Welcome to our blog on our recent trip to Motive DVD's "2019 Runway Thrasher" at Cootamundra Airport. Our journey began during the early hours of the morning on the 12th of September. Everyone was awake and ready to travel 711km to Coota we were all chasing PB's, Power skids and BBQ.

A little bit about Cootamundra; Coota is a small rural town in New South Wales were the locals are always down for a chat about your car and love when all the racers from around Australia come and visit their local town. There’s not a lot to do or see in this town but they have a nice coffee shop decent pub and a kick ass runway.

Day 1 of racing brought PB's and some heartbreak for our group.

Stathi Driving his Ford Territory (XSPSI) was keen and egger as he was first down the runway straight off the trailer he ran a 9.8 this was an incredible achievement for him as he has never done a 9second pass at Cootamundra given he has been trying for 2 years. during the day he got faster and faster by making a few track side tweaks ending the day with a 9.45 @ 146MPH a PB not only at Coota but for the car itself proving that the new setup was a step in the right direction.

Joe in his Ford Territory (MRSCAR) ran a 9.72 for its first pass out and only got faster as the weekend went on even though it was having teething issues, showing that the car is definitely going to be fast with a little more seat time once these little issues are resolved.

Ben in his big turbo LS manual ute had one rollercoaster of a day as to be expected for his first ever drag racing event. He was responsible and ran the car on low boost for his first 3 passes managing a best of 11.8 @ 128MPH, After he got a grip on how the car behaves he turned it up to 11 with high boost on and came back to the pits with this to say "Awesome launch, grabbed 3rd and it just went pff!" See images below 

Disclaimer* The weld that broke was not done by us but by a previous owner of the turbo.

After Ben, Chris and Labz had diagnosed the problem Ben decided to call every welder near by on google until he found one located in Young (Approx. 30min drive each way) so off Ben and Labz went to get this turbo repaired ASAP!

(On behalf of Ben and the rest of our group we would like to thank Sutherlands Welding and Fabrication for getting this repair done on little to no notice and doing such a good job Friendly and helpful service as well as being a fellow car nut. Ben also wishes you the best of luck building your 600hp 383 stroker HQ one tonner)

Once in young and after dropping the housing off to be welded they searched for something to do to pass the time and stumbled into a "Beer library" and had a drink.

An hour or so later in the day they had arrived back to the Runway with a fixed turbo housing

The boys put it all back together and had Ben out racing again.

Chris in his manual Nissan 180SX was using this day to dial in his launch his first pass was a 12.11 @ 123MPH in between passes CT was adjusting his 2-step taking boost out so that he didn’t spin off the line aswell as "swearing at it a lot" and throughout the day had a few hit and miss passes as to be expected with a manual..

Jimmy/Anthony in Marios Ford Falcon XY (DAORNG) had a great first day out racing running an 11.3 Then did a PB for the car of 10.90 and finally his PB for the event and car which was a 10.5 @ 126MPH taking the win against Andrew Hawkins in his own GTR that ran a 10.6

Matt in Colemens Prem Wagon had a good time thrashing his mate’s car as unfortunately Coleman himself had to work and couldn’t attend this event. Matt set a PB for this event of 11.89 @115MPH and had one hell of a time doing power skids.

The first night after racing and its BBQ TIME!

After a great day out racing it was time to head back to home base and have same rest, relaxation and a well-deserved beer or two... or three as well as BBQ did I mention BBQ? Sam and the guys cooked up a storm. After having a good feed and a beer or 6 it was time to go to the Motive DVD after party at the Globe (the Globe is that decent pub I mentioned earlier.) The after party gave us a good chance to catch up with some of the locals and other drivers from the event and talk about our common enthusiasm for all things automotive.

DAY 2 of racing begins... But not all drivers go??

Yes, you read that right. not all drivers went out racing again on the second day as unfortunately Stathi enjoyed himself a little too much the night before but it’s not every day when a Ford Territory goes 9.45 @ 146MPH am I right?

Saturday morning as we all woke up, we headed down to the little coffee shop down the street. The local police were great and let us drive our drag cars on the streets from the event the night before as long as nobody did anything stupid and respected the roads and other drivers. Unfortunately, there was one person who was doing the wrong thing (Not from our group) so HWY patrol came from Canberra and pulled some people over (Thankfully not from our group.) 

Anyways back to racing.

CT did a 12.10 @ 119MPH to start the day off on the cold surface and after some more minor adjustments managed to do a PB of 10.60 in his manual Nissan 180SX but sadly on his following run snapped a shaft and didn’t have any luck in finding a replacement on the day.

Joe kept going faster with each pass. Joes PB for the event and car was a 9.68 @ 147MPH

Ben continued to work on his shifting and launching skills and he set his PB of 11.1 @ 130MPH, beating a twin turbo Torana (even though the Torana went into engine protection mode). Bens closing pass for the event was an 11.5 @ 138MPH with a 2.6 60ft because he stalled it at the lights.. oops.

Matt kept having fun and at the end of the event found some street tyres off one of the locals and sent it on down the line burning rubber down the runway putting on a show for all the spectators.

Jimmy had some good fun in the XY racing anything that lined up next to him. one race that we all remember was when Jimmy lined up against the only other XY at the event and went side by side down the line but taking the win by only a car length.

Stathi left XSPSI at home base for the day and was helping out all the drivers in our group dial in their cars. We won’t say that Stathi beat the RS3. All we will say is that Stathi did a 9.45 @ 146MPH and the RS3 did a 9.6 @ 148MPH