It’s a wrap on Street Machine Drag Challenge 2022/23 after a huge week of racing and driving Australia’s hottest street cars around Victoria!

Fresh off a night of racing at Heathcote Park Raceway, the big hitters upped the ante straight away this morning, spurred on by Harry Haig belting out a 7.64-seconds at 184mph in POP666 HQ Holden just an hour into proceedings.

Harry’s mill was beginning to eat itself by this point, but he pushed on in search of a better number. “I’ve got a tilt tray; I’d be mad not to, wouldn’t I,” he laughed. Consequences be damned! He took the overall win to make it two in a row for the full-fat Drag Challenge, as well as the win in Turbosmart Outlaw Blown.

Dan Szabolics made a cracker 7.53-second pass in his crazy HQ Monaro not long after Harry’s maiden effort, but a blown torque converter seal forced him to stop here. A second-place capped off a challenging week for Dan, Frank Marchese and the rest of the crew. “Last night we had a boost leak we couldn’t find, so we were stuck in the 8.1s,” Frank said. “The car was telling us all week that it didn’t want to play ball.”

Dan took out Haltech Radial Blown, as well as Fastest MPH and Quickest Pass of the event.

Luke Foley’s 7.89@177 on day five left him in third outright. “It dropped one cylinder on one run [last night],” he said, “and then another one on another run. The rockers were just sitting in there!” It was a great effort after day four’s cam swap, which left Luke and team behind the eight-ball.

Unfortunately Chris Kaarsberg’s run of blistering time slips didn’t last ‘til today, though fourth place outright was a reasonable consolation prize for a bloke flying solo.

There’s a new Pacemaker Radial Aspirated king for the first time ever, with Keith Hards retaining his lead over Alon Vella’s Capri. The Camaro held together long enough for Keith to perform an epic half-track skid before handing over an 8.49@160mph. Al naturally followed in second, having ran a whole lot of 8.6s over all five days.

Vibrant Performance DYO leaders Alysha Teale and Jamie Turner lined up in the arvo for an HQ sedan grudge match. Alysha hit a perfect 0.00 reaction time off the tree for an impressive (but too quick for her 11.6 dial-in) 11.37, gapping Jamie’s 11.73. Jamie ended up with the win, closely followed by Alysha.

The top five outright may all be Holdens, but the Ford faithful has more to love in our smaller brackets. Donnie Zurcas retained his winning spot in Kool Wrap 235 Aspirated, while Ryan O’Donohue clinched a convincing two-second win in Speed Pro Six-Cylinder in his F100 in spite of a hurt auto.

We’ll bring you a killer day five video tomorrow morning alongside some more of our favourite cars and all of the trophy winners, but until then you’ll find the results below!

AWARDS

LONGEST DISTANCE DRIVEN
Bruce Howie

LONGEST DISTANCE TRAVELLED
Matt Carey

QUICKEST WITHOUT TRAILER
Chris Kaarsberg

QUICKEST HOLDEN
Shane Baker

QUICKEST FORD
Darby Hamilton

QUICKEST MOPAR
Aaron James

QUICKEST CHEV
Harry Haig

QUICKEST LS-POWERED
Luke Foley

QUICKEST SIX
Darby Hamilton

QUICKEST FOUR
Daniel Smith (Corolla)

QUICKEST STICK SHIFT
Bruce Howie

HARD LUCK
Anthony Burns

QUICKEST ET
Daniel Szabolics 7.532

FASTEST MPH
Daniel Szabolics 194.18

SEVEN SECOND CLUB
Chris Kaarsberg
Riccardo Pontonio

FULL OVERALL RESULTS

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VIBRANT DIAL-YOUR-OWN

HALTECH RADIAL BLOWN

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PACEMAKER RADIAL ASPIRATED

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TUFF MOUNTS 235 BLOWN

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KOOL WRAP 235 ASPIRATED

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SPEED PRO SIX CYLINDER

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GJ DRIVELINES OUTLAW ASPIRATED

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TURBOSMART OUTLAW BLOWN