Toowoomba Pro Street racer Scott Cortina has a busy few weeks ahead, entered in both this weekend’s Pro Street Shootout (21 March) and Easter Saturday’s (4 April) Santo’s Super 3 Extreme Drag Race Event presented by Uplift Cranes and Titan Cranes – for which he is the reigning Pro Street class winner.

The 46 year old Suspension Technician has been racing for 29 years, with his interest piqued after he watched Victor Bray on-track at the now defunct Surfers Paradise facility with his brother and friends as a teenager. 

Since then he has taken the wheel of a HG Ute, an LH Torana and now a 1971 HG Kingswood, in which he is set to take part in the X275 class for this weekend’s Pro Street shootout and the Pro Street class of Easter’s spectacular.

“Both events are going to deliver great racing and a good family outing – everyone is welcome to come past our set-up in the pits and have a look at the car and have a chat,” said the racer who lists the Easter event win, his claiming of the inaugural X275 Championship (2012) and his involvement in the establishment of that class, as well as running seven second passes in a street-registered HG with radial tyres as his biggest achievements. 

With a high win rate in the Pro Street ranks and his position as the reigning class winner when it comes to the upcoming Easter bonanza, fans would be well advised to keep an eye on Cortina as he shoots for nothing less than the top.

“The Pro Street field is growing from strength to strength, and the Shootout is going to be a great display of that – we want to make the first spot on the top ten list, and we are also looking forward to a grudge match with Frank Marchese from Dandy Engines – bring it!” said Cortina, whose Kingswood is powered by a 565 CI big block Chev with a PKRE Nitrous system. 

“For Easter, last year it was a lot of hard work to get there but it was worth it, racing in front of thousands of people in the packed grandstands and coming home with the win after racing Brett Benz in the final was just great. 

“We aren’t feeling any pressure heading back there as the reigning class winners, we will be looking to just run personal bests in front of what is sure to be another outstanding crowd.” 

Cortina is one-half of a two-man team alongside his brother Paul, with the pair building the car – which is run with a personally-made Gazzard Bros Custom Suspension – completely in-house from suspension to engine. 

“I really have to thank my brother Paul, my friends and family for their continued support, as well as our extremely valuable sponsors Gazzard Bros, Country Cranes and Haulage, Barry Hyland Earthmoving, Abbott Engines, 6Boost, ProTrans Performance Automatics, PKRE, Advanced Suspensions, Zedtec Engineering and Arrow Automotive for all they do for us,” said Cortina.