ANOTHER scorcher belted down on Sydney Dragway for the third and final day of Summernats Slam. Another bumper crowd of punters turned up to enjoy all the sights, sounds and Dagwood Dogs on offer as Sydney turned on a killer day of summer weather.

Sunday morning kicked off with the Slam Champ contenders running down the drag strip. With an un-prepped surface the Summernats crew were only allowed to let Mark Hayes’ six-second Torana run if he went slower than an 8.50.

This meant Haysey couldn’t use any nitrous or the transbrake, and had to pull all the timing out of the car, yet he still coasted to a 9.4! The street machining legend wound up taking a spot in the Top 10, plus gongs for Top Engineered and Top Competition.

Photos: Tim McCormack

Jonathan Danaskos’ 65ANML Mustang took out the top gong, Slam Champ, having scored highly in show judging, the motorkhana, and down the drag strip on Sunday morning. The tough Windsor-powered streeter also snared a spot in the Summernats Slam Top 10 and took out Top Coupe.

Despite driving the wheels off his Barra-powered XM Falcon since it appeared on the cover of our December 2020 issue, Daniel Wickman took out gongs for Top Engine Bay, Top Bodywork, Top Sedan, and a Top 10 spot.

Simon Mokdassi had a red-hot go for Slam Champ in KINGXY, driving the belt-fed Elite car like a man possessed. After running a mid-11 at over 130mph on Sunday morning he then pumped one of the biggest burnies down Skid Row we’d seen at the whole event! Along with a spot in the Top 10 he also won Top Interior, and Top Paint.

Judging criteria for the burnouts includes instant smoke, constant smoke, volume of smoke, and driving skill. Points were deducted for reversing, stopping or stalling, clouting a barrier, failure to drive off the pad, or for a large fire, and failure to pop tyres. There were three tickets to the Burnout Masters at the Rare Spares Rev Rock ‘n’ Roll event in Canberra in March.

The Top 15 skidders from Day Two included Adrian Cuthbertson’s ’82 Sigma, Alex Slavin’s HQ ute GETHLP, Jonathan Murphy’s KE20 Corolla, Joe Tyler’s awesome EH wagon MATURED, Clintin Perry’s blown Falcon ute ONGROG, Jesse Johnson’s KILLAK white VK Calais, Dean White’s Gemini, Nelson Granger’s mega-cube HJ Kingswood, Kyle Priestly’s VH Vacationer, Phil Kerjean’s VK wagon, Brad Luff’s blown Corolla FECKED, Robert Cottrell’s XD Falcon, Chris Moit’s Commodore ute, and Britt Kilby’s HAMMERTIME Feroza.

Kyle Hardy had a shocker of a Saturday in his 1100hp HQ sedan, MRLOOS. “I went down Skid Row and lost both gears in my Powerglide, so we pulled it out and I found a new ‘box in Wollongong. We got it wrapped back up at 1am this morning.” The 10/71-blown 400ci Dart LS was built by BG Engines, running a three-stage dry sump and mechanical methanol injection for a super-cranky package. While he made huge smoke and had a killer tip-in he had to be towed off the pad.

Matt Smith LSGRUNT started with a solid tip-in and then smoked out the Sydney Dragway in his silver VY Commodore sedan with a big skid. Alex Slavin also swung his GETHLP HQ ute dangerously close to the barriers, making big smoke and using all the RPM his aspirated LS could muster.

Jonathan Murphy’s fluro yellow blown KE20 had the biggest tip-in but a big BBQ fire cut his skid short. While it started the weekend as a nicely presented machine it left the pad behind the golf kart with badly damaged rear guards, but he still picked up second-place and a ticket to Burnout Masters at the Rare Spares Rev Rock ‘n’ Roll in March.

After an afternoon of killer skids it was Clintin Perry in ONGROG (third), Jonathan Murphy in TUFF20 (second) and Jesse Johnson in KILLAK (first place) who were declared the top three for Summernats Slam 2021, meaning they had golden tickets direct to the Burnout Masters comp in March at the Rare Spares Rev Rock ‘n’ Roll at EPIC in Canberra.

As the pad fell quiet and the crowd filed home it was apparent the Summernats Slam concept works a treat and would be a killer addition to the line-up for the Summernats team.