Its been a while since i've stood trackside at a burnout comp. Yesterday I got on top of that situation by heading up to Bindoon, about 100km's North of Perth, to check out the show that Chris 'Ballistic' Orchard and his crew had organised.
Upon arrival I was immediately impressed with the work that has gone in to setting up for the event - the brand new 50m x 50m pad is huge! The grandstand made for a prime viewing area, and the VIP area where the serious blown cars were parked was a big drawcard for the punters. One thing in particular that stood out to me was the big push on safety. There was signage put up in the immediate vicinity of the pad to strongly suggest that the crowd wore eye protection (there were safety glasses available at the event, free of charge), as well as hearing protection. Newly erected also was a full height wire fence, as well as rubber 'drop sheets' hanging down from the armco in the pad - to further prevent debris, and in some cases fire, from shooting off in to the crowd.
As luck would have it, about 30 minutes after I had arrived and scoped out the venue the heavens opened up. After a couple of thunderclaps, a torrential downpour opened up over the pad. A couple of minutes later and the huge raindrops turned in to bloody hailstones! There was a mad rush to cover up air cleaners, close windows and set tents up over cars. There was nothing that anybody could do except wait for it to pass - though there were still a few spectators that quite obviously enjoy splashing around in the mud and rain!
As soon as the rain stopped, the organisers got the street sweeper and a couple of bobcats out on to the pad to soak up as much of the wet stuff as they could, then let the keenest of entrants get straight back in to it. Once the rain had cleared out, the real beauty of this event became apparent - as long as you were keen to have a go, you were allowed to go through as many sets of tyres as you could muster up. The pad was a free-for-all up until the sun went down, then everyone had the chance to do one skid each in the final. Some of the cars entered had multiple drivers to go with the multiple sets of tyres - The boys from FORDHOLD wreckers went through at least 6 sets of tyres in their LS powered EL Falcon, with Ballistic even having a pedal of the car with a full load of passengers. Matt Hughes had MON5TA out numerous times, performing running repairs between each skid, and at one stage driving off with 3 busted tyres!
The lads from Spectra Chrome quite obviously had a ball on the pad with their RX7. This isn't your average Mazda though - the car looks to be an ex-drifter, with an in your face, blown, EFI'ed LS engine reaching skywards through the bonnet!
The finals commenced once the sun had set, and the boys really turned up the wick - the FORDHOLD lads eventually taking the win in the open class. Fred Watson took the blown class win with a killer skid in the FEAR Monaro. Check out Flinty's video of Freds winning skid below - listen to how hard he turns it from about 1:20!
Check out the following photos for a taste of the action!
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| As if the rain wasn't enough, it turned in to a hailstorm! |
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| Fresh from his recent Powercruise win, Nicko Edge was one of the first blown entrants to line up for the soaking wet pad. |
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| Not really what you would expect to see at a burnout comp in Bindoon...I didn't get to see what was lurking under the bonnet, but there certainly weren't any Italian ponies under there. My guess is the Ferrari had an LS or a Chev? |
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| Smile for the camera lads! |
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| This is how its done - you break it, you fix it, you skid it again! |
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| This HR Wagon was my favourite entry at the event. Big revs, big smoke and tough 'street car' styling ticked all the boxes for me. |
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| Winner, winner, chicken dinner! |
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| I was impressed at how seriously spectator safety was taken, with signs like these, plus hearing and eye protection signage up around the pad. Safety glasses were on hand for spectators wanting to get close to the action. |
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| The 'H O O D' Falcon had a screaming aspirated combo on board, delivering several high speed performances on the pad. |
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| Jason Foekens had a full house on board BLWNWGN in the finals, but unfortunately had to stop the skid early due to a belt slip. |
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| These guys take burnouts seriously - performing an engine swap in the muddy pit area after popping one earlier in the day! |
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| Event organiser Chris 'Ballistic' Orchard gets the job done on two wheels! |
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| 'Wild' Mick Hockings is back in the game with his fresh new combo - it was on song every time he hit the pad in his chopped purple tonner. |
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| Peter Flint has had a big week - after wrestling with a wall at Powercruise the previous weekend, he managed to replace, fix and repair what was needed on his blown, big block powered ute in time to make the Bindoon Skids. He scored runner up in the blown class for his efforts too! |
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| The FORDHOLD guys had a HUGE day - with three different drivers and half a dozen sets of tyres, the methanol chugging, LS powered Falcon took out the win in the open class. |
