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Nugget Nationals 2018 – Round 4, Winton Raceway

We could not have asked for a more perfect Spring day for Round 4 of Nugget Nationals.

With the gates opening at 7:30am it was great to see a lot of competitors there bright and early to prepare for a day full of PB’s.

No PB was more impressive than the man that took first place on the day.

1st Place: 1:46.7
Driver: Iain “Never Lift” McCowan
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic

Iain obliterated his previous laptime of 1:48.1 with a stonking new PB. Iain’s entry at every Nugget Nationals event proves that seat time pays off and it’s great to have seen him progress throughout the years. A truly well deserved PB!

Photo: Sarah C

2nd Place: 1:47.3
Driver: Ying Bot
Nugget: 2002 Toyota Echo

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Ying’s Echo out and track and she’s a little far off the pace of her previous PB of 1:46.0 however, her lap time on the day was enough to grab a second place finish.

Photo: Sarah C

3rd Place: 1:49.5
Driver: Mitch Gilmour
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

As one of the front runners of the championship, Mitch was also able to secure a third place finish and a new PB in the Mitsubishi Shitage.

Photo: Gil C

4th Place: 1:49.8
Driver: Josh Gellatly
Nugget: 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage

The double driven Mitsu proved to be a PB Machine on the day with Josh cracking into the 40’s club for the first time!

Photo: Sarha C

5th Place: 1:49.8
Driver: Hayden Ryan
Nugget: 1997 Toyota Starlet

Another competitor who has been recently absent from the track is Hayden. He’s returned in fine form with a smashing new PB. Another Nugget into the 40’s!

Photo: Sarah C

6th Place: 1:50.0
Driver: Michael Stanbrough
Nugget: 2002 Holden Barina

We first met Michael at Haunted Hills earlier this year, where he’d picked up a $500 Barina. As with most competitors, once you have a taste of Nuggets, there’s really no going back. For Mike, it meant purchasing an old competitor car which conveniently happened to be a Barina too.

This is Mike’s first time at a Winton and if his time is anything to go by, he’ll be a strong contender in the future!

Photo: Gil C

7th Place: 1:52.8
Driver: Glenn Samson
Nugget: 1998 Toyota Starlet

If there was an award for the coolest looking car on the day, it would surely go to Glenn. His little retro inspired EP91 was a magnificent sight to behold (and this sentiment is not at all biased by the person currently writing this blog post).

8th Place: 1:52.9
Driver: Sebastian Quirit
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

Previous co-owner of the Neverlift Nugget, couldn’t stay out of the game for too long. After only being back in Australia for a day, Seb was out in Neverlift #2.

He’s set himself a fantastic lap time for him to benchmark himself against when the future modifications and track days come around.

Photo: Gil C

9th Place: 1:53.6
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

With an unfortunately early retirement due to mechanical issues, Mark still managed to smash his previous PB by 2 seconds. We’d say that’s worth cooking a motor for!

10th Place: 1:53.9
Driver: Matthew James
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

And the PB train kept rolling through with a new PB in the sport mini Supra for Matt!

Photo: Gil C

11th Place: 1:54.2
Driver: Trevor Pooley
Nugget: 1997 Nissan Micra

With ten years in between track days at Winton, Trevor blew off the cobwebs with a very respectable 1:54 in the K11.

12th Place: 1:54.7
Driver: Anthony Falckh
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

The double driven Paseo got a work out and bestowed PB’s upon all that got behind the wheel. A new fastest lap time for Anthony to add to the family album.

13th Place: 1:54.0
Driver: Kyle Wathen
Nugget: 2003 Toyota Echo

Dancing the big block Echo through the S bend in spectacular fashion, Kyle is throughly enjoying his upgrade from his previous small block 1.3 litre Echo and took a good 6 seconds off his previous lap time.

Photo: Gil C

14th Place: 2:07.8
Driver: Mick Samson
Nugget: 1998 Toyota Starlet

Our final co-driven car of the day was Glenn’s dad Mick. We cannot stress how utterly cool it is to bring your parents to a track day and get them behind the wheel. Well done Mick!

Photo: Gil C

Full results:

We have final points round before we close up the season for 2018. Stay tuned to Facebook for more details!

Nugget Nationals 2018 – Round 3, Dyno Day

Round 3 of Nugget Nationals again saw our fleet of under powered vehicles congregate at Weltmeister Eastside.

To assist the power challenged Nuggets in the track rounds, we’ve awarded points a little differently and in reverse order.

This means that the Nuggets with the lowest kilowatts have been awarded the highest points for Round 3!

1st place: 46.0kw
Driver: Josh Gellatly and Mitch Gilmour
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

2nd place: 51.0
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

3rd place: 51.8
Driver: Matthew James and Anthony Falkch
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

4th place: 57.5
Driver: Iain Murray
Nugget: 1990 Hondor Civic

A full photo album of all the cars in attendance can be found over at the Nugget Nationals Facebook page.  

KNOW YOUR NUGGET: Trev’s Micra

KNOW YOUR NUGGET:

Trev believes that if you’re unsuccessful in selling your spare parts online, the best option is to buy another car to fit them back on and track it!

1) Name: Trev

2) Nugget car of choice?
Nissan Micra LX

3) Other cars you own or have owned?
3x Datsun 1600’s
Datsun Stanza GX,
Toyota Aurion ZR6
Custom designed Datsun powered Locost Clubman

4) How did you hear about Nugget nationals?
Website and word of mouth.

5) What made you want to join Nugget nationals?
I had some K11 Micra parts laying around that no one wanted to buy on gumtree. So i decided to get another Micra to use them.

6) Why did you pick the car you have to be your Nugget vehicle of choice?
I had a K11 Micra Super S that i bought in 1996 and drove as my daily for 12 years. I missed it, so had to have another even though there are better performance options available for this category.

7) What is your favourite thing/feature about your Nugget?
I can drive it hard all day on one tank of fuel and not have to turn a spanner on it or trailer it around.

8) Funniest thing about your Nugget?
Fitting a $1000 worth of suspension to a car worth $200.

9) A random fact about you?
My track day motto is, “Drive it like you stole it.”

KNOW YOUR NUGGET: Kyle’s Echo

KNOW YOUR NUGGET:

A track car, a daily driver and a puppy transporter. Kyle shows us you really can live your best life with a Nugget in the garage.

1) Name: Kyle

2) Nugget car of choice?
2003 Toyota Echo Sportivo

3) Other cars you own or have owned?
HSV Clubsport and V35 350GT
8x Toyota Soarers

4) How did you hear about Nugget nationals?
I first heard about the concept after it was mentioned in a build thread on a car forum.

5) What made you want to join Nugget nationals?
Having only ever owned heavy rear drive cars (I had a sickness for Soarers owning 8 of them), I secretly always enjoyed thrashing around hire car nuggets like Getz’s on holidays. The NN series was a great way to get onto the track in a car i dont worry about breaking.

6) Why did you pick the car you have to be your Nugget vehicle of choice?
It was a toss up between the Echo Sportivo and Ignis Sport. The latter i couldnt find within the budget so focused on the Echo. At first i had the small block 1.3L Echo. I really wanted to run in round 1 but couldn’t find a sportivo so bought a base model Echo gumtree special for $800 one week out from the event. I then upgraded to the 1.5L for Round 2. Its so handy to drive around the inner city, it performs most daily driving duties now.

7) What is your favourite thing/feature about your Nugget?
It sports some 90’s Mazdaspeed tri spoke rims.

8) Funniest thing about your Nugget?
When my 65kg dog hops in the Nugget his butt hits the rear hatch and his head reaches the front seats (think Beethoven). With all that weight up high, he shifts the entire car from side to side when he moves… He also ate part of the rear seat.

9) A random fact about you?
My life is run via a spread sheet. Probably why i became a partner at an accounting firm.

KNOW YOUR NUGGET: Josh’s Mirage

KNOW YOUR NUGGET:

Introducing a new entry to Nugget Nationals this year – Josh and the tripple driven Mitsubishi “Shitage”

1. Name:
Josh G

2. Nugget car of choice? 
2003 Mitsubishi Mirage (Shiitage Mushroom)

3. Other cars you own or have owned?
V2 STI (expensive unreliable track car), 92 Subaru Liberty RS Turbo, MY17 Skoda Octavia VRS wagon (lightly breathed on)

4. How did you hear about Nugget Nationals?
Friends suggested it.

5. What made you want to join Nugget Nationals?
Missing the fun of track days! I wanted to do this on the cheap and fix my expensive track car.

6. Why did you pick the car you have to be your Nugget vehicle of choice?
It’s basically an EVO sooooooo…

7. What is your favourite thing/feature about your Nugget?
I’m reluctant to do much to it as it’s clean and had 1 owner!

8. Funniest thing about your Nugget?
The dancing tacho, really makes the Mirage seem far quicker than it is….

9. A random fact about you?
I used to walk to school and may have gone the same way Toad Fish (Neighbours) went when walking his dog, me and him were like pretty good pals* in the end….

*not really

Nugget Nationals 2018 – Round 2, Haunted Hills

The Nuggets descended on Bryant Park for Round 2 on an unusually nice Winter day in Melbourne.

It’s our second time running an event at this Hill Climb also known as “Haunted Hills” and it’s always an exciting event with very little margin for error.

This year we decided to change the format up and opted for the longest configuration of the track with a double loop at the bottom of the hill.

1st Place: 87.38
Driver: Mitch Gilmour
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

As predicted in our last post, we knew Mitch would be one to watch this season. Mitch posted a stellar time and only just snatched first place off…

 

2nd Place: 87.39
Driver: Iain “Never Lift” McCowan
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic

Iain only just missed out on first place by .01!

An amusing compilation of how tricky this track can be can be found on Iain’s youtube channel.

3rd Place: 88.22
Driver: Zac Edwards
Nugget: 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage

Fresh from Rally X @ Winton, Zac still had his eye and in managed to take 3rd place. Will this be year of the Mirage?

4th Place: 88.90
Driver: Liam Murphy
Nugget:2001 Mitsubishi Mirage

Half a second behind Zac was Liam in the co-driver Techsport Mirage.

5th Place: 90.57
Driver: Christian Willer
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

Having a kid hasn’t slowed Willer down.

Typical Skyline driver behavior. 😛

6th Place: 91.47
Driver: Simon Landrigan
Nugget: 2006 Suzuki Swift

Due to a gearbox failure, Simon was an early exit out of Round 1, but with repairs completed managed to post a great time at Haunted Hills.

7th Place: 91.56
Driver: Josh Gellatly
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

8th Place: 92.76
Driver: Matthew Doyle
Nugget: 1995 Mazda 121

9th Place: 93.69
Driver: Shannon Swiderski
Nugget: 1996 Hyundai Excel

A new year and a new Excel for Shanon.

10th Place: 94.44
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

11th Place: 95.62
Driver: Trevor Pooley
Nugget: 1997 Nissan Micra

Another Silver Micra and new entry to the series. Welcome Trevor!

12th Place: 95.93
Driver: Michael Stanbrough
Nugget: 2004 Holden Barina

Michael heard about our series and promptly purchased a $300 Barina to compete. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Barina in the series. Welcome Michael!

13th Place: 98.28
Driver: Matthew James
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

14th Place: 98.58
Driver: Kyle Wathen
Nugget: 2003 Toyota Echo Sportivo

Kyle entered Round 1 in a 1.3 litre base model Toyota Echo but soon realised that the 1.5 litre big block was Sportivo was the car of choice and promptly purchased one.

This is possibly the only car to ever look good on tri spoke wheels. 😉

15h Place: 98.65
Driver: Stuart Chambers
Nugget: 2004 Mazda 2

Unfortunately a very enthusiastic burn out meant that Stuart had to retire early from the day. A big shout out to Ash and Ruan for helping Stuart get his Nugget back to Melbourne!

16th Place: 99.91
Driver: Darren Case
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

17th Place: 100.45
Driver: Jaron Farquhar
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

The most commitment award goes to the Sky Blue Jazz!

Full Results:

Stay tuned to our Facebook Page for the next event!

Nugget Nationals 2018 – Round 1, Winton Raceway

Welcome to a new year of Nugget Nationals!

There’s been a major shake up of the driving field this year with a lot of the familiar long term front runners taking a break from Nuggets to fix and drive their other broken track cars.

This leaves the field wide open for an exciting new line up and we’ve been very happy to see so many new drivers and vehicles join our series this year!

With a rainy start to Round 1, all drivers were happy to see the track dry up for the second half of the day at Winton Raceway.

1st Place: 1:48.19
Driver: Iain “Never Lift” McCowan
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic

Having said this, first place honors went to return competitor Iain.

Iain’s persistence and resolve to “Never Lift” has seen major improvement from his first track day ever with us. His lap times have dropped every outing and is testimonty to the fact that driver mods and seat time will always be the best way to improve your lap times.

Well done Iain!

2nd Place: 1:48.40
Driver: Mitch Gilmour
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

New entry Mitch Gilmour can usually be found at Phillip Island in an Evo but he’s entered Nugget Nationals with a M-evo!

This “Mini Evo” or Mitsubishi “Shitage” will be co driven this year.

Mitch will definitely be one to look out for as the season in future rounds.

3rd Place: 1:49.77
Driver: Josh Gellatly
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

Josh is usually found driving a Subaru around the track but has gone over to the other side to see if the grass is greener on planet Mitsubishi.

It’s enough to net him 3rd place on his first drive of the co-shared Nugget!

4th Place: 1:50.34
Driver: Liam Murphy
Nugget: 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage

5th Place: 1:50.47
Driver: Matthew Doyle
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic

6th Place: 1:51.64
Driver: John Gordon
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

Trekking all the day down from NSW, John sets a fantastic lap time on his first drive of the track in his K11 Micra.

Keen observers will note that this car is now on it’s 3rd owner and Nugget competitor. It’s great to see this workhorse showing up round after round even if it’s under different ownership!

7th Place: 1:52.74
Driver: Jason Chuc
Nugget: 2000 Mitsubishi Mirage

A familiar face to EXE track days in a roulette wheel of different cars, Mr Chuc is trying his hand at Nugget life and enjoying the stock suspensions ability to eat up the ripple strips with very little consequence.

8th Place: 1:52.78
Driver: Alex Button
Nugget: 1993 Suzuki Swift GTI

Practice pays off, Alex managed to take a full second off his previous PB!

9th Place: 1:55.14
Driver: Lawrence Ho
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

10th Place: 1:55.75
Driver: Shannon Swiderski
Nugget: 1994 Hyundai Exel

A new slightly less smokey excel for Shannon this year.

11th Place: 1:55.96
Driver: Andrew Mcgilvery
Nugget:1996 Nissan Micra

Usually in a rear wheel drive Nissan, McGillaz knowns the the front wheel drive ones are just as fun.

12th Place: 1:56.49
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

13th Place: 1:56.96
Driver: Vinnie Button
Nugget: 1997 Suzuki Swift GTI

In a super confusing move, Vinnie and his twin brother now BOTH drive Suzuki Swifts at Nugget Nationals.

14th Place: 1:58.97
Driver: Jarrad Argoon
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

15th Place: 2:0059
Driver: Kyle Wathen
Nugget: 2003 Toyota Echo

Kyle’s first time at circuit driving is slightly different than the 300kw Commodore’s he’s used to! He still had an absolute blast in the “Small Block” 1.3 litre echo.

16th Place: 2:01.76
Driver: Anthony Falckh
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

17th Place: 2:03.56
Driver: Darren Case
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

Another new entry and another co-joined Honda Jazz. Welcome to the series Darren!

18th Place: 2:03.92
Driver: Matthew James
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

19th Place: 2:06.29
Driver: Waruna Perera
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

20th Place: 2:08.59
Driver: Sujith Srikantha
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

21st Place: 2:09.42
Driver: Jaron Farquhar
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

Splitting the cost of a Nugget is an even more cost effective way to have a friendly competition among friends. Welcome to the series Jaron!

22nd Place: 2:10:24
Driver: Matthew Janineh
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

Full results:

 

Nugget Nationals 2017 – Round 4, Winton Raceway

Our second event at Winton this year had us a bit nervous with the forecast for rain, but instead of rain, PB’s fell from the sky.

Persistence is paying off, with many of our return competitors dropping a second or more off their previous PB’s.

All photos are courtesty of Steur Imagery. A big shout out to Mel for documenting our day and full albums of all the cars in attendance can be found here and here.

The first Nugget of the day to go sub 1:46.0 and take the previous Nugget Nationals lap time set by Ying in her Echo last year was…

1st Place: 1:43.0
Driver: Thomas “TJB” Bullock
Nugget: 1989 Honda Civic

In a very clear first place was the Honed Civic beating it’s own previous PB of 1:46.6 set in Round 1, with a ridiculous lap time of 1:43.0.

He assures us there’s a 1:42 in this car.

2nd Place: 1:45.7
Driver: Viv Dilkes-Frayne
Nugget: 2001 Daihatsu Sirion GTVI

The next Nugget to crack the 1:46 barrier was Viv. With his usual co-driver Adam overseas, he was able to drive a slightly less thrashed Nugget around into the 45’s and, due to consistency and lap times in the previous events, is the current Nugget Nationals leader.

Anyone who has sat, driven or been near this car can tell you what an amazing feat this lap time is!

3rd Place: 1:46.7
Driver: Daniel Jon
Nugget: 1993 Honda Civic

A new PB for Daniel shaving .2 off his previous lap time. He’s getting much closer to the 45’s club too!

4th Place: 1:47.2
Driver: Zac Edwards
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

Fresh from competing in the Winton Rally Cross event a week earlier, Zac proves he’s no slouch on or off the tarmac with a new PB of 1:47.

5th Place: 1:47.4
Driver: Iain McCowan
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic

The Neverlift Nugget has been with us since the start and we’re stoked to see this car continue to PB in the hands of Iain.

6th Place: 1:48.2
Driver: Liam Murphy
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage

As the second driver of the Silver Bullet, Liam also secured himself a new PB on the day.

7th Place: 1:51.0
Driver: Tommy Chan
Nugget: 1995 Toyota Paseo

We weren’t kidding when we said it was raining PB’s. With a new set of tyres, Tommy managed to secure himself a 1:51.

8th Place: 1:53.4
Driver: Eddie Costa
Nugget: 2006 Mitsubishi Colt

On loan from the collection of Breitkruez, Eddie tries his hand at a Mitsubishi that isn’t an Evo.

9th Place: 1:53.8
Driver: Alex Botton
Nugget: 1993 Suzuki Swift GTI

Yet another PB for Nugget Nationals only Suzuki competitor!

10th Place: 1:54.1
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissa Micra

We first met Mark at our Round 2 event at Haunted Hills, and he’s completed his maiden voyage of Winton with us at Round 4. A great lap time of 1:54 for his first time at this track!

11th Place: 1:54.2
Driver: Stuart Chambers
Nugget: 1998 Mitsubishi Mirage

A familiar face, and a slightly familiar car. Stuart is back competing in Nugget Nationals with his 2nd Mirage.

Second time proved to be a charm as his lilac Mirage beat his old white one by a full second!

12th Place: 1:55.2
Driver: Thomas Loo
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

Now he owns 2 of them, I think we can officially call Thomas a “Honda Enthusiast!” #2SNJNR.

13th Place: 1:55.3
Driver: Shannon Swiderski
Nugget: 1994 Hyundai Excel

The smokiest Nugget from our Dyno Day lives to fight another day and drove back on to the trailer at the end of the event with a new PB!

14th Place: 1:57.9
Driver: Mathew Breitkruez
Nugget: 2006 Mitsubishi Colt

Mat’s been to our track days before, albeit in a substantially different car. To quote the man when asked about the Colt: “It’s almost more fun than the Supra.”

You might not believe it, but we here at NugNats know there’s a lot of truth to that statement!

15th Place: 1:58.7
Driver: Lawrence Ho
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

Same same but different. A new Jazzy Nugget for Lawrence at this event and we hear he’ll be competing at the upcoming H Nationals event too!

16th Place: 1:58.5
Driver: Matthew Janineh
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

17th Place: 1:58.7
Driver: Matthew James
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

3 brand new attendees to track day, brothers Matthew F. and Anthony F. battled it out for their parents love in the triple driven Paseo but were ultimately trumped by their friend Matthew. J.

It’s great to see friends and family sharing the cost of a Nugget that was subjected to 3 times the abuse and still drove home with no issues! This is the essence of Nugget life.

18th Place: 1:58.9
Driver: Vinnie Botton
Nugget: 1997 Nissa Micra

Return competitor Vinnie was back and managed to smash his previous PB by several seconds cracking the 2 min barrier!

19th Place: 1:59.6
Driver: Sujith Srikantha
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz VTI

It’s great to see new faces and first time track goer’s join our series. Welcome Sujith!

20th Place: 1:59.7
Driver: Anthony Falckh
Nugget: 1991 Toyota Paseo

Another first time track goer and second off his older brother, we hope this develops into a fierce brotherly rivalry in the next events!

We’ll be announcing our next event on our Facebook page in the upcoming weeks so stay tuned!

 

Nugget Nationals 2017 – Round 3, Dyno Day

Round 3 of Nugget Nationals again saw our fleet of under powered vehicles congregate at Weltmeister Eastside.

To assist the power challenged Nuggets in the track rounds, we’ve awarded points a little differently and in reverse order.

This means that the Nuggets with the lowest kilowatts have been awarded the highest points for Round 3!

1st place: 47.0kw
Driver: Mark Van Der Veen
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra

2nd place: 48.6kw
Driver: Liam Murphy/Zac Edwards
Nugget: 2001 Mitsubishi Mirage

3rd place: 49.8kw
Driver: Shannon Swiderski
Nugget: 1994 Hyundai Excel

4th place: 50.7kw
Driver: Tommy Chan
Nugget: 1995 Toyota Paseo

5th place: 51.3kw
Driver: Viv Dilkes-Frayne/Adam Mills
Nugget: 2000 Daihatsu Sirion

6th place: 61.6kw
Driver: Thomas Loo/Lawrence Ho
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz

A full photo album of all the cars in attendance can be found over at the Nugget Nationals Facebook page.