Slamfest – taking championship drag racing to the fans

Back in the late '80s Wild Bunch was introduced to Australian Drag Racing; crazy blown sedans that match raced around the country in front of hordes of excited fans. I can still hear Big Darrell Eastlake calling all action from Eastern Creek. Never mind he didn't know what he was talking about...

From these somewhat humble beginnings, today's 5 seconds Top Doorslammers can trace their roots back to the Wild Bunch days. Sure they've come a long way but the DNA of a blown tin top is still there.

Victor Bray was one of the pioneers of the Wild Bunch and a regular on the match racing scene. So it's no wonder that Victor is heavily involved in a movement that's bringing supercharged sedans back to the drag strips around regional Australia.

Along with Peter Kapiris and Maurice Fabietti, Victor formed a company called Pro Modified Australia with the aim of creating an eighth mile racing series for Top Doorslammers. That series is the Slamfest which is now in its 3rd year of operation and continues to grow from strength to strength.

Between the guys it's a good mix of skills, with each being long term racers from different major eastern states. In particular, Peter Kapiris has the appropriate business skills and contacts through his large family business which has been a cornerstone of the Slamfest'a success.

Slamfest is born

The Slamfest got off to a slippery start at Calder Park Raceway back in 2009. With over 22,000 people in the crowd it was a commercial success but the racing surface wasn't up to the task.

"We were really excited," explained Victor, "but the race track just wasn't there for what we require. Our cars were used to tracks that have super traction. For tracks that don't have the big cars run on them as often, they need a day or so of competition before they start getting the traction we need."

After the Calder meeting and one at Mildura it was decided that The Slamfest needed to invest in both the expertise and equipment to prepare better racing surfaces, not only from a safety point of view but to put on the best show possible for the fans.

For the expertise, Promodified Australia turned to the USA and brought across twins Cale and Cody Crisp who were responsible for preparing the tracks for the American Drag Racing League (ADRL). For the equipment, they had a tyre scrubber machine built here in Australia based on a design developed by Peter Kapiris and the guys from the South Coast Drag Racing Association.

With the tools they needed to put on a good show and a TV deal struck with AVE, the number of tracks in the series grew as did competitor numbers, to a point where some of the smaller tracks simply couldn't afford to keep pace with the financial requirements of a 16 car Top Doorslammer field. The major risk for any race track is the cost to actually have the competitors attend and perform.

The Doorslammer teams struck a deal between themselves, that if the track promoter wanted to, the teams would assume more of the risk of rainouts etc. in return for a better chance to increase their income from the event. This proved to be a very important component of the success of Slamfest.

Putting on a show – Slamfest style

As Victor explains there are 3 main objectives for the Slamfest. "One, we need to get the tracks safe so they can handle the horsepower of a Top Doorslammer. Two, take championship drag racing to regional Australia and three, make sure the guys get paid for putting on a great show."

With these objectives in mind the Slamfest team set about creating something different, something unique that was all about the fans.

First thing to go was the traditional elimination format used in most ANDRA events. "The elimination format is great for competition and the racers, but it's not great for the paying public. So we use a variation of the three round format, similar to what the Perth Motorplex uses. We wanted to work out a way so everybody did more runs when the public was there and cut the length of the show down," said Victor.

The Slamfest schedule basically looks like this:

• 11am is non-compulsory test session. Usually half to three quarters of the field will take this opportunity. To keep it fair there is no testing except for the allocated testing session
• 1pm is the 1st qualifier where everybody runs. This sets the field for the 1st round
• The elimination round is next and 4 quickest winners go through to the semi finals
• In the semi-finals, 1 races 4 and 2 races 3
• Then the final is run

Another area that the Slamfest differentiates itself from the main stream series is the level of prize money paid to competitors, with the overall winner collecting over $10,000 for a day's racing. Compare that to the $3,200 that will be paid for the winner of Top Doorslammer at the 2013 Winternationals and you can see one of the reasons why the Slamfest is so popular with competitors.

Local knowledge is everything

It's been a pretty steep learning curve for the Victor, Peter and Maurice and Victor will freely admit he has more respect for promoters now, having experienced the highs and lows of putting together a drag racing event.

"When we were just racers it was all so easy. Get out of here and do this and do that you buggers, you know. But when you're the promoter and the clouds come over, ooohhh it's a bit of a nerve wracking time because you're responsible for a lot of money and when the crowds don't come in... Well, let's just say it's not a good feeling," said Victor.

"We walked in as green horns right, we only had the view of promoting events from a racers prospective, we'd never promoted anything before in our lives and we walked into this situation thinking it would have been easier than it actually turned out to be. We'll run here, we'll run there, we'll do this, here's the start time, that's the finish time. We go to Mildura once early on and we say righto we're gonna run at 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm and 7pm, and through the day no one said a great deal to us except are you sure of your times? And that was about all that we got from the locals."

"We got there and it is 45 degrees and nobody goes out! So we learnt a lot from that. No one turned up whilst the heat was on, but as soon as the sun starts going down, there was a big line of cars with lights coming down the road. So we've just got to listen to the locals and understand the situation. That's been working really well since we learnt that lesson!"

So local knowledge is everything and each track is different, something the guys from the Slamfest have learnt the hard way.

"We were going up to Gladstone," explains Victor. "It's an industrial area and their building big gas plants and factories up there. The first shift finishes at 11am so they won't be able to be here until 12pm and the second shift finishes at 5pm and that's the biggest shift and they won't be able to be here until 6 - 6:30pm."

"So we're all looking at each other going we'd better listen to these guys you know, so we moved it all forward a bit, moved it forward about 2 or 3 hours so we could run a little bit later. Boy-o-boy how right they were. We're lucky we did that otherwise we would have been out doing runs in front of nobody and finished when everyone had turned up!"

The Slamfest continues to grow

Having learnt a lot over the past three years the organisers are looking to consolidate the Slamfest by continuing to develop a show that works for everyone; the fans, the tracks and the racers.

Victor explains – "When we went to Gladstone a while back, I was stunned when I drove through the gates. Now I haven't been to Gladstone for 7 or 8 years or something. I drove through the gate up there and I was just stunned. All the nice fences, a nice wet area down the side and the family areas and boy-o-boy they have done a hell of a job up there!"

"Next year when we go there it will be better again, same as Portland. The first year we went there it had been like that for a long time. Maurice had an accident at Mildura and then we ended up with the big walls there, then we go down to Portland and we end up with big walls there too, so after a year or two there's better facilities - that's what it's all about. It's always better if everybody has a win."

"In Regional Australia we can pull 5,000 people in Gladstone, 5,000 people in Townsville and 5,000 people in Mackay. We're pulling these crowds on one day of racing, we're earning our money and the tracks and the fans are happy. They come and pat you on the back and that's the best thing about the Slamfest since it started. All the Doorslammer drivers and teams comment that the people come past and say thanks for coming to our little town. That's what they say, not once, not twice but 20, 30, 40 times over the weekend, thanks for coming to our little town, we really appreciate the time you put in to coming."

"We've got to establish ourselves out there which we've started to do. Where we've been there for two or three years people expect us to come. We're becoming part of the annual regional calendars, which is really, really good. That's sort of where we want to be with it all, part of the annual attractions for each town we visit."

The Slamfest and ANDRA Championship Drag Racing

It's no secret the ANDRA Championship Drag Racing has been struggling over the last few years, whereas the Slamfest has continued to grow from strength to strength.

"The problem with ANDRA Drag Racing is that senior management has been a bit shook up over the last little while and that's putting it mildly," said Victor.

"We just got another new CEO, that's the third one in a couple of years. So the one we had for a long time, Tony Thornton, he was very stable but didn't want to grow the sport. He did some good things. Not everyone agreed with everything everybody does and I didn't agree with some of the things he did, but I was quite grateful for some of the other things he did."

"Tony left, Greg Humphreys took over and he bull shitted like hell to us and then left us in the lurch. So that was a very bad time for everyone in drag racing. We were all very deflated when he just got up and left one day after he promised us the world and now it has been taken over by a guy named Mal Bulley who is an ex drag racer, very high profile business man and a government negotiator. We have high hopes Mal will put the sport back on track to where we all know it could and should be."

"What I'd like to see is the Slamfest integrated with the ANDRA Championship series. You would have some quarter mile races at the major tracks, you'd have some 1,000 foot races at Calder and Adelaide that have older style length braking areas and then we would have some 1/8th mile racing at places like Mildura and Gladstone to start with, then maybe Alice Springs and Portland eventually as the tracks got up to International standards. Then you would have a championship. Then the best racer would win."

What Victor loves about the Slamfest

"I love the fact that it's regional Australia", said Victor. "That's where I grew up, that's what I did. I grew up match racing. I raced all the big events sure, but I used to run all the small events at all the smaller tracks. It's good going back there and you go to the tracks and the camaraderie between the guys is pretty good, everyone sort of gets on and we're all out there to earn a dollar and have a bit of fun."

Fun it may be but it doesn't take long for the competitive spirit to kick in once someone steps up the pace. Victor explains. "It's getting a little bit competitive now. For example, Zappia never used to come to any events, then he started coming and he certainly turned it around a bit. John's a hell-for-leather guy, he'd rather leave hard with one of the tyres off than not try to go fast. He's stepped up a little bit and everyone's had to step up since and I think everybody has."

"It's got to do with the track conditions more so and driving your car more so than anything else. I think it's the competitive yet laid back nature of the racing, the thankfulness of the local fans. The Doorslammers are kings at the Slamfest. We go there and we are the heroes and people love coming to see us."

"It's relaxing type of racing, it's not you know, I've got to wring this things neck or burn two pistons to try and win this event. It's just not like that."

What will the future hold?

While I've been chatting with Victor is obvious that putting on the Slamfest take a lot of commitment from a lot of people and he's quick to acknowledge the effort of everyone involved.

"Without Peter Kapiris's business acumen combined with his passion for the Slamfest and his racing in general, the series wouldn't be where it is today," said Victor. "On a sadder note, Maurice has had some serious accidents while competing in the Slamfest series. His quick (and expensive) returns to racing following each accident and his ongoing commitment to the series again shows the passion he has to regional Doorslammer racing."

While Peter, Maurice and Victor are at the helm of the organisation, "it's the racers themselves, this is a racers run deal," explains Victor. "The racers, the tracks and the fans, we all work together to make the Slamfest something special, something we can all be proud of."

As far as the future is concerned, Victor hints at some of the possibilities. "I think in our future we might see Slamfest events at major tracks and if you do you might see some 3.90's, some 3.80's or better. I don't know how that's going to pan out but if that happens you may also see some international content."

"So that's probably what we are looking for in the future, consolidate the race events at all the regional tracks that we have, make them as big as they can. Keep the numbers up and the meetings successful and then probably looking for a couple of bigger races throughout the year and maybe some international content not too far down the track."

2013 Slamfest Race Dates (with more dates to be confirmed)

• Heathcote Park Raceway – January 19th
• South Coast Raceway, Portland – February 16th
• Benaraby Raceway, Gladstone – June 29th
• Palmyra Dragway, Mackay - July 13th