SLAM DANCE

SUMMERNATS SLAM BROUGHT TWO DAYS OF AUTOMOTIVE HIJINKS TO HEATHCOTE PARK RACEWAY - INCLUDING THE LONG-AWAITED RETURN OF TOP FUEL

- SIMON TELFORD

TO slightly misquote the 1989 Kevin Costner-starring flick Field of Dreams, "if you build it, they will come". Such was the mantra for new Heathcote Park Raceway owner Lance Warren, who got the keys to the facility on 31 December last year. Not even six months later, the track was hosting the very first Victorian Summernats Slam, headlined by a six-car Top Fuel field.

Rather than closing the gates for a ground-up rebuild, Lance chose to make continual incremental improvements to the facility throughout the year, with racing only stopping three weeks prior to Summernats Slam to resurface the track.

"It is a massive property 116 acres - and it required a huge amount of work every single day," says Lance. "The asphalt was 45 years old with lumps and bumps, with Armco in the deep end. Now that is all fixed. We have a brand-new return road, 'chute-pack area, full lighting, concrete walls all the way, bigger staging lanes and much more.

"With the support of sponsors, racers and crew, we've managed to put every cent we've earned back into the track." The deal to run Summernats Slam at HPR was only announced very late in March, and Lance's team needed every moment until the start of Slam on 21 May to have the venue ready to rock.

The program for this event was different to the version of Summernats Slam we've seen at Sydney Dragway, which included a Grand Champion chase and Summernats-style Skid Row. At Heathcote, round five of the Australian Top Fuel Championship was the headline act, supported by Top Bike, a field of Sportsman racers, a Burnout Masters qualifying skid comp and a small show 'n' shine.

It had been 30-odd years since Heathcote Park had seen Top Fuel, and we decided we had to be part of the action, bringing our Barra-powered Mazda MX-5 to compete in Super Sedan.