AS the Street Machine Drag Challenge crew rolled out of Swan Hill Raceway after a big third day of racing, the weather took a turn for the worst and the scorching heat was replaced by tropical-style storms. It absolutely bucketed down, flooding roads and giving our competitors a really rough time getting to our mandatory stops and then onto Portland’s South Coast Raceway.
With rough pot holed roads and heavy rain the going was tough as our old street machines fogged up, struggled with their windscreen wipers and even suffered from water leaks. Most of the gang made it across to Portland; though a couple of our big banger cars were nowhere to be seen.
Harry Haig never made a pass at Swan Hill due to gearbox issues, but we thought we might’ve seen him back in action by the time the convoy hit Portland – he was nowhere to be seen. Jarrod Wood with the mental twin-turbo big-block HQ tonner was another no show – he bent a valve on the previous day and apparently had the car running again but decided not to push his luck and make the trek over to Portland.
As we all suspected, the track was completely flooded and there was zero chance of racing with severe standing water in the braking zone. Still every remaining competitor had to get to the track and tick off with Scotty before moving on to Adelaide International Raceway for the final day.
At Portland we also waved goodbye to third-place overall Adam Rogash as he made his way back home to support wife Kelly during the birth of their baby boy Jordan. John Pilla and Brian Jones took over, with John on driving duties, bringing home ALLSHOW on the final day of competition.
At the end of day four it was Quentin Feast in first place, Mark Drew in second and Adam in third.
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