SpringNats 20

The last weekend of November saw the kings of skid juggernaut roll into the central Victorian township of Shepparton thanks to the team at Autofest bringing with them the hot weather. These guys and girls who love to destroy tires in spectacular fashion weren’t about to take a laid back country approach to the challenge set before them and set about laying a smoke cloud over the small city destined to hang there for some time! With a full program laid out before them, entrants had plenty to keep them busy from the test your rides turning ability corkscrew challenge to the how good does your beast stop go-to-whoa side by side action. The autokana tested the use of their mirrors by driving and reversing around a laid out course and proved they weren’t just for checking what was burning out back and what wasn’t. A mobile dyno was also set up onsite allowing you to prove to your mates that your machine really does pack that much muscle and maybe pick up some silverware for the effort. Supporting this in-your-face sport were an array of both street and elite show cars on display in the pavilions and lush green lawns of the Shepparton show grounds. These highly detailed machines ranging from tough street rods through to wild Yankee iron and Aussie bred muscle gave the doting public a more sedate look into the modified automotive world while things remained at full pace out on the rubber hungry pad. To kick the weekend’s events off were the much renowned burnout team of Peter and Debbie Gray giving the fans double the action with a side by side tire frying feat. Not to be outdone, Team Extreme let off steam by showing us what they were made of while the Drift Patrol put on a worthy demonstration showing us multiple car control at full tilt! The cracking pace of the weekend was destined to have its fare share of casualties in the driving events and only the strongest would survive through to Sunday night’s presentation. Top honors for the weekend went to Ross Mayes and his 32 Tudor better known as Burnt 1 after demonstrating this big block beast has as much go as it does show! The top 20 burnout rankings showed us who was on top after the smoke cleared with the accolades going to Steve Loader and UCSMOKE followed by Peter Grmusa’s EVILXA and David Cufone’s FATRAT filling out the podium. The girls weren’t going to be outdone either with the queen of Springnats award going to Lisa Howie and her Holden Torana. With the sport growing in popularity and engine builders, driveline manufacturers and chassis designers getting a handle on what it takes to build a machine to hack the extreme stresses of a burnout comp in today’s environment, we’re guaranteed this in-your-face high performance spectacular and its eclectic community of competitors will continue to come up with new and imaginative ways of destroying those rubber dounuts while entertaining the masses. I’m hooked on the scene and if you haven’t seen it for yourself, look out for the next burnout comp, pack in some earplugs and sunscreen and come on down!

Keep on cruisin’

Greg