Rotorstock 7 started out grey and overcast but as they day went on the weather brightened up providing us with some great entertainment on track with the HKS Drag Series and RWYB and elsewhere around site including the new sprint track.
View more photos on the Rotorstock 7 Gallery page.
Despite some threatening looking weather the track opened to the first few eager Run What Ya Brung (RWYB) participants on time with some HKS racers also taking advantage of the early track time for some testing before their first qualifying session.
The Show n Shine started off relatively slowly but after a quick scout round of the club areas we soon had it populate with some top quality cars which led to some tough de
cisions being made in the judging for the top 3 cars in the show. With the pictured Toyota Supra the eventual winner.
This very clean Suzuki Swift was one of the first cars to turn up and the owners put a great deal of effort into cleaning the car itself, and they were very unlucky to miss out on second place. When the sun came out the Cosmic Black Metallic Pearl paintjob really caught the eye.
As ever the RWYB competition was fiercly fought between all those taking part with the leaders changing throughout the day.
The cars of the HKS Drag Series were the ones to watch throughout the day and although there were some big names missing, those that were here had some excellent battles in all of the classes. We even saw an excellent 7.53 second pass from Leon Green in his Pro Toyota Supra and an equally impressive 9.8 second run from Rob Shadwell in his Street class Skyline. The full race report will be published at www.japdragseries.co.uk.
For the first time ever, there was a HKS Academy competition which acts as a feeder class for the HKS Drag Series, intended for those who would like to try out racing in a competition format before comitting and investing in upgrading their cars and equipment and it proved to be a huge success.
The sprint track made its debut at Rotorstock 7 and what great addition it was to the show! The track was continuously busy from start to finish, and with just under 40 people entering the competition was tough. All were battling it out to claim trophies for the top three fastest times of the day and the inter-club competition prize.
The track was a mixture of fast sweeping right hander’s, 90 degree left and rights and hairpins; perfect as it didn’t favour any one type of car. There was great variety of vehicles from, of course, the newest RX8’s, to Lotus’s, to drifting Nissan Skyline’s. One for the more usual cars was Tony Kirk’s Tiger Avon fitted with a modified RX8 engine. The car, which looks like a Caterham, flew round the track and was holding the top spot for the majority of the day.
Other notable entries were Umar Masood in his Mazda RX7, who started very steadily at around 52’s per lap but by the end of the day posted a very respectable time of 41.84, just 1.7 seconds off the eventual winner.
Leroy Anderson also entertained in his Mitsubishi Evo 3 by launching off the line in spectacular fashion and four wheel drifting around the track.
The day though belonged to Robbie Kazandjian who had studied the track by walking it first thing and worked out how to get his yellow RX8 around the track the quickest. He posted the fastest time on his very last run of the day which dropped Anthony Kirk down to second and Mark Nash, in his very fast Lotus Elise Turbo (fitted with a very good handbrake!) to third. Robbie also claimed the inter-club competition win for the RX8 Owners Club.
Rotorstock 7 started out grey and overcast but as they day went on the weather brightened up providing us with some great entertainment on track with the HKS Drag Series and RWYB and elsewhere around site including the new sprint track.
The Maxxd team visited Santapod again this year and were graced with good weather, and lots of automotive PORN!
As well as several key new show cars breaking cover to for the first time, evening revellers were also spoiled with a plethora of different DJs and musical acts, including 80s chart-toppers ‘Dr and The Medics’ whipping the crowd into a frenzy on the Saturday night with a non-stop set of well-known hits including their global smash ‘Spirit In The Sky’.
Commenting after the event, a weary but delighted David Lloyd Jones, Santa Pod’s General Manager said; ‘As you can imagine, we’re ecstatic to have had so many guests this year. The weather obviously helped immensely, being shorts weather from the outset, but I also believe that the unique mix of acts and attractions that Bug Jam has is a key part of its success. Whatever you’re into, it’s here and in a safe and friendly family environment. We’re already planning on how to make it even better for our silver anniversary event next year! Do join us!’