Winternationals June 2008
What can you say about the Winternationals, an event that has over 40 years of history, steeped in tradition and now the biggest drag racing event outside of North America. In my opinion, the Winters is the event of the year, huge crowds, passionate fans and above all else the best air we get to run in all year.
This made the 2008 Winter’s the ideal place for us to unveil our new Toyota Aurion. Months of planning and work have gone into turning one of our Toyota Camry’s into a TRD Aurion, and the results speak for themselves. The car has turned out great and is a real head turner.
With Toyota’s help, we put a lot of energy into making both our teams and Toyota’s presence at this years Winter’s a big deal. On hand, we had the Targa Tasmania TRD Aurion of Neal Bates and Coral Taylor, the TRD Corolla of Simon and Sue Evans as well as one of the TRD Hi-Lux hero utes. But the star of the show is undoubtedly our new TRD Aurion. Of course there was our team TRD Hi-Lux (left of pic). As a team, we went all out to make Toyota’s presence at the 2008 event something memorable, and judging by the reaction of the fans and other racers, we succeeded.
But not all things go to plan. With the car up on jack stands and the boys giving the car the once over before the unveiling, it was time to get the car on the ground.
As it was being let down, one of the jack stands slipped on the uneven ground and the car fell off the jack stand. Now Gonz being Gonz, nothing really fazes him. Me, on the other hand, well, I was tripping out because we are less than 5 minutes away from the reveal and the pro jack is jammed up under the new front!! Gonzo shows his true professionalism by getting the car down on the ground and covered up under the big silk car cover with about a minute to spare before we open up the display.
With Todd Connolly, from Toyota , as well as Peter Trevaskis from the Project Group, on hand to help unveil the car as well, plus several different media outlets we were looking to get maximum exposure for our team and Toyota, and when the media and guests are allowed in we were blown away by how many people turned up.
Rob Oberg handled the MC duties, and Todd, myself and Steve Bettes, Manager of Willowbank Raceway addressed the crowd. We had a great response which couldn’t have been any better and with the interviews going well past the allotted time, we finally got down to a great catered lunch that was organised by both Sue and Sharon Rowsell. Sue Dilger from Castrol told the girls it was the best spread she had seen put on at a racetrack – great job girls.
We had some great help to bring it all together, Dave Johnson has done a great job on the panel and paint, Darren Trass an outstanding job on the airbrushing and finally Street Impact Design put together a great wrap for the car. Above all else I want to thank Todd Connolly and Toyota for having the faith in us to really replicate the true essence of the new TRD Aurion.
I think our new TRD Aurion marks a true turning point for drag racing. We now have a very passionate car manufacturer keen on our sport, and as a team we are looking to make their place in drag racing something special.
I think Todd summed it up best by saying “The new car, the TRD Aurion Pro FX opens a new door and a new era for Toyota motorsports operation in Australia. The Australian market really deserves to have this level of competition and we hope to see more brands following our footsteps into the sports compact drag racing scene”.
