OZ BURNOUT CHAMPIONSHIP

THE AUSTRALIAN BURNOUT CHAMPIONSHIP ON THE AUSTRALIA DAY LONG WEEKEND. HOW AUSSIE CAN YOU GET?

Burnouts on the Australia Day long weekend? How Aussie can you get?

UNDER clear blues skies and amidst searing temperatures, the inaugural Australian Burnout Championship launched at Sydney Dragway on the Australia Day weekend.

There is a saying that if it was easy then everyone would be doing it, and this definitely rang true for the event’s promoter, Nathan Predo of OVRCAST HQ One Tonner fame. For the past 12 months, Nathan has worked tirelessly to realise his dream event, inviting a cast of the toughest burnout cars from across the country, along with 16 of the quickest drag cars to compete. He even developed the world’s first live-scoring burnout app, Motorscore (see Results section, p. 75), where spectators can see the current standings after each burnout. True innovation.

The event opened with a minute’s silence to honour Sarina Mitchell from Burnouts Australia, who passed away suddenly just over a week before the event. Clearly the burnout community had lost a true friend.

From then on though, it was one big smoke show. The unfortunate last-minute cancellation of the drags due to a racing accident prior to the event left a hole in the Saturday schedule, but the burnout cars certainly didn’t disappoint. The Pro Blown class was strong enough to rival a Summernats Burnout Masters field, and the Pro Six class was the best we’d seen.

With powerskids and cruising all weekend, along with rock crawlers, camping and huge prize money on offer, the Australian Burnout Championship has all the ingredients to be the fresh new fixture on the motorsport calendar. Nobody we spoke to over the weekend had a bad word to say about it, and with its unique format and innovative ideas, we hope to see the ABC back next year.

Peter Staszewski’s UNLESH HQ packs a blown 510ci big-block Chev with a lazy 1300hp, and had little trouble filling the pad with smoke within seconds. It was a case of ‘blink and you’ll miss it’ as Peter disappeared into a smoke abyss

Former SM Young Gun Charlie Sant’s HK Kingswood is a real head-turner – straight, neat and tough. With a little help from his dad Paul of Proflo Performance, the build took a little over two-and-a-half years. Don’t let the 186 badges fool you; beneath the bonnet lies a tough 350 Chev