IT was a massive weekend of action across Australia for the street machine and drag scenes, let’s check out some of the highlights.
Performance Car Mania was on at Winton Raceway, and for the second time, local racer Justin Robinson and his Torana spanked all comers in the drag competition. This is a flag start, no-prep deal. If you lose, you’re out and if you win you keep having to back up until you or the rest of the competition are eliminated.
It is a tough event, that really tests the limits of what the competitor cars are capable of. In the finals, Justin faced off against Street Machine Drag Challenge veteran Rodney Browitt in his turbo LS-powered NOCOIN ute. And while he didn’t win the drags, Rodney took out the powerskid comp, with Jake Myers in the S1CKO Mustang coming runner-up.
This was Jake’s first event after an injury and it was a good one, taking out first place in the Pro Burnout class as well. Rick Fuller in the LSONE VK placed second with Scott Yates third in YATESZ.
Gary Myers was also there in his AGROXA Falcon and put on a great show.
We were bummed that Richie Crampton couldn’t finish all five days of Hot Rod Drag Week in his 1957 Chev wagon – but having to go and race a Top Fuel car is a pretty good excuse! And the expat Aussie made the most of it, reaching the finals of the NHRA Carolina Nationals behind the wheel of the Kalitta Motorsports car.
We were kicking ourselves that we couldn’t make it to the Six Banger Nationals at Warwick Dragway. It is one of our favourite tracks and a really special event. Mark Riek had his turbocharged grey-powered FX ute on song and was stoked to take out Blown/Turbo class.
Norm Stewart ran his late dad’s famous PANIC altered in fine style, running a new PB for the car of 5.61-seconds over the eighth-mile. Bob Sinclair took the win in Quick ET over Jason Borg, with both slingshots running side-by-side 5.9s.
Mark Ramsay piloted the insanely-fast Brumby FJ ute to three wins out of three, took out second place in his class and won the coveted Promoter’s Choice gong.
Former SM Young Gun Ash Low ran a new PB of 8.24-seconds over the eighth mile and nabbed the Fast Street class to boot!
Grudge Kings was also back at Sydney Dragway on Saturday, with Craige Lewis and his twin turbo Cortina scoring number one spot on the list – and $5000 prize money. Pro Street stalwart Johnny Habib grabbed second spot, with Greg Tsakiridis and his MAULER Mazda RX4 in third.
The latest round of the Kenda Tires 660 Drag Radial Series was also held up at Willowbank. The headlining Kenda 600 KOMBAT class saw Joe Gauchi in Glenn Forster’s Mustang taking out Perry Bullivant’s Camaro in the final. Perry ran a 4.21-second pass over the eighth to set the new outright radial ET record.Shaun Hale also set a record in his fox body Mustang, setting become the fastest radial car over the eighth with a 186mph run.
Also congrats to Tanya Thompson, who became the first woman to win a class at a Kenda Radial event in her turbo LS-powered VH Commodore.
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