Vancouver Island’s

Custom Culture

Mag az ine

Volume 1 Issue 2

Movie Cars

Reader’s BeatersCenterfold Pin-Up

Motocross

Cassidy SpeedwayRumble on the Runway

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CONTENTS

CONTACT: 250-802-5652viperformance@shaw.cawww.viperformance.ca

Publisher: Mona-Lisa CarstensenLogo Design: Don MacKayEditors: Gord MacKayGraphic Design: Mona-Lisa Carstensen Writers: Mona-Lisa Carstensen, DiscoQuinn, Ken Keating, Caile Donaldson, Jim Muir , David C. Atkin & Jarrod Brown of Oversteer MagazinePhotography: Powder Puff Photography, Mike Backe, Divine Photography, Many Shades Photography, Patrick Mulvaney Photography, Gord MacKay and Mona-Lisa Carstensen

VI Performance Magazine is published by Static Entertainment & Publishing. Articles do not necessarily reflect the official company policies or opinions. Although this is a free magazine, Subscriptions requested for direct delivery may incur a handling & shipping fee which varies according to quantity and area of delivery.

3 Custom Culture

4 About the Publisher

5 Braggin’ Rights

6 DQ’s Dirt on the Drift

8 Movie Cars

9 Joshua Whitenuts

10 Younger Than Yesterday

12 SEMA Pics

14 Reader’s Beaters

15 Eye Candy

16 Centerfold Pinup

18 Western Speedway 2011

22 Rumble on the Runway 2011

26 Rambler on the Runway

28 Motocross: The Greatest Sport in the World!

30 Cassidy Speedway

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Custom Culture is an American neologism used to describe art work, vehicles, hair styles, and fashion. The term comes from the early 1950’s in the United States when the youth wanted to rebel against the system. The sect that this article will talk most about is custom cars, and automotive icons from that time era.

The ideas of the custom cul-ture have survived, and are still strong even today. Obviously, there are a lot more way to cus-tomize a car these days then there were back then. The dif-ference between then and now is that the customization happens in shops, rather than in the ga-rages of the car owners.

In the early days of hot rodding, there were many styles and ways of doing things. Over the years this sub culture has evolved into a huge business, making many people famous along with it.

The people who influenced the custom culture back in the day like ED (Big Daddy) Roth, and Dean Jefferies became icons of the people involved in the sub-set. Still to this day people know who Rat Fink is. Ed (Big Daddy)

Roth was the genius behind the creation of Rat Fink to show his dislike for things that were hap-pening.

This sub culture encompassed many different areas of interest, other than just cars. There was a large section of motorcycle en-thusiasts who really embodied the idea of anarchy and disdain for the system. These days that section has become ‘hard-core’.

Graffiti would spring off this cul-ture also, and would become a huge problem during the 1980’s, and 1990’s. People discontinued building custom parts for their cars and motorcycles, in turn leaving it to the aftermarket, and custom machine shops that be-came destined to make a mint off these parts.

Chuck Barris came from this era also. He is best known for build-ing the ‘Bat Mobile’ that was used in the TV show from the 1960’s, Bat Man. This car is still displayed today in car shows, and Chuck is still signing auto-graphs. He is a true icon of the custom culture.

A hot rod was only as limited as your imagination, and people were doing wild things with their cars. The idea was to have a car that nobody else had ever seen and that could beat most other cars in a drag race. Drag racing also came from this sub culture.

You may know a few of the peo-ple who grew up during this era. To name a few of them, Chip Foose learned from his dad Sam Foose who grew up in the middle of this era. He hung out with Vic Edelbrock; who as we all know created Edelbrock Performance Parts.

Sam and Vic were around during this time era building hot rods out of a two bay garage in Cali-fornia. The list of famous people

that came from this era goes on and on. There is probably not enough computer storage space on the planet to name them all.

TV shows like American Hot Rod, and Overhaulin’ are throw-backs to the days that developed a huge following of people who watch every episode. As time goes on there will be more of these shows put on TV, and they will always draw a huge audi-ence of viewers.

People love to look at custom cars, and watch them being built. The latest addition to the scene is the kids of today building the import cars, now seen in movies like ‘The Fast & Furious’. Times may change, but the passion for building cool cars doesn’t!

– by David C. Atkinwww.articlesbase.com/authors/

david-c-atkin/251715

Custom Culture

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People often ask why I’m publishing a custom culture

magazine. I would have to say that the biggest influence driving me to

this passion in life comes from my older brother. I grew up on a little hobby farm in Saanich, just outside of Victoria, BC. My older brother, Shawn Carstensen bought his very first car when he was sixteen. The luck bestowed upon this young, die-hard Chevy fan was incredible! He actually found this beautiful Chevy Malibu in prestine condition from a taxi driver in Victoria. The love of his car kept him busy polishing and upgrading on a continuous basis. For starters, he ripped out the engine the car came with and replaced it with a hungry 454 big block!

Shawn found that traffic lights seemed to get his heart pumping if there was a possible contender at his side waiting for that light to go green. His foot became extremely heavy and from the first time he drove his car home, he managed to collect points. Now this may seem positive, but it wasn’t really the points you want. Shawn’s thirst for adrenalin drew attention fom sources he didn’t necessarily desire, so he took it to the track.

Shawn became involved in drag racing in Victoria and occasionally in the States. He and his friends would often be tuning their pride & joy at our little two acre parcel of land. I’m pretty sure I was very much a nuisance and always in the way of my brother and his friends, but nevertheless, I grew up in awe of the power and beauty of those machines. My brother and his friends frequently competed, yet they also helped tune each others’ cars in preparation for racing against each other. Although I heard much rivalry and derogatory comments amongst

the brands of cars, especially Chevy versus Ford, I can honestly say I don’t prefer one brand over the other. I love most cars!

I’ll never forget the day my brother was babysitting me while on one of the regular cruises to meet up with ‘the guys’ . He hung a hundred dollar bill from the rear view mirror and said, “If you can reach that bill when I step on the gas and release the brake pedal, you can keep it”.

I was up for the challenge! I crouched into my seat with my elbows bent in preparation to reach for the bill while the engine wailed in anticipation of release. The tires screamed as their skin melted to the pavement leaving me gasping for air while trying to see the bill through the ghastly smelling smoke. Then came the release which threw me back into the seat...I was pinned in my seat and hooked for life! I had never felt that kind of rush before and long to feel it ever since!

In the end, I came out no richer then when I went in that beautiful beast, but man did I ever develop a grin and desire for more! One day, I’ll have my own car to restore and show off and maybe even get behind the wheel of my own powerful machine, but for now I’ll adore and share your wonderful machines with the readers of VI Performance Magazine and viewers of the VI Performance website and social networks!

I am grateful to my family for their patience and support while I take on this endeavor and thankful for my advertisers for their patience as I struggle to get this magazine published.

Sincerely, Mona-Lisa Carstensen

VI Performance MagazineAbout The Publisher

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Port Alberni holds a secret with this busy little shop pumping out beautiful cus-tom rides! VI Performance was at Port Alberni’s “Thun-der in the Valley” show & shine, when this one of a kind ‘Rat Rod’ was spotted. We just had to find the per-son responsible for such an eye catcher, so we searched the show until first place was awarded to Underground Performance who also re-ceived first place for their gorgeous orange & black chopper. (Seen below) We or-ganized a photo shoot with Divine Photography and her models at Underground Per-formance. The results...

B r a g g i n ’ R i g h t s

Adrienne wagner from Ladysmith, BCprettyin_pink1@hotmail.com

Melissa Thomas from Parksville, BCmel_t_honeybee@hotmail.com

Divine Photography (778) 421-4969 | MUA: Larissa Trites 250-240-9074

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DQ’s Dirt

on the Drift

I know some of you are not aware of drifting on the island, but it’s here, and to be honest, is one of the premiere places in all of Canada to come drift. It is fair to assume that most people know of drifting, but not every-one. Drifting is the act of mak-ing a car over steer purposely around a corner or series of cor-ners. The more sideways you do so, the better. It’s a pretty simple

concept really, just like in ac-tion movies where the bad guys slide around corners, drifting is a stylish motoring activity. What most people don’t know, and why I call it an activity, is that it isn’t truly a motorsport. Although competitions exist for it, they are not the focus of drift-ing at all. The activity of drift is an all inclusive lifestyle with cars, a sport really is defined by competition, but because drift-ing is not timed or measured with any sort of numbers, it’s fo-cus really is on building a com-munity of good friends, while constantly improving yourself and your car. What does all this mean? It means you can come have fun, while flexing your skills, and learning new driv-ing techniques. Money and re-sources are not the dominating force of success in this activity, rather driving skill; creativity and ingenuity both in driving

and building have the greatest rewards. Here competition does exist, but for the most part this rivalry is with yourself. You are competing against your limit of fear, your observations of input and reaction. During our compe-titions, the other driver is merely a dynamic object to keep up with and/or avoid. Don’t misinterpret this though; drifting is an ex-tremely technical sport. A large chunk of your time is put in building a vehicle that can han-dle the dynamic requirements of the abuse of drifting. Many technical considerations to the design of these cars can be excit-ing and engrossing. However, in the end, it truly boils down to bravery and skill when it comes to being behind the wheel, the results are often guessed correct-ly according to an observation of the driver attitude, rather than what they drive.

New to Drifting? Catch the drift with DQ from the Capital Drift car club in Victoria, BC!

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What makes drifting different on the island? The community is extremely strong here; from Parksville to Victoria there is a great group of both guys and girls who enjoy interacting with each other on and off the track. Small businesses have sprung up from the local drifting events, providing car building services, parts, and maintenance. Teams have started introducing them-selves as the scene grows. The events on the island are more re-laxed and affordable, than most other places in Canada. This is part of the strength of the scene here. This allows the island drift scene to be very welcom-ing and inclusive. People have time to focus on their cars, and the relationships of other driv-ers around them, rather than the useless stresses of thick rulebooks and high entry fees. Anyone is welcome to come out, have a good time, and learn. There are always open arms lo-cally, and for the most part, a small social group within the larger one willing to accept more members. There are prac-tices and competitions between the two accepting tracks on the island, Western Speedway and Saratoga Speedway. Both hold events and practices as well as competitions, however, the com-

petitions are merely a measure-ment of personal improvement, and a way for the crowd to iden-tify who was doing best that day.

How do you get involved? Strict-ly speaking, to get off on a good foot you need a rear wheel drive vehicle. Automatic is an option, though most drivers prefer a manual transmission. A work-ing hand brake is a necessity to learn, and most cars have hand brakes. A DOT helmet is all that is required for safety, though we strongly suggest shoes and pants. Go to www.capitaldrift.ca for the dates and time of the practices and events. Event days include a lot of practice time as well, so do not be intimidated, you are more than welcome to join practice on competition

days. Entrance fees are usually around $60 for the day if you pre-register. In car instruction is also available and suggested. Remember, this is an activity and not a sport, people will be impressed not with the ending results, but the efforts made at self-improvement and a good attitude! All ages are welcome, we have drivers as young as 15 and as old as 65! Almost all rear wheel drive cars are welcome, though most people use Japa-nese cars, we’ve had German, Korean, American, British, and everything in between come out to slide, and do well! Please con-tact Capital Drift for more infor-mation.

–DiscoQuinn, Speed Hero!www.speedhero.wordpress.com

Corolla Parts Exchange

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Steven Pavich‘s very first car was a 1978 GMC Sierra 3/4 ton which he got for free., however, Herbie is the first car he ever restored and it took him about a year.

Steven’s favorite project he finished in May of 2011 is his 1968 Dodge Charger otherwise known as the “General Lee” from the TV show, “ Dukes of Hazard”. The Herbie mov-ies and Dukes of Hazard TV show got him started on his hobby.

Steven currently has three cars.

Herbie is a 1973 VW Super Beetle, the Jurassic Park look alike is a 1992 Ford Explorer and Steven and his mother share ownership of the “General Lee” replica, which is a 1968 Dodge Char-ger.

He has been entering every possible show & shine since 2007 when he bought Herbie. Herbie and Steven have won three trophies: 1st place in Prince George, 1st place in Quesnel BC, and 3rd place in Hixon BC.

Many technical difficulties ensued in efforts of getting Herbie ready for shows. He put a brand new engine in “Herbie” which took three weeks to replace. On first start up the pis-tons were badly manufactured and he had to pull the motor out again. After he got the new parts and put it back together a week later, he started it up a second time and the camshaft nearly seized, so again the motor was stripped down. So in the end he took it apart three times but, it’s running for the time being.

Steven was born in Prince George but now calls Salt Spring Island home. This hobby is his life. It is his favorite thing to do. To Steven, there is noth-ing better than classic and collector cars. According to Steven, “There is no such thing as how much time one can put into cars. It’s like a lifestyle. They always need something and al-ways need to be driven of course.”

–by Caile Donaldson

Movie Cars

So who exactly is behind the wheel of those cars that catch your eye as they drive down the street? There are people out there who go to great lengths to not only admire the cars we see on movies and on television, but actually drive them, collect them, and some-times even build their own.

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The drift culture on Vancouver Island has been growing for some time now. Track Rentals were rare back in the day, as it was a struggle to get enough cars to pool enough funds together. These days, the Capital Drift guys regulate the amount of cars showing up at each event to a maximum of 30 cars and there’s still more showing up at each event!

In a field of RWD cars, the Nissan 240-SX seems to be the choice of many Drift-ers. One Drifters’ car stands out amongst his competitors’ as it’s not red, black, or white like the majority. By the look of the car, it’s of no surprise that it belongs to Whitenuts… that is Josh Whitenuts, from Deadbeats Garage. Joshs’ cars are all coated with mobile artwork, decals, splat-tered paint, and more graffiti then a train car. Josh is always up to crazy antics, fluo-rescent colors and sick lines making him possibly the most vibrant person at any given Capital Drift event held at Western Speedway.

Oversteer Magazine caught up with Josh at the Deadbeats Garage, for an interview. Oversteer Magazine will be submitting articles to VI Performance Magazine from time to time to help drifters gain more coverage on Vancouver Island. The fol-lowing are the antics that ensued.

Oversteer Mag: What got you into drifting?

Joshua Whitenuts: Initial D, haha. A buddy showed it to me and I used to rip quads on dirt a lot. At one point we used to go tandem and have people come out and watch from the sidelines. Like 20-30 peeps and stacks of tires. But now it’s gotten all heaty and the cops know about the places. We mostly

stick to western speedway events now.

Oversteer: What chassis’ have you drifted?

Whitenuts: my first drift car was a bone stock ae86, then I had an FC RX7, a 70’s co-rona, 240’s, a BMW e30 325is, ’03 BMW M3, and my dad’s 68 fastback mustang.

Oversteer: Wow where do I start: ok let’s go for the M3. How did that happen?

Whitenuts: it was my dad’s friends; super-charged 500+ hp it was sick once we got the track control sorted out ha-ha.

Oversteer: Let’s hear the story on the mus-tang!

Whitenuts: It’s my dad’s. It’s a 351w, 4 speed coils, cage and a bunch of chassis mods. I took it out 2 times. The first time it was dry and the clutch was kind of slipping, so it was 2nd gear mostly. I hate steering boxes, and it has a foot brake so everything was power in and clutch kick. The second time I took it out, it was a wet day. It was freaking legit! - Linking the big-bank in 3rd gear and downshifting to 2nd for the infield. We were doing tandems and everything was great then, I took it for a 15 minute straight run and parked in the pits. It started smoking so my dad popped the hood and it was on fire! Later, we found out it was MSD related. My dad laughed about it.

Oversteer: Wow your dad sounds chill! How was drifting the e30?

Whitenuts: It’s funky. It’s like a corolla, but more power and angle. It was grippy. It just wanted to grab a lot, but when you forced it to slide, it went so well. I once lost a wheel on

it doing some downhill slides, ha-ha!

Oversteer: How many 240’s have you owned?

Whitenuts: Six.

Oversteer: What’s your favorite 240 model?

Whitenuts: I like ’em all. My verts rare, but I just get a hard-on when I look at my hatch with skyline tails.

Oversteer: I noticed you have five 240s at the shop and one SR-20.

Whitenuts: Ha-ha, yea. I just put it all in the car I’m driving at the time. It has an S-15 Tur-bo, injectors, and a standalone ECU, and it’s running 14 psi of boost. My first Silvia blew up after one month, but I do still slide stock KAs sometimes.

Oversteer: Most of us have seen you drift and I’ve heard rumors…Are you spon-sored?

Whitenuts: Yea, by Joel Fox @ Platform Ga-rage and the Tire Exchange.

Oversteer: Rumor has it you have been in-vited to big events.

Whitenuts: I applied to enter DMCC Pro and Pro-Am for four events. I showed them my footage and they welcomed me, but they have stopped doing events in western Canada now. I also got invited to PGP, and Big-Foot Bash by Pete S. from Neptune Drift.

Oversteer: Well, we wish you the best for this coming season. Keep ’em smokin’ bud!

–by Jarrod Brown

Joshua Whitenuts

Article submission by Jarrod Brown –Coming to you from Vancouver Is-land! Find them on Facebook!Oversteer Magazine is something thats going to spread like wildfire. Our goal is to put out a quartley magazine to start, highlighting canadian drift events, drifters, and photographers...Stay ‘Tuned’!

“Josh is always up to crazy antics, f luorescent colors and sick lines making him possibly the most vibrant person at any given Capital Drift event.. .”

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VI Performance Magazine caught up with the band, “Younger Than Yesterday” and interviewed bassist, Dan Politano about life as a cover band, the band’s vision of suc-cess, and why they chose the path they follow. Here’s the juice on this excellent cover band you just have to see live!

Q: First, who is in this band?

How did this get started?

A: I (Dan) put an ad online on livevictoria.com looking to start a sixties band. I has this idea of dressing up like early sixties bands and wear-ing wigs for the part. Dean Gibbs responded to that ad.

We rehearsed for a while and made lists of songs we should do. He had seen Russ playing in another band, liked him, so he called him up and he was a perfect fit. Bryan, who is also my dad came in a couple months later and joined as lead singer. Josh has only been with us since March. Q: From looking at your show schedule, there seems to be a big demand for you guys. Is the cover-band scene in Vic-toria pretty cutthroat, or are you guys the kingpins? A: All of us in the band want to play as much as possible so we try and book as many shows as we can. I know other bands around town are happy with playing once a month. There are others that play as much as we do.

Q: So I notice you took your name from the Byrd’s fourth album. Is that because they influenced your musical style, or because you just liked the words?

A: I was searching online for a band name. I thought it would

be cool if I could find a name of an album from the sixties that we could use. I came across Younger Than Yesterday and thought it was great. I suggest-ed it to the rest of the band and they all agreed. Q: USTREAM describes you as a “sixties cover band.” Would you say that’s an over-simplification of what you’re trying to do, or are you noth-ing but just another group of people using someone else’s hard work and creative ex-pressions to make a name for yourself? What sets you apart from all the other cover bands?

A: Yea we’re a sixties cover band. People enjoy hearing and dancing to old hits. The difference with us is we look the part. No other band in Vic-toria that plays the bar scene is doing that. Q: Well, despite the fact that you’re not even playing any-thing you wrote yourself, you play it well; the guitar is su-per tight, I liked that part a lot. How long have you guys been playing together as a

This 5 piece band includes:

Dan Politano - Bass, VocalsBryan Politano - Lead SingerDean Gibbs - Guitar, VocalsRuss Alert - DrumsJosh Weed - Guitar, Keyboards

–Not just another forgettable wallpaper bar band...these guys actually put on costumes and get into the whole experience! On top of that, they are solid players, tight vocals, tight guitar, and a slick, pol-ished tone. These guys know they’re cover-band shit, and bring a style to it that must be a crowd-pleaser.Their show schedule proves this!

C ar Tunes

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cover band? And why even do the cover-band thing? Because you’re extremely solid play-ers...you could be ripping up some originals, maybe. A: We’ve been together for about 3 years now. Most of us have done the original thing. I’ve personally released two EP’s, have had four singles played across Canada on Hot AC stations, was a finalist in the 2006 David Foster Star Search, licensed a song to the CTV/Global series Falcon Beach, and have opened for Bands like Jets Overhead, The Grapes of Wrath and Matthew Good. Doing the covers keeps me home. My dad, Bryan, was in a band called Roxxlyde in the 80s. They were pretty popular and did a lot of touring.

www.danpolitano.comQ: Do you guys do lessons or studio work or even your own projects? A: Some of the band [is] in a band called Rock of Ages. All of us are working on a 70’s band now called Free Ride. We’re go-ing to do the whole dress up thing just like Younger Than Yesterday but play rock hits from the 70’s. We have our first show on December 3 at Me-tropolis Nightclub. It’s going to be all three bands. It’s called

The Decades of Rock Concert. Three bands, three decades: 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. We started these other bands to fill in dates when Younger Than Yesterday isn’t playing. Since we’ve start-ed, we’ve lost 6 venues that we were playing at. They either de-cide to not have bands anymore or close down.

www.rockofagesband.netwww.freeriderockband.com

Q: I checked out your perfor-mance on Youtube of the Saa-nich Strawberry Fest. You guys played Satisfaction by the Stones. Do you only cover the popular sixties numbers, or have you ever thought of doing something a little dif-ferent, like maybe busting out some Strawberry Alarm Clock or David Axelrod or Electric Prunes? Ever consider expand-ing out the ol’ set list besides the traditional top 40 ones? A: We only play hits. We’ve been doing it long enough now that we see what works. If we play one that nobody really knows than it clears the dance floor. We don’t want that. Q: Does Younger than Yester-day ever leave the island, or is the band a Vancouver Island specialty?

A: We have never played off the island and have no plans to yet.

Q: So when you were all young musicians, did you ever envi-sion yourself doing the cover-band thing, or did you have other ideas? A: I can’t speak for everybody else but I never thought I’d be playing covers or playing with my dad. I’m having a great time doing it though. We’re all mak-ing more money than we ever have with music. I think deep down every musician wants to “make it”. But as I see now there are definitely different levels of success. This band has been suc-cessful.

Q: Tell us about your weirdest experience on-stage. Ever have any old ladies throw their bras at you when you bust out the Floyd or anything? A: The weirdest thing was at one of our first shows. This big drunk guy decided to start taking off his clothes while we were playing. He got all the way down to his underwear. He cleared the dance floor. It was at the end of the night so we played our last song. He gave us $100 to play a few more songs and then walked out the door.

– by Caile Donaldson

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Las VegasOCTOBER 2011

Photos by Mike Backe

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Reader’s BeatersThis beater looks like an average pick- up truck at first glance, but upon inspection, you can see its true potential. Paul Gouda of Friends Dining Lounge uses it as a work-horse for dump runs and various chores, but looking at the interior is what grabbed my attention. This ‘ol truck makes me think of old soda shops with checkered floors and girls in bobbi shorts with pig tails, playing tunes and going to drive in movies. –Sure would love to see this restora-tion project completed! –by Mona-Lisa

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Ladysm it h Show & Sh i ne 2011 brought out all sorts of beauty! VI Performance Maga-zine was there with models, snapping photos, but with so little space to display, we can only show you a few. You’ll just have to go next year to experience it all!

Models: Ashlyn Surprenant, Hailey Eakins, Jayda Mclauchlin, Cassandra Van Mierlo, Brandi Dawn-Marie and Patrick Justice McNulty.

–by Mona-Lisa

Eye Candy

Many Shades Photography | www.manyshadesphotography.com

Patrick Mulvaney Photography | p.mulvaney187@hotmail.ca

Ashlyn

Hailey

Ashlyn

HaileyAshlyn

CassandraJayda

Brandi

CassandraPatrick

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Kevin Wayne Roberts free-handedly channeled a ‘47 International cab, over a custom frame, to achieve his desired look for this rat rod! The grill is from a ‘39 dodge that he cut down to match the lines of the stance. The box is off a late 40’s to early 50’s Chevy long box that he cut 14.5 inches from the length and 3.5 inch-es from either side of the tailgate so that he could keep the Chevrolet emblem intact. It sits in the custom 2x4 boxed frame with a 4” dropped axle up front and a shortened Ford 9” with 3.42 gears and a mini-spool. The cab, grill, box and tunnel ram were bought at the Portland swap meet at separate event years. The motor is a 383 stroker with a dual tun-nel ram manifold and topped by two 525 CFM Demon Jr. carbs. The transmission is a TH350 with a 3500 stall B&M torque con-verter. The headers are custom made. The rad is in the bed of the truck and the gas tank was found at his grandpas’ farm, which was originally an air tank. He foraged the bomb-er seats out of a WWII spotter plane from a farm in Duncan, BC. The gauge cluster, also from the Portland swap meet, is from a 37 Plymouth. When he got the cab the entire thing was rusty except for the doors. Those were a dark minty green. So, he stripped the paint off and set them outside with road salt on them for 2 weeks to restore the rusty ap-peal. It took him about 3 years on and off to build the truck. In 2009, before the Port Alberni drags, he did a 3-week thrash to get it ready in time to race. Last year he drove it to Port McNeill and back with no issues. He also drove it almost every day during the summer. Kevin would like to thank Terry and Dan as well as his parents for their help, and putting up with all the tire smoke.Check out his burnout on “Canadian Hot Rods” YouTube page under the title, “Crazy rat rod garage burnout”

– by Mona-Lisa

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Model: Lissie LovelessAge: 20Occupation: Sales Associate for Culture CrazeSign: CapricornHometown: Woodstock ONCurrent City: Victoria BCFavorite Tunes: Why don’t you do right- Peggy LeeBourée- Jethro TullIf I had a boat- James Vincent McMorrowFavorite Vehicle: Mercedes Benz 300SL Gullwing CoupeMust haves in life: Love, music, family, and art supplies Favorite place on Vancou-ver Island: MacKenzie Beach, Tofino

Contact for paid modelling work: miss.lissie.love@gmail.com

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Western Speedway2011 Season Review

by Ken Keating

Western Speedway opened the 2011 race season on April 9th with the Demo Cars, Demo Trucks, Fig-ure 8s, and Bombers. This would mark the start of twenty-eight race events of regular racing plus eleven events with the Wednesday Night Fever, Hornet Series begin-ning in June. Last year’s Bomber Champion, Brandon Steen, was the first to victory square when he won the Trophy Dash. Drivers were quick to adapt to the twenty second lap time as a result of his win, and even though some driv-ers received the penalty, it made the Series interesting. Four drivers were in the mix for a Championship by year’s end with Steen, Aaron Cameron, Dennis Stewart, and Ja-mie Morgan – all in contention on Championship night of October 1st. Steen won his second con-secutive Championship by seven points over Cameron with only thirty-six points separating the top four drivers! Over the course of the year, Steen won four Fea-ture events. Troy Tarbuck set the table on the first night in the Demo Car Series by setting fast time and winning

the first Feature race for the night. Greg Sagmoen also had a fast car, placing second in this feature. Greg put together a season that included six fast times and four features that included a “Clean Sweep” on his way to a Champion-ship. Tarbuck kept the pressure on all season, but Sagmoen had a fifty-two-point advantage in the end. Sagmoen also stated he would retire after this season to spend more time at home. Kevin Knight served notice that he would be a force to reckon with in the Demo Truck Series. Driv-

ing one of three Paul Scotthorne owned trucks; he set the fast time and then put together a “Clean Sweep” on the first night. He also set the fast time on four occasions and won five feature events over the season on his way to his first Championship. He has raced a lot of different cars over his career, but excelled with the Demo Trucks. Kevin had a margin of sixty-three points over last year’s Champion George Haywood. Richard Milne did not race every week but put together quite a run toward the last part of the year taking the fast time five times and four feature

events that also included a “Clean Sweep” with an ex-tremely fast truck. Kyle Rizok, Ashton Camp-bell, and Rhett Szevics were all in contention for the Figure 8 Championship on October 1st after trading top spot a couple of times. Sean Welsh and Dan Mad-den won a feature. Ashton Campbell won twice as did Rory Smith. Kail Beck won five features even though he did not run every event. Kyle Rizok actually thanked Beck for that, on the final night, as he accepted the 2011 Cham-pionship by seven points over Campbell and eighteen over Szevics for a very tough Figure 8 season.

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The Stock Cars, I.M.S. 4 Mini Stocks, and Dwarf Cars made their 2011 debut on April 16th, beginning a season that few could imagine for a couple of driv-ers. Jim Pridge was fast out of the gate by winning three of four races and setting the fast time for the Dwarf Car Series on opening night. Alex Mouner in the Mini Stock Series duplicated this feat. Over the course of the season, Pridge had two “Clean Sweeps” while setting the fast time on three occa-sions. Sean Sanger immerged as the season’s Cham-pion. Mike Meeres did not run each event nor did Pridge. All three drivers had extremely fast cars and put on some great races throughout the year. Mouner, on the other hand, dominated the Mini Stocks most of the season winning seven feature events, two “Clean Sweeps”, and set the fast time in seven events capturing his second consecutive I.M.S. 4 Championship. Rory Smith won the initial race for the Stock Cars while Aaron Wilkie won the feature on the final night of September 24th. In between those events, the #95 car of Ryan Wade’s visited victory square every other event during the 2011 season. Kirk Rompain drove for Ryan on April 30th winning that feature, and from there, Ryan put together six consecutive feature event wins. He was running in third place and threatening to go for the lead, which would have given him a seventh win, but unfortunately, a broken rear end forced him out of the race on championship night. Wade won his fifth consecutive Stock Car Championship, – a feat that had never been done in a single Series before. The Old Time Racing Association and the WilRoc Lites made their debut on May 21st and for the first time the Lites appeared without their counterparts, – the Winged Sprints. The numbers of cars grew for the Lite Series while the winged cars diminished significantly for 2011. Both Series put on some great racing, especially when the N.S.R.A. cars joined the local Series. Jesse Dardengo captured another Lites Championship, and Darren Yates took the title for the WilRoc Sprint Car Series. The OTRA Series do not race for points, but they did show up to com-pete each and every event with their brand of open wheel excitement. Tom Cinnamon returned after a long absence in the OTRA Series and made the com-petition even greater as he also drove a fast car and promising to return for the 2012 season.

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The local Late Model Series opened their season on April 30th with Bart Smith taking the win on opening night. Jason Tarasenko would immerge as the Champion for this Series, – a title he held pre-viously. Wade Bland and Tarasen-ko were the other feature event winners. One event rained out be-fore the feature event could run. One of the best-run feature events for the Late Models was held on September 3rd as the ASA Ad-vance Testing Tour ran their last race for 2011. They also crowned a Champion for the tour formerly called the Katana Boat Sports-man Series. All of the cars could be loaded with little difficulty as there were no major accidents throughout the 200 lap event. Ko-rbin Thomas won this particular event but it was Victoria’s Geoff Morris who won the first ever ASA Championship. Western Speedway hosted sev-eral “special events” over the course of 2011 with the first one held on June 10th and 11th. The first special event was the two day Billy Foster / Strawberry Cup with the WilRoc Lites and WilRoc Sprint Car Series. Guy Barrett, Jeff Montgomery, and Scott Aumen all set qualifying speeds under the 14-second mark in the Sprint Car Series with Barrett having the best mark of these three at 13.926. Sierra Jackson, the driving sensa-tion from Boise, Idaho; came out again and as she did on Friday, and showed everyone how to get

around Western Speedway as she set a qualifying time of 13.664, – just over the track record of 13.62. Scott Aumen won the Billy Foster Memorial Trophy on the Friday night while Rob Scott won the Strawberry Cup on the Saturday night. The Sprints returned for the Cast Iron Nationals on July 16th and Matt Mansell won the Feature event in the Sprint Car Series. This was supposed to be a two-day show, but Mother Nature rained out the Friday night por-tion of the event. The next major event that featured the Sprint Cars was the prestigious Daffodil Cup held on August 19th and 20th. On the restart, after a crash, Scott Au-men blew past Alberding, coming out of turn four with his patented slide job taking over the lead. Au-men came away with the win fol-lowed by Alberding, Jackson, Guy Barrett, and Jeff “The Hurricane” Montgomery in a thrilling race to the finish. Aumen also captured the Kershaw Cup on this night. Saturday night, Jeff Montgomery

put on a driving clinic not seen at Western Speedway in some time as he threaded his way through lapped traffic picking off cars on the outside and then the inside, as he literally drove away from the pack to win the Saturday night feature event. After calcu-lating the points over the two-day event, Scott Aumen walked away with his fourth Daffodil Cup victory by a two-point mar-gin over The Hurricane. The top five drivers for the two days were: (1) # 44 Scott Aumen - 369, (2) # 33 Jeff Montgomery - 367, (3) # 76 Andy Alberding - 349, (4) # 25J Sierra Jackson - 328, and (5) # 98H Matt Hein - 326 points. The Wednesday Night Fever events sponsored by Steve Copp

Construction began on June 22nd and continued each week until the final event on August 31st. With five Trophy Dashes, twelve Heat races, and three feature events, most nights produced several different winners. Young Cole Schuurman surprised many people driving a very fast car like a pro, winning his share of races, including feature events in the Rookie class. Glenn Rand also won his share of races becoming the 2011 Rookie Champion. Cam Stanfield retained his title, win-ning the Hornet Expert Champi-onship on the final night with a thirty-four-point edge over Gar-rett Smith. Brenda Leslie was the top Bumblebee driver, winning several feature events over the course of eleven events. Other Special Events included the Princess & Pirates night held on May 28th with several kids, big and small dressing up and parad-ing their costumes along the front

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stretch. Elton John Night returned again on June 25th, which featured a spectacular car jump. Mr. Dizzy (aka Mike Buse) brought his “Com-bined Chaos” team from Munroe Washington to perform a four-tier car jump and explosion on this night. Mike Buse is veteran race-car driver and has had much suc-cess in auto racing. Mr. Dizzy was born, raised, and still lives in Mon-roe. His son Wylee (aka Dizzy Jr.) is a huge part of this team and is part of the joint stunts, originally done with his dad. This year Mr. Dizzy has brought on the Crusher and they have become one of the hottest acts out there. The Crusher (aka Josh Beckel) buckled up in his car as crews assembled the ramps and stacked four cars on top of one another as well as a few catch cars to be used as a cushion. Given the green light, Josh hammered the car to about 60 mph, slamming into his target, three cars up the tier. The sheer force pushed his target forward several feet while the fourth highest car was literally thrown nearly two hundred feet down the track! He proceeded to do a couple of nose flips, thus set-tling him down on the roof. Crews quickly rushed to make sure the driver was OK. Much to the de-light of everyone in the stands, he exited the crushed Ford unhurt and nary a scratch. This team was not finished. After the conclusion of the Total Destruction event, Josh and Wylee entered a van rigged with about ten pounds of dyna-mite and gasoline. Once given the green light, they set off the charge igniting the gasoline into a huge fireball and quickly exited the van again unhurt and unscathed, rais-ing a big cheer from the apprecia-tive crowd and ending this pro-gram with a bang. Western Speedway also held a school bus race on July 9th with Kevin Knight taking the win. Someone forgot to tell Knight this was a no contact race as he took out another competitor. Everyone in-volved enjoyed the event including the many race fans. Boat races and trailers races were also part of the season. Gary Williams performed a limo jump coming up short, but pulled off a pretty good jump in a semi truck as part of the event with the Big Rigs on August 27th.

Cam Sully took the Big Rig feature with Langford’s Glen Creed plac-ing third. August 11th and 12th brought the crazy Canuck, Colin Heacock out to play. He succeeded once again in another great car jump over three buses parked end to end, hitting his intended target of catch cars, much to the delight of the many spectators.

Champions For 2011

Billy Foster Memorial - Scott Aumen; Strawberry Cup - Rob Scott; Roy Smith Memorial: Lites - Deter Lejeune; Roy Smith Memorial: Winged Sprints - Matt Mansell; Jim Pridge Memorial: Dwarf Cars - Sean Sanger; WilRoc Sprint Cars - Darren Yates; WilRoc Lites - Jesse Dardengo; Daffodil Cup - Scott Aumen; Kershaw Cup - Scott Aumen; Denny Rand Memorial - Jeff Montgomery; Hornet Experts - Cam Stanfield; Hornet Rookies - Glenn Rand; Bumblebees - Brenda Leslie; Canada 200 - Korbin Thomas; ASA late Models - Geoff Morris; I.M.S. 4 Mini Stocks - Alex Mouner; Stock Cars - Ryan Wade; Bombers - Bran-don Steen; Demo Cars - Greg Sag-moen; Demo Trucks - Kevin Knight; Figure 8s - Kyle Rizok; Late Models - Jason Tarasenko; Ron Mayel Memo-rial Cup: O.T.R.A. - James Campbell.

Trophy Girls For 2011 Tianna Metzger, Samantha Eldridge, Chahala Leanne Boyce, Chelsea Jeune, Rockell Kroppmans, Shanna Amaral, Marciia Gringe, Kyra Sheard, Kayla Reid, Willow Webb, Arden Bak-er, Carrie Leippi, Kaya Hunter, Betty Kate, Elsa Josionek, Kecia Bremner, and Carolyn Fortune.

Singers In 2011 Kaya Hunter, Ashley Armstrong, April Reidie, Dezi Thorton, Nata-lie Vardy, Stephanie Edwards, Jes-sica Graham, Cassidy Steen, Jenny Rhodes, Heather Senkler, Misha Ger-vais, and Carrie Leippi.

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[A] Collin Shaw 2nd in Super-Pro[B] Dave McRae 1st in Pro[C] Howard Hillborn 1st in Super-Pro

More more racers are coming out to Port Mc-Neil’s Rumble on the Runway as it’s quite popu-lar with grudge matches, time trials & elimina-tions on both days of the weekend. It has grown tremendously since it’s grand opening only two years ago. There are three events now with the summer of 2012 bringing racing on weekends that don’t interfere with other drag racing on Vancou-ver Island or other large events so you can get to everything! North Island Timing Association just signed a contract with Port McNeil Airport & the city for guaranteed racing at the airport for the next three years! Put these dates on your calen-dars: June 23/24th which is the weekend before July 1st, July 21/22 is 2 weeks before Thunder in the Valley and Aug 25/26th being the final week-end before school is back in session and sum-mer holidays are over. Check out their Facebook page & their website for up to date news and pics: www.northislandtimingassociation.com More racing pics on the pages to follow...

[D] Tim Martell 1st in Pro[E] Ron Clark 1st in Super-Pro[F] Gord MacKay got a ‘Perfect Light’[G] Ken Anderson 2nd in Super-Pro

Rumble on

RuNway 2011

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More Rumble on the Runway

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This ride may not be your typical “eye candy” with its factory corral cordo-van brown paint job, but it sure gets your heart pumping as she screams down the runway in the eighth-mile! At 98.25 miles per hour, it only takes her 7.2 seconds to reach the finish line. Most people associate drag racing with the quarter mile so, to be fair, 7.2 seconds in the eighth mile translates to 11.3 seconds in the quarter mile. Although she’s rather plain looking, it really is what’s on the inside of this baby that counts. This muscle car pumps a good 400-horse power even before she swallows a 170hp shot of nitrous in which Gord tuned by add-ing bigger jets for a bigger shot to the AMC 401 V8 engine.

It’s not what Richard A. Teague had in mind when he designed this third and final generation Rambler Ameri-can. At a time when the “Big Three” domestic automakers (GM, Ford & Chrysler) were the dominant car de-signers, Dick Teague brought this non-conforming competitor on board as the lowest priced car built in the US with the best fuel economy proven through numerous wins in the Mobil-gas Economy Run championships.

Gord MacKay purchased this pre-cut gem from Bowser, BC in May of 2009 for a mere $800 ready to run at the turn of a key. This was not good enough for Gord. He wanted more power. Gord ripped out the stock 232 cu in (3.8 L) overhead valve straight-6 engine to fit his new 401, V8 taken from a 1976 AMC in preparation for

drag racing. The Rambler won second place in its first race at Rumble on the Runway in Port McNeill of 2010. This was before she even started using ni-trous! Gord still holds the crystal tro-phy on display, but the winning pay-out has long since been re-invested in the car itself.

When we imagine a hot rod, the 1965 Rambler American 330 station wagon isn’t a typical one that comes to mind, even though station wagons are well known for their great front to rear weight transfer making the Rambler an excellent choice for running a per-fect light, in which Gord did accom-plish in the summer of 2011. (Meaning he launched on the green light at ex-actly the right time) The Rambler still isn’t a common car to see at the track as it’s a rather rare vehicle. There were only ever 313 of these produced in 1965 and one is right here in Nanaimo! Interestingly enough, this particular Rambler was born and raised in Van-couver, B.C. and even passed air care in 2008. The rear 26” Mickey Thomp-son ET Street Slicks on 10.5x15inch

Rambler on the Runway!

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rims work just as well on Nanaimo’s city streets for use as a street legal grocery getter as they do on the track as a racing machine.

I personally benefited from a ride down the runway as a passenger in this powerful beast. What a rush! I tried to video tape the event, but as smooth as this unibody on front coil springs with soft rear leaf units is, I really only caught the ceiling after we launched from the start line. I was lucky to ride in that race because it was apparent that the Rambler went beyond the limit of allowable speed

for passengers to be safe by the rac-ing liability guidelines. So, needless to say, she has a few secrets hidden under the rear chassis…Gord made some good ol’ handmade custom modifications: Sub-frame connectors stiffen the body, while traction bars are in place to prevent axle wrap with the addition of a 4.56:1 posi narrowed Ford 8.8 rear end and 50/50 rear drag shocks. The intake manifold is noth-ing less than a 2130 Edelbroch alu-minum Torker under a 750 Demon carburetor. All this allows the car to perform a 1.57 second, zero to sixty foot launch. AKA, head snap! Not bad for a 46 year old station wagon.

Gord has been interested in AMC’s since he was just a kid in the back seat of his Dad’s 1964 Classic 660 four door. He’s also the proud owner of the beautiful scarab gold 1969 AMC Javelin SST that I am dying to get pic-tures of as she really is a piece of ‘eye

candy’ I can’t wait to get a taste of! When he’s finished the final touches and she’s ready to rock, you’ll have an opportunity to see this fine ma-chine in a future issue of VI Perfor-mance Magazine. Until then, check the website for updates on the new modifications to an AMC 360 engine he’s working on for his Rambler beast to shred the track with close to 700hp this coming summer of 2012!

by Mona-Lisa Carstensen

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Motocross: The Greatest Sport in the World! by Jim Muir

Motocross racing is the great-est sport in the world! I believe this emphatically. I love all motor-sports, and I love team sports as well, but motocross is a cut above. It is, I’m convinced, the most chal-lenging sport on the planet, and it comes with dire consequences when you fail. It’s a motorsport, but it’s much more about the rider than the motor. It requires incred-ible skill; it’s almost always neces-sary to start the sport about the same time you start kindergar-ten, and then ride several times a week for about fifteen years if you want to develop enough skill to ride at a professional level. Finally, motocross is a mental game. You need to be smart, and have your emotions well in check, to be successful in motocross. In motocross, ‘yahoos’ tend to end up on the ground, or worse, in wheelchairs. Every time a moto-cross racer takes to the track there are butterflies in his/her stomach. Every motocrosser knows it can all go wrong in a heartbeat. This adds to the intensity of the racing battles; there is not only competi-tion between riders, but also bat-tles between each rider and the track itself!

Studies consistently rank moto-cross among the most physically demanding sports in the world. A Pro motocrosser wrestles with a 200+ pound bike for 30+ minutes in each of two motos on a typical race day. Take my word for it; you can’t relent for even an instant. It requires both phenomenal aero-bic and anaerobic fitness. You are holding on and bracing yourself under braking, when you accel-erate (motocross bikes have the highest power/weight ratio of any production vehicle), and every moment in between. Motocross bikes often seem to have a mind of their own; they are constantly trying to get away from you! Add to these demands, the constant, unforgiving impacts of landing off large jumps. Even with mod-ern suspensions, you definitely feel it when you fall out of the sky from heights equivalent to a four-story building! Broken ankles and wrists caused by landing impact are common. The danger factor adds to the already astronomical physical demands. There are not a lot of fatalities, but the surgical pin industry could be complete-ly supported by the compound fractures suffered in motocross! When you break a bone in mo-tocross it’s rarely a ‘clean’ break; you tend to continue rolling, tumbling, and generally flopping about long after the point where the bone fractures, and the bike is always lurking about somewhere looking for an opportunity to crush you in the process! The X-rays are often ugly!

All the manly ‘tough guy’ stuff aside though, motocross is a beau-tiful ballet of man and machine when it’s going right. There’s no

sport that comes even close to the beauty of a bike skipping across deep whoops, floating high in the sky, or riding the back wheel down a rough straight. When you get several bikes doing all this in very close quarters bat-tling for position, the racing in-tensity can be through the roof. There’s nothing that gets your heart pounding like touching el-bows with a guy beside you when you are thirty feet in the air! The beauty of motocross is especially evident if you ever get a chance to watch it in slow motion. Things happen fast on a motocross track, but when you slow it down you can see how the bike is constantly bouncing and shifting every mi-cro-second, and how the rider has to be constantly compensating for this. By contrast, try watching a Nascar race in slow motion; I guarantee you it is dull as ditch water! Which brings me to anoth-er distinction between motocross and other motorsports.

Motocross is more about the rider than the machine. I love the spec-tacle of Formula 1 racing, drag

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racing, or even Nascar, but in all these sports the guy with the best vehicle tends to win. Not so in motocross. Of course all the top riders have very well prepared bikes, but there’s little about them that you can’t buy yourself, and if all the top riders swapped bikes the same guy would still win. If you’re good enough, you can pop into your local bike dealer, buy a bike, and then go out and win a National Championship. This makes motocross an ‘every man’ motor sport. It certainly helps if you have a little spare cash, mo-tocross is not cheap, but you don’t need a hundred thousand dollars to race at even the highest levels. Depending on what age group you are talking about (big bikes cost more than little ones!) you can get your kid into motocross for about $2,000-$5,000.

Which brings me to what I have come to regard as the greatest thing about motocross; it’s a fan-

tastic family sport. In fact, the mo-tocross community is like a tight-knit family itself. Each weekend we all drag our trailers out to one of the Island tracks and camp for the weekend. The kids run amok in various packs while the parents sit around the campfire drinking beer and eating ‘Cheez-ies’. It’s just like regular camping, but better, because there’s some-thing really fun to do during the day! Racing provides a lot of qual-ity time with both my immediate family, and my motocross family. Unlike most other motorsports, motocross is ‘kid friendly’ and it caters to the geriatric crowd as well. There are racing classes for kids as young as four, and as old as ‘Plus Forty’.

Vancouver Island currently has five tracks in operation: Victoria, Nanaimo, Port Alberni, Campbell River, and Port McNeill. Island racing is divided into a Spring Se-ries, and a Fall Series, with eight rounds in each. The tracks of-ten have ‘double-headers’ where two rounds are run on a single weekend (one Saturday and one Sunday). Victoria’s Westshore MX track currently operates as a separate entity and is not part of the CMRC (Canadian Motocross Racing Club) sanctioned Island Series.

Despite its relatively small rac-ing community, compared to say Ontario or the BC mainland, Van-couver Island has a knack for pro-ducing top caliber racers. Dusty Klatt, for example, who hails from Campbell River, is a four time National Champion; this season he finished second in the country. On the horizon we have young riders like fifteen-year-old ‘SG Power’ sponsored rider Ryan Lalonde, and Crofton’s Corey Car-dinal getting ready to step into Dusty’s rather large shoes! If you come out to events at Westshore MX you will almost certainly see Lalonde and many others doing what they do best; go really, re-ally fast on a dirt bike! Be sure to come out for the AMA Supercross season which started in January; that’s motocross at its best!

Check out all the island races in my blog! (seehorsecreativemedia.com/blog).

You ca n a l so look for wa rd to pe -r iod ic w r ite -ups on t h i s a nd ot her moto event s i n t he f ut u re i s sues of VI Per for ma nce Maga z i ne!

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I have to thank all the volunteers who have come out to our Cassidy Speedway Society meetings in efforts to create and promote a motor sports facility at Cas-sidy Speedway Park. It has been a slow start, but we are moving along, nonetheless. We have formed a Site Committee to take care of cleaning up the track as you see in the pictures here, and a Community Committee to develop a plan that is suitable for and benefits the community closest to the track as well as the surrounding areas. I have displayed some old pictures provided by Vic Hilborne & Joe Pullen to re-mind everyone of the excitement this speedway once brought our community. If you are on Facebook, join the Cassidy Speedway page to see old videos of racing at Cassidy. Remember the great plans for the future? We have some similar ideas, but we’re doing things differently in order to develop a plan to suit a vari-ety of people, but this time, with some compromises to be considerate of the local community. Please go to www.viperformance.ca for up to date news about this and join our campaign to put tires back on the track in the regional district of Nanaimo!

– by Mona-Lisa C.

Cassidy Speedway was originally designed as you see illustrated here, with the racing courses having been laid out since the speedway began. That is the reason it is named Cassidy Speed-way Park. It is an ambitious undertaking and a dream of many racers to complete the entire facility and become the center of motor racing in the Pacific Northwest. Time will be the true test and if history provides us with the building blocks for the future then Cassidy certainly has a strong foundation and will flourish. Thank you for supporting racing and its sponsors. (Published in souvenir program guide in 1998)

Putting up the old gate after clearing the road access to the north end of the track...Gord MacKay, Steve Joyce, and Doug Carlson helped while Joe Pullen & Sheldon discussed old times at the track and its possible future.

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