year a hand-picked crew of some of our biggest and baddest skid scientists converged in Minnesota to inject Aussie expertise into proceedings.
Four of our toughest burnout cars – KRANKY, ULEGAL, LYNCHY and UCSMOKE – were hauled across the pond with drivers in tow. Rodney Waters, Mick Brasher and Andrew Lynch hit American soil about a week before the show to roadtrip across from Los Angeles, stop in Las Vegas, and end up at BIR. Unfortunately Steve Loader couldn’t make it over, but his mental HT Prem still wowed the crowds at the track.
Powercruise USA is like a cousin to the Aussie event – same blood, but a little different. While back home we know how to rip smoky 11s and rock up to the track in droves of staunch streeters, the Yanks tend to front more under-bonnet power, modern muscle makes, and favour roll-racing and drifting over laying skids and smashing tyres.
That didn’t stop them appreciating a good burnout, though, and there wouldn’t be a better crew than our homegrown smoke
masters to show ’em that. Almost given free reign of the place, the Aussies had no dramas lighting it up on the track during cruise sessions, or just mucking about in between events by treating the punters to tyre-blazing exhibitions.
A sketchy forecast of 100km/h winds and hail barely put a dampener on the event in the end; the ground was quick to dry between rain bouts so that over 650 entrants could carry on all weekend. A Usa-led burnout competition on the Saturday arvo turned out a huge crowd as drivers had a crack at applying what they’d learnt from our boys. A few of the entrants had never done a proper skid before, but the crowd showed huge support for the brave competitors, more than a handful of whom managed to pop a set for the first time.
Judged by the cheers from the crowd, Kyle Nelson took home the gong after putting up a skid in his blown Lsa-powered Chevy S10 that had even the Aussies impressed. He’d been a fan of the sport for a long time, and joked that his mates got sick of him talking about it when they were all into drag racing.
Chatting to both entrants and punters, it was clear they’re keen to see the popularity of burnouts grow Stateside, hopefully leading to the off-street sport being promoted and an event circuit developing that attracts some tough Yankee cars.
In Brainerd it’s below freezing for almost half the year and usually covered in white stuff, so an event like Powercruise USA means a lot to local enthusiasts. “We only get about three months of good driving weather,” said local bloke Jay Audette. “When we get a chance to come out and tear it up, it’s always balls to the wall!”
The chance to cut loose at a track rather than hitting the streets and always looking in your mirror for the brass has put Powercruise USA right up there with Hot Rod Drag Week when it comes to cult following. “We have all winter to build our cars, but we’re
always thrashing in the lead-up to this,” driver Jonathan Snyder explained. “They have to be done for Powercruise; it’s not even an option!” This mentality has seen the event grow steadily each year without control being lost or any overt hooliganism displayed.
Cruising the camping area, the infield was teeming with enough pit bikes to feel like a street in Vietnam. Everyone was crowded around a barbie, music on, beer in hand – a full-on festival vibe, with the soundtrack being hundreds of tough machines fanging around the 3.1-mile race track.
The famous American hospitality was in full swing all weekend, and being able to mill around some of the toughest burnout cars from across the pond meant the locals came out in droves to chat to the Aussie crew. They’d never seen these kinds of cars before and were immediately taken aback by our trademark burnout build styles: huge blower hats, giant tubs, and of course, the steering wheel on the wrong side. “Us Aussies feel like rock stars out here,” said Andy Mcconnell of Fireball Kustom Fabrication. “We’d almost have a line of people wanting to chat to us!”
While we can report that the Yanks know how to live it up for a Powercruise weekend, the Aussie injection certainly dumped more fuel on that fire, and we hope to see more blowers, horsepower and tyre debris in years to come. If there’s one way to get a taste of the growing American enthusiasm for what we know best at home – burnouts, powers kids and tough streeters – then Powercruise USA is probably it.
WE HOPE TO SEE MORE BLOWERS, HORSEPOWER AND TYRE DEBRIS IN YEARS TO COME