First published in the June 2007 issue of Street Machine

Not all drag racing is about five-second Doorslammers and or Top Fuellers. Not all of it takes place in front of crowds of tens of thousands, in the rarified atmosphere of a multi-million dollar race track. Sometimes it gets even better than that, as we discovered when we visited Whyalla in South Australia.

The event was the final of the Holdtite Tri-Series, which has competitors travelling to Mildura, Coonawarra (who knew they even had a dragstrip out there?) and Whyalla for the big finale.

Seventy-two entries might not be much of a field for Western Sydney International Dragway or Willowbank but it was one of the biggest turnouts the Steel City Drag Club has ever had to cater for.

To say these guys do it tough is an understatement. The track itself is one eighth-mile — concrete all the way — with a bitumen run-off. After that it’s plenty of bush and, eventually, the Spencer Gulf. The club’s honorary historian, Peter Jackson, reckons it’s one of, if not the oldest continually operating drag strip in the country.

“Drag racing started here in 1969 but before that they used to run on a tidal creek bed that was oiled and compacted!”

Clearly that was before it was bad for the environment. The Whyalla strip was originally a concrete launch pad and then dirt. After five years or so, the whole eighth-mile was concreted. The run-off was still dirt though!

It’s a simple set-up, with the added touch of some lovely flora in the middle of the track. Yep, if you get outta shape here, you’re on the grass, and that makes for some very interesting situations. Just ask Steve Norman, whose Pontiac Super Stocker — the fastest in the land — soon became the fastest lawnmower in Whyalla after the car overpowered the track. It looked pretty hairy there for a while but Steve kept the shiny side up and decided to call it a day. Smart move.

To be honest, I was quite surprised by how fast and how nice the cars were that raced on the day. For instance, Deno Brijeski’s nine-second EK ute is now owned by Whyalla local Mark Kuhn, who managed to run a 5.70 on the eighth in Mildura. If you get your slide rule out, that equates to an eight-second run on the quarter-mile, something Deno never quite managed to do.

The buzz around the track, however, was all to do with the Super Street battle. Anne Jones and Nenad Stolic were tied for second, while reigning tri-series and National Super Street champ Darren Kellaway held a slender lead. Kellaway suffered his first loss in 18 months at the hands of Jones in Coonawarra and was keen to make amends for that, and take back-to-back titles.

Once the dust settled — and I mean that literally — it was Matt Visentin and his wheelstanding HQ coupe that took home the gold.

For the leading three, it was not a good day. Jones bombed out in the first round after running a 7.735 on a 7.49 dial-in. Stolic fared a little better, making it through to the second round but losing out to a better reaction time. For Kellaway it was a slightly better meet; he made it all the way to the fourth round before losing to eventual round winner Visentin, thanks to a breakout.

However, sneaking up on everyone to snatch the title was Angelo Efthimiou and his bright orange, 351-powered Cortina. On the night he was runner-up but that gave him enough points to be crowned Super Street Tri-Series Champion.

Of course, there was much more going on than just Super Street, with more hard-fought battles in the Super Sedan, Modified and Bike classes.

One thing is certain: South Australia is crying out for a decent full-length quarter-mile track. Whether that means getting AIR up to scratch or building a brand new complex doesn’t matter. These guys run so hard under such trying conditions, you wonder how well they’d go at a place like WSID.

PRICELESS RELIC

Nenad Stolic has owned this Saffron HQ coupe (below) for 11 years and reckons she’s a bit of a relic now. As he’s a spray painter by trade, the coupe has seen a few different colours over the years but it came from the factory as a purple 350 GTS.

The best Nenad had got out of the old girl was an 11.29 over the quarter but when we spoke, she was on the market. In fact, someone was going to look at it the next day: “I hope I don’t blow anything up today,” Nenad said.

The HQ is making way for another fine piece of GM muscle and, compared to the HQ, this will be on steroids. How does a ’68 Camaro jam-packed with 565 cubes of Motown muscle sound?

“I got a bit carried away: Brodix Big Duke heads and lots of other good stuff. First I’ve got to learn how to drive it, then I’ll put a bottle on it,” says Nenad. “On paper it should do high eights at 160mph. We’ll see!”

KILLER BEE

Yeah, I know this isn’t a bike mag but you’ve got to admire a bloke who has done more than 3500 passes down a drag strip and recorded every one of them in a log book.

Toni Keating brought a couple of bikes to the track (just in case one blew up) but spent the day racing his RD350. Now, I’m no bike expert but something that sounds like an angry insect, has only 350cc of engine, and a fairly big bloke piloting it, should not go 12.3sec on the quarter!

The secret to doing so many passes down the track? Toni reckons having eight or nine bikes in the shed helps but recycling parts to keep the bikes running is the key.

SUPER SLEEPER

There’s a big ‘1’ on the side of Darren Kellaway’s XD Fairmont Ghia and it was put there by ANDRA for a good reason: it’s the best Super Street competitor in the country.

For a car that will run 11.0s all day, you sure wouldn’t know to look at it. All of the original Ghia fruit is still in place: the velour trim, all the extra bright-work, even the stock T-bar shifter!

It’s so bloody quiet you can barely hear it when he does a burnout but when that light goes green it’s goodbye! Darren spends his days working for Toyota but when he gets home it’s all systems go for DKR — Darren Kellaway Racing.

He does all the spanner-work on the XD, which he started building back in ’93 for Hot Adelaide. Around this time, Darren was diagnosed with leukaemia and the outlook wasn’t good. For him, the Falcon was more than just a race car, it was a ray of light and hope.

Against advice, Darren focused his energy on getting the car finished but what the medical experts wanted him to do was rest.

“They kept telling me that I couldn’t be thinking about the car, that I just had to rest. But to me, the Falcon is what kept me going, it gave me something to live for,” he says.

When Darren got the car it was a nice clean unit that he used to maintain for the original owner. Then it was completely stripped and fitted with a 400 Clevo that has seen a lot of development over the years. The latest combo is so good, Darren only uses a 100-shot from his 300hp nitrous system.

“I’ve done at least 600 passes in this car and it’s never missed a beat, never let me down.”

HIGHLIGHTS:

1. It’s good to see old feature cars strutting their stuff; Robert Datson’s Torrie featured in May ’95. It still wears the same paint but has been upgraded with a new rollcage, trans and engine. Not just any old gear either — she now runs a 355 stroker with Cain tunnel ram, twin 660 centre-squirters, Yella Terra alloy heads, Carillo rods, a race ’Glide, 5500 stall and a trans brake feeding a nine-inch. “I got the car when I was 17. Jeez! That means I’ve had it 20 years now,” says Robert. She’s good for another 20 at least.

2. Eventual Super Street winner Matt Visentin hammers off the line in his 400 Chev-powered HQ coupe.

3. Runner-up Super Street on the day but tri-series winner overall was Angelo Efthimiou in his beautifully turned-out Cortina. No 250 in this baby; it’s packing 351ci of Henry’s finest.

4. Gary Tanner is more than happy to let girlfriend Kylie Wagener drive his car — after all, she’s quicker than him! Kylie broke out in the first round when she ran a 9.623@64mph, which was close to her best time. In case you’re wondering, that’s a high-14 with a six. Not bad!

5. Back when stuffing a big engine in a little car and chopping the roof was all the rage, strips were full of cars like Peter Jackson’s Mk I Escort. Built by Ken Wooding in Adelaide, the little Ford is powered by a Hilborn-injected 340 Chrysler motor with W5 alloy heads and a roller cam. Getting the injection to fit was tough but it all works, with the little Esky turning 6.30 on the eighth.

6. Michael Retallick recently completed this tidy ’55 Chev. Stuffed full of 454 big-block goodness and 4.11 gears, Michael struggled with traction. Not surprising really!

7. Joe Jurkovic has owned this fine Dodge Dart for more than 10 years and has slowly beefed it up over the years. Now running a 360 stroked out to 418ci and fed by a 750 Dominator, the lightweight Mopar is good for mid-sevens on the eighth-mile; that’s mid-11 quarters.

8. Hernan Tosti lost out in the first round at Whyalla but had enough of a points lead from the first two rounds to take the overall Super Sedan title.

9. Rob Page might be in a wheelchair but that doesn’t stop him having a shit-load of fun at the track. The Olds Pro-Stocker is ex-Rob Tucker, and the car that he won the ’98 Championships with. “Apart from the ’Glide, it’s all ’99 Pro-Stock gear,” Rob tells us. “The shiny lever is for go, the black one is stop. It’s got a paddle-shift and the button is for the transbrake.”

10. Bruce Pain runs this sweet little Gemini for a bit of fun. “It’s a 202 with McGee constant injection or, as I like to call it, a piddle-pour system. It’s got a fully manualised Traumatic and has run a 7.0@98mph.”

11. Steve Norman had the crowd on its feet and his sponsors cringing when his Super Stock Pontiac left the track just after this photo was taken. Aside from a lot of dirt in the car, there was no damage. Well, maybe some to the race suit!

12. HMAS Whyalla was the first of four Bathurst-class corvettes (minesweepers) built at BHP’s shipyards during WW II. She was in Sydney the night of the Japanese midget sub attack. In 1984, Whyalla City Council heard she was for sale as scrap and bought all 186ft for $5000. She now rests 2km inland at Whyalla Maritime Museum.