EvolutionOz Nationals 2012 Day 2 Wrap Up
Not often do you get to see this many track animals congregating in one place, but that’s the beauty of the EvolutionOz Nationals. For the 7th year running, the EvolutionOz car club of Australia held its annual Nationals (or “Nats” for the usuals). This year the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution gods descended upon the town of Goulburn, New South Wales, bringing with them 68 Evo owners to battle. Owners came from interstate, enduring long journeys just to be part of the Nats, and it’s safe to say that they thoroughly enjoyed it.
Unable to make the Saturday due to personal commitments, I drove down on Sunday to a chilly and cold airport located not far from Wakefield Park Raceway.
It was here that Sunday would be starting for most competitors, who would be doing a rolling start 800 metre drag race, followed by a high speed motorkhana and then a switch to Wakefield Park for the super special stage in the afternoon.
With off-the-shelf aero parts becoming more readily available for the Evo, this year there were a lot more cars with some serious aero packages consisting mostly of wide-bodies, front splitters, huge rear wings, canards and some intricate DIY’s.
Combine this with semi-slicks/slicks, and you have one seriously fast car. With so much speed and down-force being achieved, the organisers of this year’s Nationals enforced the safety rules with “safety points” being awarded to each entrant and even discounted entry for safety equipment.
The runway was supposed to be swept, as was told to the organisers, but clearly it wasn’t. This deterred a few entrants from going WOT, but to many others, it was an opportunity to test out the handling of their car whilst entertaining the crowd with some awesome skids and rock throwing! Check it out!
Nik “The Spartan” Kalis in his WTAC winning Evo 9
Bill in his Voltex-equipped Evo 8 RS. One of the cleanest evo’s on the day.
Brad and Tristan drove together in their Evo 6 Race car and secured 1st place in their class of Highly Modified.
Noah and his ridiculously powerful 4G63 Evo 9.
At the end of each group, each car would slowly track back down the runway to the start. It looked like an Evo parade and provided some great shots!
Many people were setting some great times regardless of the loose gravel and paintwork damage, all in the name of motor-sport.
Now came the change to the high speed motorkhana, where there was some tight technical weaving and then some awesome u-turns, which set the scene for some great 4 wheel drifting and more rock spraying!
This particular Evo 7 demonstrated exactly how it should be done.
Scott, a competitor in last year’s WTAC, came all the way from Brisbane to compete and lost his rear wing during the drags!
One of the cleanest street Evo 9′s I’ve seen.
Ross and his Evo 2 production car performed well throughout the day.
Jason Naidoo (bad-ass!) in his freshly-done Evo 8 MR. Winner of the Unrestricted Modified Class.
Toby Long and his Evo X have been setting blistering times at Wakefield for a street car and definitely didn’t hold back on the gravel! Toby secured 1st place in his class of Modified.
Anthony Wilkens’ Evo IX is stock-looking and a great example of why the Evo is so popular with enthusiasts.
Four wheel drifting on the grass and spraying the photographers with a mud shower!
Noah’s Evo 9 made it’s presence felt with it’s mental power!
Jamie did not hold back at all on the Sunday during either event. No mercy for his Evo 8 MR as shown here, right foot mashed and having fun. It paid off too, winner of his class in Semi Modified.
Nik Kalis had some improvements to his car including a new rear wing and some further lightening of the car’s weight. It will be awesome to see what times it will be laying down at WTAC 2012. He came 2nd overall in the Unrestricted Modified Class.
Fin was definitely a crowd pleaser, giving his car a boot-ful and letting loose. A car that is set up for something totally different, he did well to secure 3rd place in his class of Super Modified. You will often see this car attending circuit club track days laying down times and having fun.
CP9A’s are slowly becoming more affordable and allowing people to turn them into dedicated track cars.
Peter Howard and his freshly-built 8MR RS looked awesome!
During the transition period to Wakefield Park, some members took time to chat away and check out each other’s cars including Yolanda, Peter, Noah and co.
One of Voltex’s largest wings, the Type 5V.
Heading to Wakefield, the sun came out indefinitely and warmed up a bit, thank god! Not knowing how the event format from a photographical point of view, we ended up spectating for an hour on the pit wall, with the cameras down enjoying the sun and wishing we were out there driving. We headed out the back to the hillclimb part of the course which we had never seen used up until this day. I honestly though only Go Karts or something used it. According to the organisers, many other car clubs are eager to run this type of event at Wakefield which is a good thing for grass-roots motor-sports fans!
Dan’s Evo 8 MR has undergone a slight graphics change since I last saw it.
I thought it was flat here, but there are plenty of dips and rises!
The line-up was huge with so many cars competing, but it gave competitors a chance to talk about the super stage. It was, by far, the event’s highlight.
Michael Hiscoe’s Evo 9 GT was blisteringly quick on Saturday, lapping Wakefield with a 1.02 on slicks. Winner of the Super Modified Class and Outright winner of the Evo Nationals 2012. Stay tuned for a full feature very soon!
It was great to see a few Evo X’s on the track being driven how they were meant to be. Props to the owners for taking the risks.
V-Sport’s second car driven by Nicholas was out blasting around!
Ross Street in his other Evo 8 Race car was having a ball in the hill-climb sessions. He drove well and consistent throughout the weekend and secured 3rd place in his class of Highly Modified.
Day 2 was coming to a close as the sun was coming down, bringing the temperatures to just 3 degrees! We decided to head home early before the presentation and get a head start on all the traffic coming back from the snow.
I’d like to say thanks to everyone over at EvolutionOz for organising such a great day. It looked like everyone had fun and I can’t wait until next year’s Nats. Who knows, I might even enter…!
RESULTS -
Unrestricted Modified
1st – Jason Naidoo
2nd – Nik Kalis
3rd – Phil Heafey
Super Modified
1st – Michael Hiscoe
2nd – David Spears
3rd – David Finnimore
Highly Modified
1st – Tristan Catford/Brad Kirkwood
2nd – Andrew Field
3rd – Ross Street
Semi Modified
1st – Jamie Mischkonigg
2nd – Nicholas Bates
3rd – Samuel Newman
Modified
1st – Toby Long
2nd – Alistair Court
3rd – Wombata
Restricted Modified
1st – Andrew Hedges
2nd – Hamish Scanlain
3rd – Greg Holloway
