There’s always a handful of men and women who we can count on to throw their hat in the ring for our Drag Challenge marathons, and one of those is Donnie Zurcas.

First published in the October 2024 issue of Street Machine

He’s taken on every Victorian DC we’ve run since 2017, kick-starting his campaign in his beautiful, low-10-second EK sedan, which he brought back again for DC 2018. Since then, the same 434ci small-block Chev has been shoved into his 1974 Mk1 Capri, a car he’s owned since the mid-90s.

“I got it as a drag car project, and it’s had several engine changes and upgrades over the years,” says Donnie. “For this combo, the firewall has been recessed, and it has a larger tunnel to fit the Powerglide transmission.”

More recently, that engine has been fed by Holley Dominator EFI, with a Super Victor manifold and MS109 fuel on the track. Heads are AFR 210s, while a solid-roller stick, Scat rotating assembly and CP flat-top pistons fill out the bottom end. In that form, it made 578hp to the hubs, pushing through the Powerglide and nine-inch diff to the 235 radials Donnie runs at DC.

“We switched to the smaller tyre when the 235 Aspirated class came about, and it made for some great competition,” says Donnie. “There’s always tight margins with us aspo guys, so we push each other all week.”

He’s had some great Drag Challenge triumphs over the years, including two wins in the 235 Aspirated class. The first of those was at our three-day Drag Challenge Weekend in Victoria in 2022, but the most fruitful was his class win at the delayed DC 2022-’23 five-dayer. That saw a week-long tussle between Donnie and two other DC veterans: Nathan Ghosn in his Mk1 Capri and West Australian Aaron James’s VG Valiant.

“I sorely missed the opportunity to take on Nathan at the DC Weekend ’22, so to battle it out with him and Aaron at the 2022-’23 five-day event was special for me,” he says. “There was pressure on all of us, but it was really good racing. A couple of the previous entrants were talking about how good the 235 Aspirated class was, just because it was so close.” Donnie almost lost his trailer halfway through the week, just to add some spice – something you only hear about on Drag Challenge!

For the next DC five-day event later in 2023, a new challenger in the form of Louis Younis and his freshly built LX Torana (SM, Sep ’24) entered the ranks to give Donnie a run for his money. As with the previous DC, the race for the 235 Aspo top gong went down to the wire, with Louis besting Donnie by a slim 0.14sec margin by the end of four days’ racing. “We had him on the shorter tracks, so losing the eighth-mile racing at Portland on Day Four [called off due to the weather] really hurt our chances,” Donnie says.

Even though he had to settle for silver in class on that occasion, Donnie did come away with the significant consolation prize of a new PB of 9.64@136mph on the last day at The Bend.

Naturally, Donnie is amped up for this year’s DC carnival, with racing getting underway on 30 October at Calder Park. “We’re quietly working on some stuff in the background to make the car quicker for this year, and we’ve heard Louis has gone significantly quicker as well,” he says. “Aaron’s coming back over from WA for this one, and my crewmate Peter has entered his HG Kingswood in the same class, so it should be a lot of fun.”

With some 1500-plus kilometres to cover on the road during the event, Donnie’s theory on staying competitive remains unchanged: “You’ve gotta be able to put the fight in on the road; it’s not the track that’ll beat you, it’s your endurance on the road.

“We just go there for ourselves. To us, it’s more important to make it to the end than win, and that’s why we love it.”

DONNIE ZURCAS
1970 Mk1 FORD CAPRI