WHEN you’re chasing one-thousandth of a second in the K&N Dial Your Own class, one run can make or break your Drag Challenge campaign. As entrants idled their way 500km south to Portland, Day Three’s DYO leaderboard has certainly changed up, with some seriously tight gaps meaning we could easily see a completely different top three tomorrow.

Steve Grima is now top dawg, running 0.019sec off of his Monday dial-in. Even so, Steve was hoping to be even closer to his 10.573sec dial-in. “I only managed to get four passes in, but because the DYO run windows were so spread out through the day, it was hard to be consistent in a turbo car due to the weather changes. I would’ve liked a few more.”

A mere 0.0026 seconds behind is Tony Muscara in his roaring Whipple-blown 2016 Mustang. Tony had a heck of a Day Three, losing first gear in his other car, an XE running in Haltech Radial Blown class. He managed to get on the road, but the bumpy logging roads got the better of the trailer, fatiguing the A arms just out of Portland quite late last night.

Another 0.002sec off Tony and 0.004sec from the lead is the carby-fed LS1-powered ’72 HQ One Tonner of Jason Davidson in third. Jason is something of a veteran, with several DC and DCWs under his belt, and he’ll be another one to watch as Day Four and Day Five play out.

Not far off in 13th place is Anthony Raschella in the gorgeous racing-spec Duster. Anthony’s a seasoned racer, as is Daniel ‘Gizmo’ Grima, who’s worked his way up into 16th in his Bel Air.

With two more days of racing and another decent highway slog, the K&N Dial Your Own win is still well and truly up for grabs.

Representing the three-pedal contingent in K&N DYO is the husband-and-wife team of Wayne and Kellie Roberts in their stout 230rwhp six-banger LJ Torry.

Triple Dellorto 45mm carbs feed the fully built 202ci blue motor that features a hand-ported nine-port head and a port-matched Redline manifold. Behind is a Ford single-rail ’box with Precision button clutch.

“It’s a real car,” Wayne said of his manual LJ. “It had an auto, but it’s not the same; there’s more horsepower with the manual box and button clutch.”

Wayne scored a PB at Mildura last night with an 8.1@89mph – that’s a 12.65 quarter-mile equivalent, which puts Wayne right where he wants to be. “If I can run a 12 at each track then I’ll be happy,” he said.

K&N DYO RESULTS: