The evenings racing at the eighth-mile Atlantic Oils Sunset Strip in Mildura was not short of stories, with hot pace and a stack of incidents.
Racing kicked off in the afternoon heat at 4pm, the temperature nudging just over 30 degrees celsius before cooling off nicely as the sun set.
We didn’t quite manage to see a four second pass from the heavy hitters in the heat of the day, and delays starting with an extensive oil down during the evenings racing meant most didn’t get a chance for a balls-out run in the cooler conditions to do so.
Overall leader Mark Drew was the closest, clocking a 5.09@148mph. Brandon Zito in the green LC coupe moved up to second overall and in Hare & Forbes Machineryhouse Radial Blown, with a 5.17@142mph.
After a whole host of issues on the road to Mildura including eating a camshaft, Keith Hards FAIRXW drove into barely running under its own steam. Unfortunately, the team had accepted a flat tow from a competitor on the road, which disqualifies them from competition and what was second outright. Towing a short distance is only legal for the purposes of getting a stranded vehicle to safe spot.
With Keith out, it moves Nathan Jehu to third place in class and overall after Brandon Zito, and Luke Foley into fourth. Just 0.484 (or under half a second) separates the top four runners.
As for the evenings incidents on track, the first major being our class-leading Toyota Celica of Daniel Smith. Well out in front in the Tuff Mounts 235 Blown class, the boys hit trouble whilst chasing a four second pass when the burst panel on the intake manifold exploded, sending the bonnet onto the windscreen.
Mark Reynolds Mk3 1.5JZ Toyota Supra had to bow out, with holes in several pistons and a suspected split block putting an abrupt end to his campaign in the SpeedPro Six Cylinder class.
Jason Kenny damaged the input shaft in his gearbox on his first run, but fellow top 10 overall runner Clinton Kelly leant him a spare. Jason and his boys ripped the gearbox out in the pits, changed the problem child and got the LS1PWR VN back together to keep fighting.
David Hill’s HQ ute came a cropper at the end of the evening, losing his left rear wheel and sending the ute to the other side of the track, the tub making contact with the wall.
With the extensive delays on track, it has been decided to give six competitors who were not able to make a run on Friday an opportunity to take their run first thing this morning, after which Saturday racing will officially begin.
Racing today runs from 9am-3pm before we head to South Australia for the finale back at Dragway at The Bend tomorrow, and you can grab tickets to both at dragchallenge.com.au.
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