What makes the Grand Champion award at Street Machine Summernats different from all others is the driving component and very often they are the deciding factor in the hunt for the sword, and that was certainly the case this year. With Johnny Tosevski’s gorgeous twin-turbo VL Calais judging in the Elite Top 10 and scoring People’s Choice, it had the edge on points enroute to the Summernats burnout pad.

Frank Zammit’s incredible XW ute certainly found favour with the judges in the hall, winning everything that wasn’t nailed down, up to and including Top Judged Elite.

But when the light turned green for the slalom, Adam Bickerstaff’s Viking Hotrods-built, blown Coyote-powered ’56 F100 emerged as a forced to be reckoned with, finishing second and third in each of the two driving events to claw its way up the order and emerge victorious.

The final three included Adam’s Effie (SM, September 2024, Ben Fink’s ’68 Camaro (SM, Oct 2025), and Dean Rickard’s HT Monaro (SM, January 2021), and when Adam was announced as the winner, the look on his face was priceless.

SM: Adam, congrats on becoming the Street Machine Summernats 38 Grand Champion!

AB: Thank you very much. Thanks to everybody involved, and to Street Machine. I just cannot believe it; I’m dumbfounded.

SM: It’s one of the biggest accolades in our sport. Has it sunk in yet?

AB: I don’t think this will sink in for a while; I haven’t stopped shaking. It’s going to take some getting used to.

SM: You wheeled the absolute hell out of this thing in the Grand Champion driving events, without having had much seat time.

AB: I’ve driven it around the block and I gave it a good poke at that time, but I didn’t want to do too much because I didn’t want to get any stonechips and whatnot on it, so I was very limited on driving. But I like driving, and I was pretty confident in my abilities. It was just how the car was going to perform, and it did well!

SM: You’ve just received this iconic Summernats Grand Champion sword, plus there’s twenty grand in prizemoney as well!

AB: It’s awesome; it’s unbelievable. It’s not really going to put a dent in the build cost, but it’s definitely well appreciated!

SM: I can tell you’re absolutely over the moon. Go enjoy it with your mates, and congratulations again.

AB: Thank you so much!