Testing ramps up for Drag Challenge 2024

With less than a week until kick-off, entrants are busy testing their machines ahead of Drag Challenge 2024

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Photographers: Noah Thorley, Michelle Porobic

It’s that time of year again! Spring is in the air, and with it comes the fever around Drag Challenge, and this year is shaping up to be one of the biggest and fastest yet.

Entrants who are on the ball enough to have their cars running (there are many who still don’t!) have been out testing like mad men, gathering data and shaking down their machines for the five days of racing and the 1300km of street driving in between. 

We kick off day one of racing at Calder Park on Wednesday, 30 October. The circus then heads to Atlantic Oils Sunset Strip in Mildura, Dragway at the Bend Heathcote Park Raceway and then back at Calder on Sunday, 3 November. And for the first time, we have two Rods Out Pro Burnout shows running alongside DC at The Bend and HPR. Bonus!

One bloke who seems fairly organised is MPW Performance’s head man Adam Rogash and his 3000hp, big block Mk1 Capri. The Victorian has been travelling as far as The Bend to get data, running a 6.91@208mph. He’s been doing plenty of road miles as well, because that’s arguably more important than on track speed for DC.

MPW also had their freshly built, Godzilla-swapped XF Falcon out for testing on the weekend, which ran a stonking 8.69 on debut. You can read and watch more about that effort right here.

Another front runner we’ve always got an eye on is Luke Foley. Luke is a veteran of every single DC and he’s recently refreshed the twin turbo LS in his VH and is in the hunt. On Sunday at Heathcote Park Raceway he ran a 5.0@139mph to the eighth, but was on the brakes to roll over the quarter with an 8.7. “We were just looking for A to B data, there’s no need to run it out the back door,” he told us.

FAIRXW will be making a long awaited return to the lanes of Drag Challenge, now with co-owner Keith Hards at the wheel. Both he and 2018 DC Champion Frank Marchese have been fighting the XW with minor gearbox problems the last couple of weeks, their test day cut short earlier this week with just such a problem.

They ran a best 7.47@184mph during that test before the issues, which most would be stoked with. But, given this things deep six second potential, the boys feel they’ve still got some work to do yet.

Danny Howe’s turbo Godzilla XE debuted at Drag Challenge last year, literally rolling straight out of the workshop and onto the road from Melbourne to South Australia for the start of DC ‘23. They’ve got a proper, Dandy Engines-built Godzilla this time around, and it was good enough to make them the first seven second Godzilla in Australia with a 7.65@177MPH.

Richard Collins’ beautiful HK Prem went agonisingly close to nabbing a seven second hat at DC last year, running an 8.00 on the final day at The Bend to just miss out. He’ll be gunning for one this year from the twin turbo small-block combo, and has run a 7.97@177MPH in testing at Heathcote as he gears up for the week.

Castlemaine Rod Shop have reinvented their VL Commodore for the event, chucking a big turbo LS combo into the car for Barry Hall to thrash at Drag Challenge. Testing for them went well this week, the car reeling off two sevens to PB with a 7.81@184MPH.

Drag Challenge regular Anthony Burns has made some choice upgrades to his turbo Barra XE ute, resulting in a fresh PB this week of 9.58@144MPH on day one of the Hardass 1000 this week. He’ll be in the Speed Pro Six Cylinder class at DC, which he’ll be tackling straight after Hardass.

Tuff Mounts head honcho Jason Waye finished up this world-first LT1 V8 into a HQ-WB chassis just in time for the Hardass 1000. So far he’s run a best of 12.69@112MPH, and he’ll be backing that up with another week of torture at Drag Challenge in the Tuff Mounts 235 Aspirated class.

And there are more than a few Drag Challenge entrant joining Jason in doing the ultimate form of DC testing by completing the Hardass 1000 this week, including John Kerr in his Comet, Tim Bailey in his Commodore ute (both of the latter are OG Drag Challenge entrants), Dave Carnell in his tonner, the aformentioned Anthony Burns and current Hardass 1000 champion, Rod Lyall.

Kelvin Mann’s bloody neat Commodore ute is running a 6.0-litre LS, ‘glide and a sneaky rear mount turbo setup! On Sunday at Heathcote he ran a best of 9.7@146MPH, but he accidentally left the line in top gear. His day ended when the engine copped some decent damage, so he’s trashing all weekend long to get another one in there and get the car to Calder on Tuesday for sign in.

Joshua Tuskin’s XW Falcon will be one to watch in the SpeedPro Six Cylinder class, with both he and good mate Sean Anthony’s 13 CAB XD Falcon both running Dandy Engines-built, methanol huffing Barras that’re more than capable of sevens.

Adam Greer’s BF F6 is a fresh build for this year’s DC, recently completed by the lads at All Trade Automotive. The big turbo Barra machine has run a PB to date of 9.45@145MPH, through a Turbo 400 and standard rear end.

Vlad and Kristian Kovacevic’s HJ Stato showed land barges can still shift, the 4400lbs beast moving to a PB of 9.2@147MPH with the Harrop blown, 408ci LS during testing at Heathcote on Sunday.

And lastly, our own Scotty Taylor will be competing in a Drag Challenge for the first time since 2018! In tandem with MPW Performance, he chucked a Dart 427ci LS and twin turbos in our VS ute we’ve dubbed Grimace, and so far has run a PB of 8.52@164mph.

That’s bang on what he’ll need in the PSR 8.5 Radial class, and a big thanks to VPW Australia, TurboSmart, Haltech and PSR Turbos for being big supporters of the build.

Remember, if you want to come along to any of the five days of racing or to see the mega burnouts of Rods Out #1 or #2, grab your tickets at this link here.

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