Drag Challenge Weekend Victoria is underway, with Day One officially wrapped.

Following yesterday’s registration and scrutineering day, quarter-mile action at Heathcote Park Raceway kicked off at 9am. The chilly morning quickly turned into a cloudless, sun-drenched day as almost 150 entrants gave it their best shot across eight classes.

The variety of set-ups in the outright top three is amazing at the end of Day One. Adam Rogash led the Day One charge, cracking off a 7.72 @182mph in his turbo-LS VK Commodore to lead both Haltech Radial Blown and the overall standings.

Just behind him on the outright leaderboard is Mark Whitla’s NA Chev big-block-powered Capri, which knocked out an 8.52@162mph. Marcus Cripp’s turbo-Barra XD Falcon clocked an 8.29 @172mph to sit third overall and on top of the SpeedPro Six Cylinder class.

Brandon Zito’s retina-busting LC Torana rounded out the top three overall having run an 8.42 at over 150mph, just ahead of Benny Neal’s 8.46@161mph in his Toyota Cresta.

Debutants brushed shoulders with seasoned DC vets during the six-hour racing session, with many bringing along newly-finished cars.

Legend Andrew Holdsworth was one of them, making his first passes in his 460-powered Fairlane coupe he finished just days ago. After a few sluggish starts in the purple beast, he soon pared his ET down from a high 13 to a respectable 12.40 @110mph.

Breakages proved to be a common theme on Friday morning. John Kerr’s Mercury Comet spat oil at the track’s deep end shortly after running an 11.18 @121mph. Though suggestions of a holed block quickly made their way around HPR, John’s donk had simply split an oil cooler line. He made for Mildura shortly after, to sighs of relief from onlookers.

Outright contender Luke Foley suffered more serious dramas when his Commodore’s diff broke a pinion on the ‘strip. After a mad thrash to procure and fit new parts, he squeezed in two passes just minutes before lanes closed at 3pm. After chirping the tyres on the line for an 8.67, he hot-lapped and pedalled the car to an 8.32 @174mph, placing him fourth overall.

Keith Hards and his son Jake unfortunately had to throw in the towel at the end of Day One. The pair have contested a number of Drag Challenge marathons in the Camaro, and for this year stepped it up drastically with a new 1200rwhp 634ci big-block Chev combo from Dandy Engines. Sadly, the BBC chewed through all their spare rockers on the road, bringing an end to their tilt at glory in the Pacemaker Headers Radial Aspirated class.

Beautifully finished and wickedly fast, Richard Collins’ HK Premier has a long history having been featured in SM back in the early 90s. He’s rebuilt it since buying it seven years ago, and it now sports a 400ci Chev with all the good gear like a Dart Little M block, Pro1 heads, Callies Magnum crank, Oliver rods, Diamond 10:1 slugs, custom-ground Marshall billet hydraulic roller, FuelTech FT550 ECU and 94mm GTX55 snail pushing 23psi. The slick streeter makes 1400rwhpand has ran a new PB on Day One of 8.77 @160mph.

Marcus Hamilton was repping for the plastic power brigade with his ’75 HJ GTS Monaro, which he’s owned since 2001. Sporting a VN-headed, 11.5:1 comp 355 the gorgeous more-door made 530hp at the crank, passing through a manualised TH350 and nine-inch, and has run plenty of low 11s at Heathcote. Racing in the Vibrant Performance DYO class, he clocked an 11.50 @117mph on Day One.

Tuff Mounts’ Jason Waye was having a great day in FOXSAKE, running a soft 10.14 @136mph as he gets used to the brand new car. Not everything was going so easy as his co-driver Craig Tropeano was a late scratching, meaning Jase didn’t have his trailer and would have to do the event solo.

Phillip Hortis’ beautiful 1970 VG Valiant had everyone’s heads on swivels thanks to its beautiful DNA Spilt Blood paint and bright chrome. It isn’t just a pretty face, an aspirated 265ci Hemi six making 420rwhp with a CHI head and Holley EFI, plus luxuries like electric power steering and air conditioning. This was his first time at Drag Challenge, running in the Speed Pro Six Cylinder class, and his son Zachary turned in a 13.01 @102mph

Anthony Burns originally built his Nissan R31 Silhouette by strapping a turbo to the side of its original RB30E six-banger, only for it to melt a piston on its third full-throttle hit days before Drag Challenge 2019. The DC veteran brought it to DCW22 packing a 5.7-litre LS1 from a wrecked VY SS tickled with some heads and a new stick, and reckons it is far better than the turbo six. “It drives so good,” he says. “The only part of the car that isn’t super easy is the button clutch. I don’t care what brand engine is in my car, because a working car is better than a shed ornament.” Running in Tuff Mounts 235 Radial Aspirated he clicked off a 12.61 @117mph

Jake Cartledge’s eye-busting yellow VK Commodore wagon ran a PB on Day One of DCW22, stopping the clocks with a 9.16 @150mph. The stock-bottom-end Barra makes 826rwhp thanks to a ported head with valve springs, cans and head studs, a 6Boost exhaust manifold, Proflow inlet, GTX3584 turbo and Haltech Elite 2500.

Among many racers getting a handle on a new car or combo, Robert Giangrave was struggling to find traction in his beautiful XR Falcon ute (SM Oct 21), only running a 10.34@126mph. With 540ci of BBF inflated by a pair of 88mm turbos traction was his absolute enemy on Day One. “It’s just blazed the tyres,” sighed Robert. “I’m not happy but we’ll regroup and keep going.”

Benny Neal is normally the first person in the staging lanes each day, but his famous Barra-powered Cresta didn’t make a lap until after 1pm. After running test passes on Thursday Benny discovered he’d snapped three flexplate bolts in the end of his crank, and had to spend the morning putting it all back together. He still managed to run an 8.46 @161mph as we mentioned, sitting fourth outright and second in the Speed Pro Six cylinder class.

One of a clutch of cool Fox body Mustangs on hand at DCW22, Adrian Abela’s turbo SBF example had him doing backflips. “I’m blown away,” said the DC veteran. “I babied it out of the hole but it just went 9.32 @145mph and its previous PB was 9.63 @139mph when it ran a Procharger.” The 347ci Windsor is a Ford Racing crate motor with a Pulsar G42 snail running 14psi and a FuelTech ECU.

Below is the full results from day one, with on track action at Mildura kicking off at 9am before the long drive back down to Heathcote this afternoon for Day Three tomorrow.

Overall Leaderboard – Day One

Results by class – Day One