Flashback: Darwin Drags 2004

First published in the November 2004 issue of Street Machine

Jeez, you blokes have come a long way!” The locals at Darwin’s Hidden Valley drag strip are pleased to see the Street Machine team in town but they are a bit bemused as to why we have come so far just to check out the annual NT Titles. The answer? Why the hell not! Darwin is a beaut town and we find that the further away you get from the big cities, the more interesting the cars and drivers get. They may not be any faster or flasher than their city cousins, but racers in regional areas have to be damn creative in how they go about making their cars haul.

Besides, we’d already had a taste of Top End drag racing when we caught the eighth-mile drags held as part of the Aussie Supercruise (SM, Dec 2003). We liked what we saw then and the chance to see these boys and girls cut loose on a full quarter-mile was too good to refuse. The NT Titles pulls a bunch of super-tough cars not just from Darwin but from as far away as Alice Springs. For starters there are nine blown cars in attendance — not bad when you consider there are only 40 cars entered, plus 25 bikes!

Trad V8s rule the roost, though we spied a quick Jap ute powered by a turbocharged rotary keeping the V8s honest. Classes are kept simple with Street, Super Street, Top Comp and Blown Outlaws. Throw in a few junior dragsters, Street Bikes and Modified Bikes and you have a recipe for a great meeting.

Drag racing in Darwin is run by the King Cobra Rod and Custom Club, a group with a 30-year history. The drag strip has been up and running in Hidden Valley since 1984. These days the site is not only home to drags and circuit racing but also karts, speedway, motocross and — during the wet season — mud racing.

“When you have a six-month long wet season, mud racing is just about the only motor sport you can do up here. Lots of the sprint car boys take the motors out of their cars and put them into these mud racing contraptions and have a ball,” says King Cobra’s Darren Savage. Hmm, we might just have to come back to see that one day!

The really cool thing about the NT Titles is the relaxed Darwin attitude to everything. Hell, they don’t even deduct licence points for driving offences up here — they just fine you. How civilized is that? It’s the same at the drags. Spectators can bring their own beer (no glass please) or you can buy some cheap cans from the club bar. While boozed-up spectators would be a recipe for disaster in the big smoke, Territorians seem to take it in their stride. There is no booze in the pits of course — until the racing finishes. If there is a big rule, it is bring your own folding chair.

One familiar face at Hidden Valley was Sydney-based Top Doorslammer pilot Maurice Fabietti, in town to tune the 540 KB motor he built for Andrew Sutton’s Commodore.

“The motor makes between 1600-2000hp,” said Maurice. “Andrew is still getting used to the car, so we’re slowly stepping it up. I’m building him up a stronger motor for when he’s ready.” Fab and his missus enjoyed a day trip out to Kakadu before hitting the drags: “We had the Getz hire car out to 170km/h on the way, poor little thing,” he smiled.

Andrew — who’d come all the way from Alice Springs — ran two stunning 7.7sec passes, with a best mph of 185mph. The crowd was wrapped but the Commodore blew its three-speed Lenco, putting it out of the final of Blown Outlaws. That left Derreck Sperrer’s gorgeous ’41 Willys to complete a solo pass to take the final. He thrilled the crowd with a spectacular burnout which almost left the Willys sitting on its roof.

The meeting didn’t run totally to plan — there were a few delays for oil downs, a short loss of power and the dunnies ran out of toilet paper. The small but hard-working King Cobra crew overcame the obstacles and ace commentator Donuts kept the crowd informed. The delays meant that the event ran over time, way past midnight. Noise pollution regs would put a stop to that in Sydney but not here — the boys and girls ran until the meeting was done.

Afterwards, die-hard racers and fans stood in the pits, shooting the breeze and enjoying a cleansing ale or two. Having escaped the depths of a Sydney winter, we though the weather was fine; it was a bit cold for the locals, with the girls all wrapped up in jumpers, beanies and scarves. We even ran into our old mates Wil Barras and Corey Fechner. We met Wil at Summernats 16 and featured her beaut, chameleon-coloured AU ute back in April 2003. At the drags they were cruising in Wil’s 302-powered XP, another beaut bit of gear with all the right custom touches. Corey’s been busy too, dropping an XT Vortex motor into his beach buggy. Like we said, they do things differently up here, and thank the Lord for that!

1. “I ran a PB tonight — 11.1secs,” says Ron Chubbs Fulmer, “and came second in Super Street.” The street-driven Torana runs a 308/350/nine-inch combo with a 150hp gas shot.

2. Derreck Sperrer’s ’41 Willys took out the Blown Outlaws bracket. “It runs a 350 Chev, 10/71 blower and a ’glide. The chassis was imported from the US,” says Derreck. The Willys has run a best of 8.4@165mph but it is a hairy ride so Derreck has another project in the build.

3. “My missus normally races the car,” says Sam Burt, “but she blew the gearbox last meeting. I fixed it so I figured it was my turn.” The HG is powered by what Sam calls a “mystery 350 Trading Post special out of a mud bogger”. A 150hp fogger kit helps, powering the car to a new PB of 11.3sec. To keep the bottle up to optimum operating pressure, Sam had a mate empty a kettle over the bottle blanket, prompting numerous calls for “white with two, please!”

4. Would you believe these skids were ripped off with a borrowed engine? “We cranked her over this morning and she did a valve,” says Ben Simpson. “I was going to give up, then thought: ‘Heck, why not fix it?’ So we borrowed a motor, fitted the blower and here we are.” Ben and his Datsun 1200 Scud are popular at Hidden Valley, with Ben being famous for bringing several sets of tyres to meetings just to fry them. Under the flip front bonnet is a 351C, newly supercharged. “It’s run a best of 11.00 aspirated. So far we’ve run 12.30 with the blower,” says Ben.

5. Steven Payne hails from Jabiru, 250km from Darwin. Steve used to drive his HT ute to Hidden Valley for race meetings, back when it was running mid-11s. These days that’s not an option thanks to the blown, injected 427 between the shock towers. A John Taverna half-chassis helps put the grunt to ground, resulting in 9.26@153mph. “I’ve heard people say: ‘You know the best thing about that car? He puts road tyres on it and drives it to work.’ That cracks me up.”

Al Stainer dragged the Grim Reaper Lancer up from Alice Springs. The 302-powered weapon repaid him with a win in Super Street.

The talk of the town was this immaculate HJ tonner, owned by Paul Sharp. Said to be one of the toughest street cars in Darwin, the HJ runs a 700hp, 500ci big block, plus a big whack of giggle gas. Driven on the night by Barry Webber, the tonner ran a best of 9.82@145mph and won the Top Comp class.

With your family jewels positioned centimetres from this car’s diff, punting a front-engined dragster [FED] is exciting enough without your ’chute failing to deploy at 177mph! “Yep, we went off into the bushes! It was pretty hairy but no damage done,” says Andrew Kuss. “This is our first season with the blown motor. It’s a 383ci Clevo with Eagle internals, 4V heads, 6/71 pump. It’s the only FED in the Territory.” With a best of 7.72, it’s also at the pointy end of the field.

Peter Coles’s Torana bucks convention by running a 355ci Holden V8 rather than a Chev. “We’ve just switched to running a blower,” he says. The owner-built mill is topped by a 6/71 pump and Enderle injection. “We ran a best of 9.8secs with nitrous and now 9.4 with the pump,” says Peter.

Daniel Franklin’s XY is one tough mutha and Ford to the core, packing a 390ci Clevo, backed by a C4 and nine-inch. The half-chassis Falc has run a best of 10.03@133mph in Top Comp.

Priscilla Campbell (11) from Alice Springs took out the junior dragster class from mate Alisane Woods (12), showing the male competitors the way to win.