Armygeddon unleashed on Canberra

Revved up: Armygeddon burns up the tarmac at this year’s Summernats.

By Cpl Andrew Hetherington

ARMYGEDDON has lit up the tarmac at this years Summernats in Canberra held from January 5-8.

The Army’s six wheeled, seven litre burnout beast and recruiting tool displayed its true potential during the burn-out competitions at Exhibition Park in Canberra.

WO2 David Jones, one of Armygeddon’s drivers said the public reaction to Armygeddon was great.

“It drew a lot of attention from the crowds and whenever it drove around the grounds, the crowds around it were so large it was like having a flock of sheep following the vehicle,” he said.

WO2 Jones said the purpose of taking Armygeddon to Summernats was to promote the Army and show the public what types of trade qualifications they can obtain such as mechanical, auto electrical and fabrication.

“It really helped to have the Army apprentices there to talk to people one-on-one about Army life and what it was all about.”
WO2 Jones said Armygeddon competed in the burnout competition, the go-to-whoa and the grass events.

“The crowd was ecstatic when we did burnouts, people were actually blown away by it, especially with four wheels on the back lighting up,” he said.

“No one had ever seen that before at Summernats.”

WO2 Jones said Armygeddon did not have any running troubles for a majority of the competition, only on the last day did a problem occur.

“On the last day of the last burnout, when we changed to second gear the car died,” he said.

“The problem was an electrical fault, we fixed the problem and unfortunately the problem re-occurred and we had to shut the car down.

“The crowd took this quite well and later people came up to wish us luck for next year.”

Other possible events Armygeddon will attend this year are the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide, the Formula Grand Prix in Melbourne and several other motor shows in 2006.