Category Archives: Racing

Despite threatening weather, a track record crowd were packed on to the recently extended spectator mounds at Portland’s South Coast Raceway as rain began to fall with fourteen Doorslammers in the staging lanes and about to fire up for their qualifying round. All the drivers agreed that the show must go on. When it became clear the weather wasn’t going to clear in a hurry the decision was made to postpone racing until Sunday morning.
To ensure a good crowd next day, the organisers of the Slamfest Series, Pro Modified Australia also decided to open the gates up and offer free admission. When the postponement announcement was made to the thousands of spectators huddled under umbrellas they were invited to bring as many friends and family along with them as possible next morning and the resulting cheers and applause was extremely encouraging.
The strategy was a huge success with a new record crowd estimated at over four thousand people on hand under cool but clear skies next morning to witness the first appearance of the Slamfest Series at the western Victorian facility. They were rewarded with not only the 14 Doorslammer drivers putting on three great rounds of racing with track records smashed but also a demonstration by the RAAF Roulettes aerobatic team overhead, stunt bike theatrics from Matt Mingay and partner, a team of extreme motocross riders and a smooth running show featuring a strong field of sportsman racers.
Due to the postponement the Doorslammers were run on a slightly abbreviated format to fit in the restricted time frame. After all cars ran in the qualifying round they all returned less than ninety minutes for the elimination round where the two quickest winners gained entry straight into the final.
Ben Bray topped the qualifying sheet with a 4.38 just ahead of Peter Blake’s 4.40 with Maurice Fabietti and Scott McLean both in the 4.6s. The elimination round saw some very tight races and a couple of wild runs with Peter Kapiris and Dale Clothier both getting over the centre line. Peter Blake reset the Doorslammer track record to 4.222 to be the quickest of the winners just ahead of Scott McLean’s 4.238 to join him in the final. Ben Bray was a bit unlucky blazing the tyres over the finish line at 161 mph for a spectacular 4.264 to just miss out while Mat Abel reset the outright track speed record to 176.47 mph on his way to a next best 4.343.
In the final Peter Blake’s consistency took him to a very well deserved first Slamfest Series win with another good 4.255 at 171.76 mph wile Scott McLean had a wild ride just clipping the fence before the finish line on his way to a 4.42 and the runner up spot.
Whilst thanking the huge crowd for their support after the final, Peter Blake was glowing in his praise of the South Coast Raceway saying, “It was great for the team, Racetech and all our sponsors to get the win but the fans here are just fantastic and really make it even better. The way they sat it out in the rain yesterday waiting to see us race I’m just so glad it all turned out today. This is a great facility and we can’t wait to come back.”
The event was part of a huge weekend of activities in Portland raising funds for the Make a Wish Foundation and proved to be a fantastic promotion for the sport of drag racing and a real credit to the volunteer South Coast Raceway Team and Pro Modified Australia.
The Slamfest for Wishes event will receive extensive television coverage with one hour shows on Speedweek on SBS and Inside Speed on Foxsports plus stand alone one hours self titled Doorslammer shows on FuelTV, Foxsports HD and for international distribution. An additional 30 minute Full Noise show will also appear on Foxsports. The first broadcast will be SBS Speedweek on Sunday February 27.
The 2011 Slamfest Series will now move on to Mildura on April 2-3 for Round 3. The following event on the calendar is at North Queensland’s Palmyra Dragway in Mackay on June 25 before the Slammers head back to Melbourne’s Calder Park Raceway for the Grand Final in November.
Pro Modified Australia media enquiries can be directed to Rob Oberg 0417 756565 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0417 756565      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0417 756565      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

Headed off to Calder park once again for the true blue slam fest,
With plenty of dramas on the trip down, we came this close to giving up on the event, what with dad in hospital and what not. None the less he endured huge amounts of pain to get the car to the track, and tune it from his sick bed. It was a great opportunity for the crew, to step up and show what they’re made of…(not much as it turns out…) naaah they did great! It’s a big deal to control these cars from a crew chief point of view. I’m proud of the guys for pulling together to get us down the track and for dad to allow us to run the car without his hands on.

As for the event we only managed 3 runs. And this is how they break down;

Q1; because of the devastating weekend we had down there last time we planned to just slide the car down the track nice and easy. We did, with a 4.37sec at 169mph I think.

Q2; we got after it a little bit more. And cranked out a 4.22 sec at 170mph pass. It was a loose run, heading for the wall then a bump in the track caused the tyres to break free and it made a big move toward the centre line. This later turned out to be the 2nd quickest run down that lane for the entire weekend, only bettered in the final by Maurice Fabietti.

R1; because we had lane choice over Dale Clothier I chose the lane without the bump. Coming up to the line I found that I couldn’t see the tree and as a result had to move over out of the groove, for the launch. The car made a big move toward the centre line straight off the launch, I short shifted and drove it straight to the win. A 4.25sec at 174mph beat a 5 something. Unfortunately only the quickest 4 winners progressed to the semis. I wasn’t one of them. I think er cam 6th overall.

We prepped the car to go to Portland in two weeks time – Saturday 5th February.

We will keep you posted.

Sorry for not writing for quite a while. I have a few excuses – I am a lazy bastard, my wife had a baby and been busy with work and play….

I guess I wasn’t really enthused to write about our performance for 2009. We junked three motors in 3 races. It was a very frustrating bad time for me and the team. In support of Top Doorslammer 1/8 mile efforts we slapped together an old engine and headed to Mildura for the first ever Slamfest in March 2010 with very low expectations due to our recent poor form.

Mildura was hot (40 degree) the flies were bad BUT the racing was great. We opted to go for a test run on Friday afternoon. The track looked fairly slick and that was demonstrated to me perfectly in the burnout where i lost complete control and nearly smacked both walls. Needless to say I was very embarassed and disappointed with myself. I didn’t make a run becuase I was a bit unsettled after that wild moment and I didn’t think it was a safe choice.

Saturday the main event. Due to the heat, racing was set back to late afternoon for the first run. Which saw Maurice Fabietti plough into the wall with huge force all but destroying his car which didn’t leave me or the other drivers I suspect with much confidence for our first run. As it turned out the Racetech Steel Statesman hooked up and launched harder then it has ever launched before. We had backed the power down as much as we could and ran a 4.24. This run was top qualifier and quickest for the round until Scott McLean picked us at the post.

The second round we made no changes and fronted up with a 4.20sec run. Taking out low et for that round and top qualifying. We were to run the secondest quickest winner from the second round in the final. That put us up against Mat Abel.

The final was run late in the night at about 11pm. The air had got better, but the track had cooled off. We miss judged the setup slightly after a poor reaction time we shot out with another personal best 60ft .99 but it was too little too late as Mat Abel had reacted quicker to the starting light and got away from me. At half track I got a little loose and backed off and coasted thru with a 4.4 something.

We were estatic about the weekend. The result, the track, the Mildura people/fans, my crew made it one of the best events we have ever attended. A big thanks to Victor Bray, Peter Kapiris, Maurice Fabietti and everyone else who helped get this event up and running including the mayor for supporting the event.

about Mildura Slamfest (our last race).