And….we’re back for another year of under powered budget racing fun!
It was great to see a field of both new and old competitors descend on a hot Winton track on March 26th to break in the new season.
That strange feeling when you bring an Evo to the track and are the odd one out…
Here’s a wrap up of how the field finished.
1st Place: 1:46.6
Driver: Thomas “TJB” Bullock
Nugget: 1989 Honda Civic
One of the first cars to ever compete in Nugget Nationals in 2014 has been dusted off and is back out on track with a vengeance.
Thomas Bullock and his Honed Nugget “Heathcliff” took top honors for Round 1 yesterday with a great lap time of 1:46.6 in the D15 powered Civic!
When a Nugget is being used as an RnD car for an Engineer, you know it’ll be one to watch in the up coming rounds.
What happens when the 944 challenge winner and a Victorian Rally champ compete in Nugget Nationals in the same car?
They get extremely close lap times.
2nd Place: 1:47.6
Driver: Adam “Millsy” Mills
Nugget: 2002 Daihatsu Sirion GTVI
3rd Place: 1:47.7
Driver: Viv “Vivski” Dilkes-Frayne
Nugget: 2002 Daihatsu Sirion GTVI
Congratulations to Millsy and Viv for harnessing the power of electrical tape and taking out second and third place over the weekend in their co-driven Daihatsu Sirion!
4th Place: 1:47.9
Driver: Daniel “This car is better than my Evo” Jon
Nugget: 1993 Honda Civic
Narrowly missing out on a top three finish was Daniel who managed to finish up in 4th place with his extreme gutter drop technique.
Driver: Zac Edwards
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage
Zac from Techsport showing us the diamond advantage in his Mirage!
The little Mitsubishi cracked into the 40’s this weekend with a lap time of 1:49.0 to secure 5th place.
6th Place: 1:49.5
Driver: Iain “Never Lift” McCowan
Nugget: 1990 Honda Civic
Harnessing the “Never Lift” ethos, the most obnoxious car in the field also joined the exclusive 40’s club.
Congrats Iain!
7th Place: 1:49.6
Driver: Blandon Le
Nugget: 2000 Toyota Echo
While the 1.5 litre big block Sportivo’s dominated the track last year, Blandon has been the first 1.3 litre small block Echo to post a sub 50 lap time, making his trip from NSW worth the frugal petrol money.
8th Place: 1:50.0
Driver: Ricky Wong
Nugget: 1993 Honda Civic
The courtesy car for AMS proved that it isn’t just a convenient option for customers, it also can hold it’s own on a race track. A great lap time for his first outing in this car.
9th Place: 1:50.1
Driver: Liam Murphy
Nugget: 2003 Mitsubishi Mirage
The second driver to the Techsport Mirage, Liam was just shy of a second off Zac’s time. With more rounds this year we’ll keep an eye on how this friendly rivalry progresses!
10th Place: 1:50.5
Driver: “Human” Perry Tien
Nugget: 2003 Mazda 2
Unfortunately Perry wasn’t able to match his PB from last year with the hot track conditions getting in the way of the Melbourne Demio Clubs sole entrant.
11th Place: 1:51.2
Driver: Hayden Ryan
Nugget: 1997 Toyota Starlet
Hayden brushed aside some niggling engine problems in the morning to secure himself a new PB with the Blue Turd.
12th Place: 1:52.7
Driver: Thomas Loo
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz
The co-driven Jazz and return entry was looking mightily stealthy and ninja’d it’s way into a PB for Thomas.
13th Place: 1:53.1
Driver: Steve Cap
Nugget: 1997 Toyota Starlet
Another NSW Nugget making the trip down was Steve in his Starlet. In his first ever excursion to Winton Raceway the Toyota, which was purchased for a measly $150, more than earned it’s lap time!
14th Place: 1:53.2
Driver: Lawrence Ho
Nugget: 2003 Honda Jazz
Friendships and PB’s on the line!
It’s great to see so many friends sharing Nuggets together. The reliability of these cars means that they don’t mine being double stinted over the day resulting in a PB for Lawrence too!
15th Place: 1:54.6
Driver: Alex Botton
Nugget: 1996 Suzuki Swift GTI
A forgotten hero of the 90’s, we were so pleased to see that a non show car GTI has managed to survive the Autosalon era! This is the first Suzuki entrant we’ve had in our series and even more incredible is that when this car was purchased it hadn’t been started since 2014.
16th Place: 1:54.8
Driver: David Donnoli
Nugget: 2001 Toyota Echo
David is also back this year with revised sticker livery to disguise the dents. This car is the embodiment of a Nugget with it’s sub $500 purchase price and extreme resilience to anything he or his brother had ever put it through.
17th Place: 1:57.7
Driver: Tommy Chan
Nugget: 1996 Toyota Paseo
No, don’t adjust your monitors. We know you’re probably fooled by it’s expensive looking sports coupe styling, but the Toyota Paseo is actually an eligible Nugget. With super car pedigree and the well renowned 5efte motor this car is already a winner in our eyes.
18th Place: 2:03.2
Driver: Mike Button
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra
For keen Nugget follower’s you’ll note that this particular Nugget Nissan has previously competed in the Nationals as the old Nakama Nugget.
The car has found it’s way back to the track behind the hands of the Button family as a cheap and fun way to get into circuit driving.
Judging by the smiles on their faces at the end of the day, we’ll be sure to see them at our next events!
19th Place: 2:07.2
Driver: Vincent Button
Nugget: 1995 Nissan Micra
Round 2 will be held on May the 6th at Haunted Hills, our first hill climb event!
Check out the Facebook page for more details: https://www.facebook.com/nuggetnationals/
Special mention goes out to James’ and his RallyNug!
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