Brandon Zito’s LC Torana wins Drag Challenge 2025 & full results

The final day of Street Machine Drag Challenge 2025 has marked the end of one hell of a week of drag-and-drive, with Brandon Zito’s twin-turbo, small-block Chev-powered LC Torana coming out as the overall winner.

With tumultuous weather predicted for the day, we dodged rain up until the early afternoon at Dragway at The Bend with intermittent showers. All but four cars got one pass in until the rain really came down around 2pm, forcing an early end to racing and leaving all entrants with their only pass of the day to hand in.

Brandon continued his strong form from the start of the week, running a fresh PB early this morning of 7.42@191mph – the quickest pass of the week – to seal the overall win. It also gave him top honours in the Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown class, the Quickest Chev-Powered award, and an induction into the Four-Second Club with his 4.93@148mph on Day Two at Portland.

“This morning when I woke up, I was shaking. I didn’t know how today was going to pan out with the weather – what if someone got a run in before us and it got delayed?” said Brandon.

“But we got the whole field through, and as soon as I got that run in, we all said to each other, ‘I think we’re done.’ I was so happy,” he continued. “Next week, I’m going to go to Yarrawonga Rod Run, and I’m going to throw the whole family in there and cruise all weekend.”

Second place overall and in Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown went to 2023 overall winner Mark Drew, who ran a 7.85@190mph on the last day. His 4.94@146mph on Day Two at Portland gained him entry into the Four-Second Club, and he also scored the Fastest MPH award for his Day One pass of 7.43@197mph. And if that wasn’t enough, he took home a Quickest LS-Powered trophy as well.

In PowerPlus Fuels Outlaw Blown, Al Vella’s Capri was the winner over Stephen Micallef’s HSV VY Maloo. Al’s 7.97@176mph earned him a Seven-Second Club red hat, and he also grabbed the Quickest Ford-Powered award. Stephen’s Maloo won the Quickest Without A Trailer brass for his 8.12@130mph on the first day.

Paul Wood in his thumping big-block LJ Torana did exactly what he came to Drag Challenge to do, winning the Kemppi Australia Radial Aspirated class. An 8.35@164mph was his final number for the week, with Hayley Vella chasing him in second in her father’s Mk1 Capri that’d won the class nine times. Peter Haravitsidis’s XY Falcon was the final podium placer in class.

After much campaigning for the addition of a manual class, Zane Heath made it worth our while by winning the Unrivaled Engineering Stick-Shift class in his Subaru Impreza WRX STi Spec R. The EJ-powered machined also scored the Quickest Four-Cylinder award, running a best of 10.16@144mph. Second place in class went to James ‘Millsy’ Miller’s Toyota Supra Mk4, and third was Bruce Howie’s XL Falcon ute.

The index classes were hotly contested and went right down to the wire, with weather shortening the running on Day Five and putting the pressure on competitors to get it right the first time. Just three-tenths separated Brad Schreiber’s home-built turbo LS-powered VB Commodore and Chris Imlach’s wicked Chevy Nova at the end of play, while Mitch Rogers’s stunning boosted-Windsor-powered XT rounded out the podium.

And in PSR 9.5 class, Kevin Cox’s wheel-standing HK Premier took home the top chocolates in a nail-biting finish to the class. Coming into Day Five, Dave Carnell was leading in his HQ One Tonner, but he broke out heavily on his only run of the day with a 9.23. As a result, second place went to Alex Bird’s HZ ute, with Phil Dynon’s stock-bottom-end BF FPV F6 Tornado in third.

Getting boosted street cars on tiny tyres down the track in challenging conditions is no mean feat, and Tom Wright made a statement with an 8.71@161mph run at The Bend on Day One in his HG Prem. He was quick each day, edging out Mitchell Bloor’s VN for the Tuff Mounts 235 Blown class win. Joel Beatson’s XP Falcon claimed the third spot on the class podium.

For the third year running, Louis Younis won the ITF Hire 235 Aspirated class in his jet-black LX Torana sedan. He started the week hot with an 8.96@148mph, never losing his margin to good mate and second-placer in class Jason Mansweto in his XY Falcon ute.

Would the Barra, 2J or RB emerge as the dominant six-banger platform after five days of Drag Challenge action? William Yarwood’s Supra set the pace early with an 8.34@172mph hit on Day One, but struggled on Day Three at Mildura to surrender the Speed Pro Six-Cylinder class lead to Anthony Spadavecchia’s beautifully turned-out, Barra-powered XW ute. A hard-charging Yarwood was back on the pace by Day Five back at The Bend, but it wasn’t enough the reel Spadavecchia back in, and he had to settle for third in class. Second place went to Mark Mills’s LX Torana.

Enthusiast Motor Insurance Outlaw Aspirated is a class for big-tyre, all-motor monsters. We learned that there’s still life in Holden’s venerable Iron Lion yet, with two of the top three finishers in class being plastic-powered. Andrew Natoli’s BG Engines-backed, Holden-powered VK landed in third spot, while Dale Palmer’s ultra-cool LS-powered HB Torana was in second. But the class winner – and winner of the Quickest Holden-Powered trophy – was Michael Ryder in his epic VN SS, which started the week strong with a howling 9.50@142mph lick at Tailem Bend and was never headed, topping the class each day.

Matt Carey has been a Drag Challenge regular for years, and we’re stoked to say that his BLWNQUAD VZ SS ute won the VCM Performance / HP Tuners DYO class in a super-tight contest. He travels from Tom Price, 1500km north of Perth, each year for the event, and his split at the end of proceedings was just 0.03000. Second place was Kane Spiers’s VS Commodore, with Adam Zollenkopf’s Volvo 240 in third.