IF YOU’RE a fan of street-style drag racing, you’re in for a treat. Get your backside trackside to Powercruise 71 at Sydney Motorsport Park (22-25 February), because there’ll be plenty of heads-up action going down. Then, on the Friday evening of Powercruise, make your way across the road to Sydney Dragway for Lights Out 3.

Unlike any other style of drag racing, Lights Out allows for spectators to stand on the track behind the cars as they leave the line, and it makes for a killer atmosphere. With entry free for Powercruise spectators and just 10 bucks for blow-ins, a massive crowd is all but assured.

There are quarter-mile brackets for cars as quick as 8.50 right down to 12.99-second streeters, but the stars of the show will be contesting the Lights Out competition. Run to the eighth-mile off a pro tree, it’s heads-up, first-past-the-post racing with a win light only – real street-inspired, big-boy stuff that’s set to attract a strong field of four-second eighth-mile weapons. Standing on the startline with these beasts as they get out of the hole is something that must be experienced to be believed.

Back over at Sydney Motorsport Park, there’s the regular Powercruise off-street racing, along with a brand-new concept – the Country vs City Street Outlaws. Conceived by proud country lad and Powercruise regular Tig Box, the competition will see two teams butt heads on Sydney Motorsport Park’s main straight across four rounds of racing throughout the weekend. With a $200 buy-in per racer, members of the winning team will double their cash and – perhaps more importantly – take home the bragging rights.

As we often see on that surface, it’s not always the fastest cars that win, but rather the ones that best put their power to the pavement. The Country vs City Street Outlaws is bound to be a pedal-fest!

For more information, head to www.powercruise.com.