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 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:

 

2015 Season Information

NUGGET NATIONALS 2015 SEASON INFORMATION

Here’s some basic information you need to know if you’re going to be competing in 2015.

1)SERIES SIGN UP (Open now):

If you have not previously registered for Nugget Nationals, you will need to register yourself and your car with us using this form:http://goo.gl/Yh0jOw

If you registered with us in 2014, you won’t need to sign up again. If you don’t want to continue to receive updates on the series by email, just let us know and we’ll remove you from the list of registered participants.

2) REGISTRATION FEE (Email to follow):

In order to help us make this series official we’ll be charging a small registration fee this year. In return for your money you’ll receive a sweet merchandise pack and the opportunity to win a real life trophy!

3) WINTON TRACK DAY REGISTRATION – MARCH 21st (Stay tuned):

In the coming weeks, we’ll let you know via email and Facebook when the Nugget Nationals Winton track day entry forms are open.

4) EVENT CALENDAR (Stay tuned)

We’ll release the full calendar of events soon!