Jesus Built My Hotrod Trivia Quiz

Answer: Drag Racing

Inspired by his idol, US drag racer Don Garlits, Graham Withers was a pioneer of the Australian scene. He would win his first national title in 1966, remarkably, only three months after he began the sport. Utterly fearless, he became Australia's first fulltime professional drag racer and he would go on to win the Australian Drag Eliminator title on three occasions.

He would also finish runner-up two more times before becoming a motorsport component innovator.

Answer: Drag Racing

Victor excelled at Doorslammer Drag Racing, winning the first ever Australian National Championship in 1996. Not content with that he would go on to win the next five in succession, in events that included stiff opposition from a strong US contingent. His signature vehicle was a 1957 Chevvy that he'd bought for $600, before progressing to purpose built units, though always with a Chevvy chassis.

As a member of a group that was known as the Wild Bunch, Victor was part of a team that worked hard to convince ANDRA (Australian National Drag Racing Association) to take the Doorslammer out of the demonstration category and ratify it as a Group 1 event (and the first championship was held in 1996).

Answer: Drag Racing

Larry Orsmby started his drag racing career in the late 1960s, at the height of the muscle car craze in Australia. Appropriately, he competed in his first race, at Calder in 1968, in a Ford XR GT Falcon. His skill soon saw two things happen (a) he graduated to the elite Top Fuel dragsters and (b) he was christened "The Big O".

He would go on to win five National Championships across a range of categories before becoming a key member in establishing ANDRA, the Australian National Drag Racing Association.

Answer: Drag Racing

You don't get called the "Big Daddy" of Australian drag racing for nothing. Eddie Thomas may have started in the sport at the age of 46 and he may have only raced for a total of four years (1964-1968) but, during that period he set a range of new standards that lifted a brand new sport to a new level of sheer professionalism.

He was the first Australian to break the 150 mile per hour barrier, the first Australian to break through nine seconds, the first in this country to use a fire proof suit (which he made himself) and the first to use a parachute to assist with braking.

Answer: Drag Racing

Graeme Cowan was a humble truck driver with a need for speed. In 1973 he (and his wife) took a punt and poured their life savings into a Psycho nitro-fueled drag car. He needn't have worried. It became a hit machine right across the country and, eventually, got him invited to appearances in US sanctioned NHRA events.

However, it was a sunny afternoon during the summer of 1993 at Calder Raceway that propelled Cowan into the stratosphere of the sport. He made the pass at the quarter mile in 4.8 seconds and, in doing so, became the first person, outside of North America, to smash through the five second barrier.

Answer: Drag Racing

Jim Read began his racing days in the mid-1960s, at the same time that drag racing was beginning to evolve in Australia. He was both a magnificent campaigner for the sport, as he was a competitor. An influencer in the decision to ban alcohol at the race events to encourage family attendance, he also worked diligently with the New South Wales government to have the Eastern Creek facility recognized as the Western Sydney International Dragway.

As a racer he became the first Australian to break the seven second barrier, then the six second barrier and then the five. He became the first Aussie to better 300 miles per hour at the end of a quarter mile and used all of his skills to pilot his way to 17 National Championships. Along with these, his international wins and numerous other trophies, he is seen as the most successful drag racer produced by this country.

Answer: Drag Racing

Ash Marshall started in speedway sedans, graduating to sprint cars before moving into rallying and circuit racing. Introduced to drag racing in 1964 he appeared at the first Australian Drag Racing Nationals (October, 1965) and soon established himself as a colossus in the sport.

He became the first man to pass the 200 mile per hour mark at the quarter mile and then set a new Australian record at 7.49 seconds. This mark stood for several years until it was surpassed by Jim Read in 1972. This brought Marshall out of retirement and, with a new rail, he broke into the six second zone with a time of 6.98 seconds.

The time, however, was disputed, then disallowed, and Ash lost the mantle of being the first Australian to break through the seven second barrier.

Answer: Karting

In the year 2023 Remo Luciani was 62 years old,;he was still karting and he was still winning. From his early days he made a vow that he would not move out of a class until he'd won it. He earned himself over 70 state tiles and had won seven national karting championships.

In between all he also secured a win as the New Zealand kart champion as well. Highly regarded as a builder of a fine chassis, he became a valuable mentor to the younger brigade in the sport.

Answer: Karting

In 1972, at the tender age of 17 years, Drew Price would win the first of his six Australian Karting championships. And, as good as he was behind the wheel, he was just as canny at the helm of his business. DPE Karting Technology started life in his father's backyard shed but it developed into a world leader in the art of kart design.

The brands created, such as Deadly, Monaco and Arrow, were so good that they have combined to win in excess of 1300 state titles and more than 120 national championships.

Answer: Karting

John Pizarro's motto in racing seems to have been "when you're on a good thing, stick to it". John began karting in the mid-1960s at the age of nineteen and remained in the same class for the next 30 years. And, it served him well, taking him to 15 national titles and the opportunity to race at five World Championship events.

Despite all of his success he rated the chance that he had to race against the likes of Terry Fullerton and Ayrton Senna as the highlight of his career.

Answer: Karting

James Courtney began his auto racing career by cutting his teeth on the world's karting tour. Racing against the likes of Kimi Raikkonen, Anthony Davidson and Jensen Button, Courtney won the 1995 World Junior Karting Championships, as 15 year old. Two years later he would add the World Formula A Championship to his resume and continue to take the steps toward Formula One racing.

A spectacular crash at Monza in 2002 ended that dream. In addition to those two world titles, he has had more than 10 wins and 70 podium finishes on the Australian V8 circuit, won the British Formula Ford Championship and the Japan Formula 3 Championship.

Answer: Off-road/Land Speed

Fellows first tasted success in the 1992 Finke Desert Race, an iconic Australian two-day off-road event conducted in the Alice Springs region, as a rookie navigator. Two years later he would switch to driver, but he needed to wait until 2001 before he would finish as the race winner. From that point forward he dominated the event with five wins as a driver, including three consecutive victories between 2008 and 2010.

Despite this Fellows rates his first win in the Australian Off-road Championships in 2010 as his sweetest victory.

He would repeat the victory the following year.

Answer: Off-road/Land Speed

Mark Burrows began his off-road racing career as a mere sixteen year old and had, what could best be described as an apprenticeship, that lasted ten years before he would break through to win his first Australian Off-road Championship.

The apprenticeship, though hard won, was fruitful as it opened the floodgates to his success and ended with him etching his name among the legends of the sport. He would end his career crowned as the Australian Off-road Champion on seven occasions and his wins included five victories in the legendary Finke Desert Race.

Answer: Off-road/Land Speed

Norm Smith's world always revolved around cars and speed. Nicknamed the "Wizard" thanks to some amazing stunts that he pulled as a car salesman he stepped into motor racing and soon established a series of inter-city speed records between Australia's capital cities.

In 1926 he smashed Australia's 24 hour record, going past the previous mark inside 23 hours. However, his greatest desire was to set the world land speed record... it was a dream that would elude him. In 1929 he attached a Rolls Royce airplane engine to a Cadillac chassis and set an Australasian record of 206 kilometres/hour.

A month later he would extend this to 264 km/h and, whilst it did not land in the same arena as Sir Malcom Campbell's 408 km/h, his best effort clocked in at 264 km/h in 1932.

Whilst this may sound a little underwhelming, nowadays, Smith's exploits generated extraordinary interest and helped set foundations for motor sports in Australia.

Answer: Off-road/Land Speed

In 1978 Craig Martin won the Goondiwindi 400. It was his first ever win in a round of the National Off-Road Championships... he was only nineteen. For the next decade he would dominate the championships and place himself among the elite of the Australian off-road racing.

He would win the national title on four occasions but his pet event among those rounds was the Sea Lake event, a title that he would win seven times, including four wins in a row between 1985 and 1988. One of his wins in this event has attained legendary status. Relegated to the rear of the field, over the next 400 kilometres, he overtook 185 starters to pull off one of the race's most remarkable victories.