SMOKING PERMITTED
> THE OFF-TAP SKID-FEST THAT IS BRASHERNATS RETURNS TO SYDNEY DRAGWAY FOR 2021
Tyres die in their hundreds during Brashernats 2021
MICK Brasher, Linda Hook and their team need to take a bow after smashing it out of the park at the recent Octane Apparel Brashernats burnout comp at Sydney Dragway. It was a killer event that continued to raise the bar for highquality burnouts and super-tough skid cars.
As I rolled up to the venue, stunning blue skies and a spectator entry queue stretching seemingly for miles were certainly good omens for a great day ahead, and as soon as I got inside I immediately missed the buzz of unleashing hell in front of a roaring crowd, as 7500 spectators lined both sides of the burnout pad situated on the main drag strip.
For competitors, Brashernats was the perfect event to kill as many tyres as you wanted thanks to the inclusion of the Power Plus Play Pit, an additional pad adjacent to the staging lanes for skid fiends to let off some steam.
The entrant list was full of burnout royalty, and it would have had to have been some kind of record for the most blown and injected cars assembled in one place. There was a noticeable and welcome lack of mang-mang cars, too.
It’s hard to do justice to the quality of the burnouts on offer, with the action stretching from 9.30am until eight in the evening, each successive skid as massive as the last. The crowd were kept on the edge of their seats with non-stop, high-revving, tyre-smashing carnage as the various classes worked through qualifying, with some notable performances among them.
Queenslander Ty Burley always impresses in his tough-as-nails, blown and injected 346ci Chevpowered Camaro, UP4IT, and his Brashernats skid was no exception. While Ty didn’t finish on the podium, we rated his thundering smoke-fest as one of the clear standouts.
Joel Sykes in his Proflo Performance-built, blown Chev-powered HK Belmont laid down a skid he could be proud of, and got the ovation he deserved. His tyre-shredding, tank-slapping effort was one of the best-sounding burnouts of the weekend. That 406ci small-block was on song, with no limiter action and the high-pitched blower howl heard for miles.
Queenslander Jacob Lenoble had one of the most memorable debuts the event has ever seen in his screaming Ls-powered Datsun 120Y, SYCO PTH. The 20-year-old, who Mick Brasher rates as the next Andrew Lynch, built the entire car in his Gold Coast garage with dad Mark Schwarz supervising. Jacob not only built the
engine, but also tubbed, painted and trimmed the whole thing himself. For his first time out, it was a killer skid and had the crowd screaming for more. Well done Jacob; take a bow.
When it came to the big hitters, it was hard to pick a favourite, and judging at this level would be no easy task. With $35,000 in prize money in total up for grabs across all classes, the competition was fierce, and with 20 cars in the finals, you had to make it textbook to stand a chance of reward.
Victorian Rick Fuller ultimately won the day in his VK Commodore, LSONE, but his counterpart Bryan Smilie in his super-clean VK, TIPNIN, certainly looked like it could have been in the winner’s circle. The car was beautifully presented and looked killer on the pad, with Bryan exhibiting awesome wheel work, full use of the pad and the BNR Engines-built mill on-song from start to finish.
While judging is always controversial, many wondered how Victorian Steve Edsall did not take the win after one of the best burnouts of the weekend. The Bnr-prepared small-block Ford in SKDUTE hit the high notes from the outset and Steve delivered a world-class performance, but had to content himself with second place overall.
Other standouts included Adrian Cuthbertson in SKIDMA, who took out a well-deserved first place in the Blown class, and the always hardcharging Andrew Lynch, who did his usual fulltilt tip-ins and cleaned up first place in the V8 Aspirated class, third overall and Best Tip-in with his Ls-powered KE55 Corolla.
There were a couple of blasts from the past, too, with local Craig Whiddett’s blown CUTSIK VK and Victorian Steve Loader in UCSMOKE (running a new Powerhouse Engines mill) both returning to the fray after a few years on the sidelines.
“We were really happy with the quality of the event,” Mick Brasher said. “We had 130 entrants, which was a huge effort to get through in a day, and I’d like to thank everyone who helps and supports us with the event.
“We are getting pressure to make this a twoday event, but at this stage we have no plans to change the recipe for next year.”
When the quality is this high, why would you?