Gazzanats has returned to Darwin’s Hidden Valley Raceway in epic fashion over the weekend, offering up two full days of show-and-shine, track cruising, powerskids, and burnout action
Hosted by burnout icon Gary Myers alongside equally burnout-mad son Jake and wife Deby, trucks rocked up from as far as WA and Victoria, contributing to a bumper number of entrants including over 40 blown burnout contenders.
Gazzanats 2022’s opening skid ended in disaster as Kevin Mantach’s FIFTY Chev suffered a stuck throttle on the main straight. Throwing the coupe into a spin helped to shed some speed, but Kev tagged the wall hard. Thankfully he was walking and talking after the stack, and headed to hospital for some head stitches and a look-over.
Track cruising was on offer for most of both days, giving punters a chance to hold it flat across the Supercars circuit (albeit with orders to avoid the grass at all costs).
Friday’s burnout qualifying was a fairly smooth affair, aside from Jay Bouchere’s RAMPAGE ute VF ute catching fire before hurting its tailshaft. The carnage ramped up on Saturday’s four-hour finals session, with Ryan Pearson kissing the wall in HOLDON before suffering a fire of his own. Wayne Daw’s SLYLUX burnout was also cut painfully short by a mechanical failure just seconds after tip-in.
Dwayne Pallentine claimed victory in the packed blown class with an incredible display in his PEPERIT Torana, with Billy Seton earning top spot in the N/A V8 field behind the wheel of the SILYTOY VK.
We’ll bring you a full run-down of Gazzanats 2022 in a future mag, here’s a full list of results and some of our favourite cars in the meantime!
Dayne Bairstow’s HAVEAGO XG ute was a highlight of the four/six-cylinder class, laying down a thick cover of smoke from its crazy-sounding aspirated Barra and blowing both tyres off.
John Lara’s HQ GTS 350 Monaro was a simple, but uber-stylish addition to the show ‘n’ shine. The mini-tubbed car runs a Turbo 400 and nine-inch rear, bolted to a meaty 10in wheel. “I drive it as much as I can through the dry season, and even in the wet season I take it out,” John says. “It’s a family thing, we take our baby with us all the time.”
Sheehan Varney’s VZ-fronted VU SS ute put on a big flame show on Friday night. “We had it freshened up for this,” Sheehan says. “But it’s not the first time or last time it’ll happen!” Power comes from an iron-block 427ci LSX, assembled by BYE Performance and topped with a 6/71 TBS blower and carbon-fibre injector hat. Debuting at Motorvation about 18 months ago and fresh from a full WA burnout season, it’ll be at Street Machine Summernats 35.
Robert Cottrell’s methanol-drinking, LS2-swapped XD was one of the hardest chargers during each cruise and Super Skid session, and put on an equally impressive show across the pad, earning a Top 10 finish.
The HX of Corey Johnston brought some grandpa-spec flavour to the cruise route. It’s seen a few different combos, but now packs a six-litre L98 with a TBS 8/71 blower and twin 850 carbs for 700hp at the treads. Corey says he’d done about 15 events in the car between Darwin and WA. “It’s a pretty low-maintenance set-up so far, touch wood. Right now I can just jump in and enjoy it and not stress too much.”
Ever seen a real-deal VX GTS 300 track car? Troy Sutherland bought this Callaway-powered weapon from the original owner. “He had it on the road for a few thousand kays, and then turned it into a track car,” marvels Troy. The rebuilt mill wears Harrop ITBs, paired to a full brace of coolers and super-firm suspension. There’s also six-pot HSV stoppers all-round, a carbon-fibre tailshaft, plenty of negative camber, and even a rear cradle from a American GTO racer. Troy’s wife Sam had driving duties over the weekend.
Troy also brought along the artist formerly known as MR PSI. Back in the late 2000s, the twin-turbo 416ci VU was one of the first Aussie cars to crack the 1700rwhp mark. It changed hands a few times after owner Lyle Lemon suddenly passed away in 2008, eventually ending up as a roller. It now runs a tough aspirated LS combo, though Troy still has the original bonnet with turbo cutouts hanging on his wall.
Katherine’s Mark Ryan debuted his Capri GT at Gazzanats, taking home first in the go-to-whoa. The car uses the 369 Windsor stroker driveline from his CHEEKY8 Capri, which was lost in a shed fire. “It was a drag car, so we’ve gotta turn it back into a street car,” Mark says. “This is literally the first event it’s been to and I couldn’t be happier, it’s going great.”
Daniel Catalano describes his 8/71-blown Chev-powered FJ40 shorty as an animal around corners. “It’s very hard to cruise the track, but on the pad it’s wicked,” he laughs. “It’s a handful but it’s good fun!” Behind the donk is a Turbo 400 and sheet metal 9in, and the whole thing still rides on leaf suspension. The Cruiser met the wall on Friday night, but returned on Saturday after Daniel and his crew straightened the front end with the help of some straps and two support vehicles.
Aiden Leist paid just $150 for this real-deal VK Calais when he was 15. With a stout 355 iron lion under the bonnet, the Benalla bloke ran a 10.68@129mph before swapping to a methanol-sipping 6.0, and now a stock-bottom-end, All Gen Engines-built 5.7 for simplicity and reliability. “It’s just something we can get in, throw caution to the wind, and just smash tyres off,” Aiden enthuses. The six-litre now runs E85, and will end up in Aiden’s work-in-progress VN streeter.
GAZZANATS DARWIN 2022 RESULTS
SHOW ‘N’ SHINE
BEST PAINT
1st Nissan Stagea
BEST ENGINE BAY
2nd Mark Siracusa – Holden Torana
1st Peter Dienhoff – HG Holden ute
BEST ENGINEERED
2nd Tony Gable – VK Commodore
1st Aaron Clark – Peugeot Saloon
BEST INTERIOR
2nd Kerry Kyriacou – Holden Torana
1st Justin Pitsikas – BMW 328i
TOP AMERICAN
Jay Brown – ‘55 Chev
TOP HOLDEN
2nd Jay Bouchere – VF Commodore ute
1st Ryan Pearson – HT Holden
TOP FORD TWO-DOOR
Adam Wilson – Ford coupe
TOP FORD FOUR-DOOR
Andrew Kirk – FPV GT
TOP UTE
2nd Matt James – VF Commodore ute
1st Peter Dienhoff – HG Holden ute
PROMOTER’S CHOICE
Aaron Clark – Peugeot Saloon
Rick Fuller – HX Holden
Greg Thornton – FJ Holden ute
SHOW ‘N’ SHINE CHAMPION
Mark Siracusa – LH Torana
DRIVING EVENTS
BEST CRUISE CARS
Corey Johnson – HX Holden
John Curwen-Walker – FX Holden
Craig Porter – Toyota Supra
Chris Prasad – Toyota Supra
TOUGHEST RIDES
Justin Pitsikas – BMW 328i
Brody Diwell – Holden Caprice
IRON MAIDEN
2nd Julia Crane – VE ute
1st Rebecca Griffin – VS ute
ROLL RACING
4th Corey Johnson – HX Holden
3rd Anthony Page – LJ Torana
2nd Wayne Daw – Chevrolet Camaro
1st Aaron Webber – Toyota Hilux
GO-TO-WHOA
4st John Curwen-Walker – FX Holden
3rd VZ One Tonner ute
2nd Wayne Daw – Chevrolet Camaro
1st Mark Ryan – Ford Capri
SUPER SKIDS
4th Ben Lugg – VS Commodore
3rd Wayne Daw – Toyota Hilux
2nd Brodie Diwell – Holden Caprice
1st Matt James – VF Commodore Ute
SICKEST TIP-IN
Pete Grmusa – XR Falcon
CARNAGE AWARD
Ryan Pearson – HT Holden
SHOW & GO
Mark Siracusa – Holden Torana
FOUR/SIX CYLINDER
3rd John Mitchell – Ford Falcon
2nd Jack Waddell – VR Commodore
1st Dayne Bairstow – XG Falcon ute
CHICK SKIDS
2nd Julia Crane – VE Commodore ute
1st Rebecca Griffin – VS Commodore ute
TOP 10 NATURALLY ASPIRATED
10th Kevin Mason – Rambler Hornet
9th Alvaro de Dastro – Holden Commodore
8th Hayden Phillips – Holden Caprice
7th Jake Totani – VY Commodore
6th Brock Vulich – VL Commodore
5th Dayne Adams – Holden ute
4th Jesse Guy – Holden ute
3rd Aiden Leist – VK Commodore
2nd Ewan Haxton – VK Commodore
1st – Billy Seton – VK Commodore
TOP 10 BLOWN
10th Anthony Page – LJ Torana
9th Stephen Loader – HT Holden
8th Ben Lugg – VS Commodore
7th Robert Cottrell – XD Falcon
6th Justin Pitsikas – BMW 328i
5th Matt James – VF Commodore ute
4th Jack Seaman – HQ One Tonner
3rd Peter Grmusa – XR Falcon
2nd Chris Orchard – VH Commodore
1st Dwayne Pallentine – LH Torana
BURNOUT MASTERS TICKET WINNERS
Matt James – VF Commodore ute
Peter Grmusa – XR Falcon
FIREY AWARD
Darryl Ferguson – 1949 Morris truck
Chris Smallmon – VY Commodore
Wayne Daw – Toyota Hilux
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