Motorvation 39: results and gallery

By: Street Machine Magazine

After last year’s scorcher, which saw the Perth Motorplex literally on fire at one point, it was nice to experience a Motorvation with the temperatures hovering around the low 30s for a change. Sure, it was still pretty warm, but Motorvation 39 was a far more comfortable event than its predecessor, especially if you spent a lot of time in the Elite tent checking out some of the coolest cars in Western Australia.

First published in the March 2025 issue of Street Machine

And this year’s Elite line-up was the best I’ve seen for quite a few years. It was a real credit to Rachael ‘Durbz’ Durbidge, who worked her butt off to bring together a diverse selection of top-of-the-line vehicles, with hot rods, muscle cars, full-on burnout cars, lowriders, and even a classy European on display. Some we’d seen before, like Thomas Warr’s HQ and Mitchell Rando’s EH (SM, Sep ’24), but with cars of that calibre, there’s always something new to discover.

With three days of mayhem to get through, the event officially kicked off on the Friday, with cruising, roll racing, drag racing and Skid Row serving as the appetisers for the invite-only, winner-takes-all Friday $5K Burnouts. Gavin van Breukelen in the FLACCID VP Commodore came out in top in the Pro class, pocketing $3000 for his trouble. Shane Lowden scored $1500 for his Open-class win in the YBMODIFIED Commodore ute, and Joseph Hollis’s F-truck, FAT F, took out the $500 Sportsman class.

There was no easing up on Saturday, with the Supercruise and Skid Row both getting underway around 9am, while at 11, the Elite tent heaved with onlookers as the covers were pulled off four brand-new builds.

Lacey Sines’s HJ ute was the first to be unveiled, and while Lacey’s not quite old enough to drive, she’s got a pretty amazing car to learn in. If you haven’t figured it out, her dad is Steve Sines of KINGER fame, and he and Lacey spent the past three years building the ute in the shed at home – a real credit to their determination and perseverance. Home-built it might have been, but the HJ certainly did not look out of place amid some very flash company.

Motorvation 38 results and gallery

Joe Thring’s VF Commodore ute was up next, built by Matt James and his Unwanted Automotive team. Boasting stunning build quality, the VF was also packed with custom touches that really set it apart, especially in the engine bay.

Jarrad Stocks unveiled his HX Premier next, a black-on-black, matching-numbers car with a 308, Turbo 400 and GTS dash. Restored to perfection, it had an appreciative crowd around it all weekend.

The final car revealed was definitely something out of left field: a 1948 International Harvester Metro built on an HZ panel van chassis and powered by a Duramax 2.8-litre turbo-diesel! While the body has been left in a nicely raw and rusted state, the interior was another story, with a wild metalflake paintjob on the dash and doors.

Out on the track, there were plenty of tyres getting destroyed throughout the day, and a decent crowd stuck it out until evening to soak up all the burnt rubber and smoke they could handle once the Sportsman, Open and Pro burnout qualifiers got underway at 5:45pm.

After a very late finish on Saturday, I was a little late getting to the track on Sunday morning and missed some of the cars battling it out in the Grand Champion driving events, but I did witness some carnage. After putting on a couple of decent smoke shows, Noddy Perkins had an input shaft seal fail in his HQ and was instantly out of the running, while Steve Sines ended up with a puddle of oil under Lacey’s ute. Thankfully, the issue ended up being a loose fitting rather than a catastrophic failure. A few regular Grand Champ contenders were also back for another crack. Ian Latta really gave it to his rotary-powered Morris van in the slalom, while last year’s champion Thomas Warr looked to be in a spot of bother thanks to the wrong rev limiter chip in his HQ ute’s ignition. Peter Taplin emerged as a real threat this year in his nine-second HT ute.

But it was Mitchell Rando who came through to grab the big trophy, with his SEQUEL EH Holden handling the slalom brilliantly and hauling arse down the strip with the supercharged LS on song. After narrowly missing out to Thomas Warr last year, it was a well-earned victory for Mitch.

Next year will mark the 40th running of Motorvation, so it’s time for all you West Aussies to get cracking on your projects so you can join in the fun – and mayhem – of WA’s premier car event. See you there!

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. Reece Lougher’s little Corolla put on one of the most colourful burnout displays of the weekend. Packing a tunnel-rammed LS built by Blown Motorsports, the Corolla blasted out an impressive smoke show, and while Reece didn’t make it through to the finals, no doubt we’ll be seeing more of him and the ’Rolla in future.

2. Jarrad Stocks put together his beautifully restored HX Premier with a lot of help from his dad, Mick. It came from the factory fully loaded with a 308, Turbo 400, GTS dash, air con, GTS rims and the black-on-black colour combo, and Jarrad bought it just before COVID hit and had to endure a nervous six-month wait for it to arrive.

3. The top three in this year’s Grand Champion stakes (L-R): Thomas Warr, Mitchell Rando and Peter Taplin. Warr and Rando already have previous Grand Champ form, so Peter was a bit of a dark horse this year in his 1JZ-powered HT ute.

4. Ronny Harvey had his HELLFEARD Holden panel van going better than ever at Motorvation 39 now that he’s on the BYE Performance program. This legendary van was the first car to ever do a burnout at Motorvation, so it’s amazing that it’s still doing it almost 40 years later!

5. Peter Hutson and Sandy Dempster brought along their super-clean HK, and with a tunnel-rammed, solid-roller 406 small-block for power, it’s not just a pretty face.

6. Yes, we know they never made an XL coupe, but Julia Jones owns one, thanks to the talents of Leon Conway. A legend in the early-Falcon scene in WA, Leon grafted a set of XL rear quarters onto an XM hardtop to created Julia’s Windsor V8-powered ride. The XL front was a lot easier to fit, as the earlier-model gear bolts straight on.

7. Bailey Djuric had his XY ute set to kill every time he hit the pad, turning the 358ci D3 Roush Yates SVO small-block Ford to 9000rpm all night long in a staunch showcase for the workmanship of engine builders V&A Performance.

8. Bruno Gianoncelli – the bloke that built ‘Mercules’ – rocked up with a Merc of a more European persuasion at Motorvation 39. His W111 Mercedes coupe is a study in restraint and class, made even cooler with the addition of airbags.

9. Cody Walker’s Morris 1000 probably has 20 times the horsepower it came from the factory with, as he somehow managed to stuff an LS topped with a Victor Jr intake and APD billet carb into the thing. Cody put on a great show in his first burnout comp, popping both tyres within a second of each other.

10. Joe Thring recently had Unwanted Automotive build him an absolutely stunning VF ute dubbed ORNATE (left), as a follow-up to his to his more understated skid car build, another VF ute called TURMOIL (right). While ORNATE was also built for burnouts, it will probably spend a bit of time on the show circuit first.

11. Jack Alfirevich finished on the podium in both the Pro and Open burnouts, with AUGASM taking second spot in Pro and his JACKPOT Commodore emerging victorious in Open. That achievement earned him two tickets to Summernats 38 – a Wildcard entry and a Pro Series spot.

AUSTIN-TATIOUS

If there was an award for ‘Dare to be Different’, it surely must go to Adam Wood, who rocked up in his 1948 Austin K2 truck. Well, it used to be truck; these days it’s on a custom-built chassis and sported the 3.0L turbo-diesel V6 running gear from an Audi A4!

Adam set himself a budget of just $10,000 for the build, although he did end up blowing it by around 20 per cent. Hey, what’s a couple of grand between friends?

DAD OF THE YEAR

One of the most inspiring stories to come out of Motorvation 39 was the unveiling of Lacey Sines’s HJ ute, built over three years with her dad, West Aussie burnout legend Steve Sines of KINGER fame.

Steve has documented the whole build on his Facebook page, so if you have any doubts about his claims of building 95 per cent of the car on his own, then you might want to go and check out the photos. Steve does credit Neil Moneypenny from Xclusivefx for providing plenty of guidance and advice during the build.

GRAND CHAMP: THE SEQUEL

Having won Grand Champion at Motorvation 37 with his LS-powered Camaro, Mitchell Rando hoped to make it two for two at last year’s event in his stunning SEQUEL EH Holden.

After placing second to Thomas Warr’s HQ ute on that occasion, Mitch spent the past year fine-tuning the EH and ironing all the bugs out, and his hard work was rewarded this year with a second Grand Champ gong.

“I had an issue with a single belt running everything, so I did some research, and when we were in the States, I found a pulley kit that seems to have fixed the issue,” he said.

While the EH presents very well, the driving events was where the car really shone, and it sounded super strong on the Motorplex eighth-mile. “It felt quick, especially in the slalom,” Mitch said. “It’s like a little go-kart.”