Why Buddy’s Fire Sponsors the Burnouts...

Published on 16 February 2022

This is a question that you may or may not have pondered. The answer is simply because Michael “Buddy” loves cars and he, like most rev heads knows that if you are fortunate enough to own a tough car, and you are still a big kid at heart, you want to see it burn rubber.

Buddy’s passion for cars has been with him since day dot. He recently revealed that his first two cars were Fords, which was no doubt the influence of his old man who was a Ford man through and through. But then the inevitable happened, a Holden caught his eye and became his third car, from there he was converted.

Cars came and went, one after the other, never the same, always different. The only thing each car could be sure of was that when they came into Buddy’s possession, they would leave in better condition than what they had come. That of course was the ones that lived to tell the story because as you can imagine quite a few, in the early days met there maker when Buddy’s driving skill couldn’t quiet handle the task.

Buddy worked hard, so that he could build cars. He spent countless hours, day, weeks tinkering on cars – he would pull them apart, painting, and polishing and chroming each part and then put them back together. Never with the idea that he would keep them forever. He just wanted to own them and as his wife would say “make love to them “, then send them on their way.

Some cars were lucky enough to make the show scene and he would pile the family in a tow car and tow them all over the countryside to display them and chat with likeminded people; who appreciated the time and effort needed to present an award-winning car. He won numerous awards in all different categories and even managed to get Queensland Top Street Machine with two of his masterpieces in 2006 & 2008.

It didn’t matter what it was, anything to do with cars and Buddy was there. For quite a few years he raced speedway, even when he wasn’t racing he was still happy to sponsor others and supply fire equipment to the local club. Later he was stoked to watch is son Aaron take to the track.

Buddy married a girl from Bathurst, which some would argue was so that he had free accommodation for the Bathurst 1000 and has since spent his “Bathurst Weekends” at the track whenever possible.

Buddy always loved a good skid and was guilty of attempting a few himself. He had always wanted to go to Summernats, then in 2019 he finally got to go. He was literally as excited as a kid in a candy store.

The sky was full of smoke as he drove into Canberra, not the burning tyre smoke he had gone to see but the thick lingering smoke of the worst bush fires Australia could imagine; this did not deter him.

He was armed with his passes, a fridge in the car with beer, his wife, daughter and most importantly his grandchild Kasey. He was living his dream of being at the “Nats”

Over three packed days he saw it all, but for some reason his heart was at the Burnouts.

His wife had found her seat in the grandstand, with the grandson at the burnout pads and was refusing to move until she had seen them all. He will admit he was torn, “does he stay and watch the rubber burn or dash to the “go to whoa’” for a quick sticky.

At the end of the last day the smoke from the fires was starting to clear, Buddy was buggered but he knew that Rocky had no idea what was coming its way and he had to be a part of it. From the excitement on his grandsons face every time a rev head lit up the burnout pad he knew that Rocky needed Burnouts.

So why does Buddy sponsor the burnouts? Because he can. Because he loves it. Because he knows Rocky needs the burnouts just as much as it needs Beef and Barra.

For the second year running the team at Buddy’s Fire is proud to sponsor the Rockynat’s Burnout Precinct and looks forward to seeing you there.