PORTLAND SKIDS

PORTLAND GOES OFF WITH VICTORIA'S FIRST POST-LOCKDOWN SKID COMP: THE SOUTH COAST $5K BURNOUTS

The South Coast $5K comp was a feast after the famine for the burnout faithful

MONTHS of pent-up frustrations from Covidinduced lockdowns were unleashed at South Coast Raceway in Portland, Victoria on 12 December during the first burnout competition since restrictions eased in the state: the South Coast $5K Burnouts. “I was quite chuffed at how many big names of the sport came out to enjoy the day,” said event director Brad Frost. “We had 70 entrants, and 67 fronted up. It was a pretty even playing field right across the three classes.”

South Coast Raceway’s updated skid pad got its cherry well and truly popped with the likes of Clint Ogilvie, Rick Fuller and Steve Edsall bringing their wild blown rigs down to compete.

“Previously, the pad was 27x30m with a 20m-long, 6m-wide entry,” said Brad. “It had been a few years since we did upgrades, so we added 15m to the pad to make it 27x45m, installed concrete and Armco barriers and new signboards, and made the entry 7m wide to make it easier to turn cars around in it.

“All the members of South Coast Raceway pitched

MONTHS OF PENT-UP FRUSTRATIONS FROM COVID-INDUCED LOCKDOWNS WERE UNLEASHED AT SOUTH COAST RACEWAY

in to help us get it finished, and in mid-november we decided to hold the event. While the organisation is the easy bit, getting the permits was much harder. Scotty Cleary, another committee member, did the majority of the COVID permits we needed, with help from the offices of our local members, Roma Britnell and Dan Tehan.”

The first car to lay a set on the pad was Dean Cruddas’s SENDIT VX Commodore, with Adam Lovell riding shotgun after winning the seat in a charity auction held during the drivers’ briefing. “We raised $400 to go towards United Way, a local charity,” Brad explained.

Clint Ogilvie came out to throw a huge skid and went up in flames twice, while Steve Edsall’s blown 366ci Falcon, SKDUTE, couldn’t be stopped on the day. The Bnr-prepared ute took the win in the Elite class, leading home Matt Addinsall’s BLWNVL Commodore, Tim Brown’s CEMBLO VK and Andrew Kerr’s SYKOR8 Commodore.

Tim Mcewan’s HQ was going off until a set of

THE FIRST CAR TO LAY A SET ON THE UPDATED SOUTH COAST RACEWAY PAD WAS DEAN CRUDDAS’S ‘SENDIT’ VX COMMODORE

STORY IAIN KELLY PHOTOS BRIGHT DESIGN

LEFT: Working his aspirated LS hard, Craig Paxton pumped out a huge skid in his FIVE7 VU ute to take out the Street class and wind up eighth in the outright standings

BELOW: With his Bnr-built blown small-block Ford singing to 10,000rpm, nobody could get near Steve Edsall and his SKDUTE on the day. He took out the Elite class after smoking out the whole facility in his XC Falcon

RIGHT: With the skyrocketing prices of classic Aussie, American and even Japanese tin, Geelong’s David Alford thought laterally and snagged a 1954 Hillman Minx to build into his burnout chariot. Packing a methanol-guzzling, 6/71-blown LS1, SQUEEKS finished 28th in Elite

BELOW: While everyone was happy to hammer their rev-limiter like it owed them money, it was James Mcgregor who took out the Rev King award in his EX5LTR Ls-powered VN Commodore. He finished sixth in Elite, just half a point behind Tim Barby in MOJO

RIGHT: Michael Tolley had his 50BUCKA Falcon singing hard at Portland. Named for its reported original purchase price, the 1999 AU wagon runs a built and blown single-cam six making around 400rwhp, with a built BTR auto and shortened diff sporting 3.08 gears out back LEFT: Summernats Masters and Burnout Championship double crown-winner Rick Fuller was making clouds in his infamous blown LSONE VK, but wound up finishing 25th in the Elite class, such was the quality of competition BELOW: Ben Rabl had a shocker of a weekend. After his VT Commodore didn’t make the event, he wound up buried in the fence in his supercharged V6-powered VY back-up car, RUBR2FRY. Still, he managed to take out the Carnage award for some consolation