After a herculean 600km trek from Dragway at The Bend in South Australia to Central Victoria’s Heathcote Park Raceway, we got underway for the fourth day of racing for Drag Challenge 2024.
Given that the final road route takes even the most capable of cars well over six and a half hours, we gave entrants a breather in the schedule with a late 2pm start time at HPR, running racing into the evening.
As at Dragway at the Bend, Drag Challenge was paired with a Rods Out Pro Burnout competition to give spectators some extra bang for their buck. Rick Fuller backed up to take two wins from two Rods Out events, claiming the trophy and kudos of taking out the very first The Grind trophy, earned by scoring the most points over his four skids. What an effort!
The Heathcote sun left a warm track when we got underway in the mid afternoon, with many of the top runners struggling to get power down. One who did was Nathan Jehu and his white LX Torana, running the first seven of the day with a 7.59@177MPH.
TOP TEN OVERAL
Unfortunately for him, that run may have also brought an end to his DC campaign. He and his crew soon tore down the LS to a shortblock to find three torched pistons, killing any chances of their shot at victory.
Another who hit trouble from the get-go was Adam Rogash, who drove all through the night in his Mk1 Capri to arrive at HPR around 7am. The boys had already planned to rip into another camshaft replacement when they docked (due to a failed lifter), but after another big effort to swap out the stick, Adam found his gearbox was no good during a transbrake test.
Given his spare was already in the car, he had little options. He and the MPW crew Frankensteined a usable ‘box from the one in the car and the ruined original. When he finally did hit the track, it hurt the ‘new’ cobbled together ‘Glide. With time running out, he sent the Capri down the track in what was left of second gear, the Capri groaning out of the hole to still run a 7.69@200MPH.
Keith Hards in FAIRXW ended the day as the fastest car, running 7.54@186MPH. It wasn’t without a scare for the spectators though, the X-Dub leaving a big cloud of smoke in the deep end from scrubbing tyre sidewall.
Racing was originally intended to run to 8pm, but a big oil down from Jordan Sailtau’s KE70 Corolla put a halt on proceedings before nightfall when it went rods out. With a few small delays, racing was pushed back as far as 11pm, with entrants still packing the staging lanes until closing.
Are are lots of interesting battles in the classes, as well as many personal victories and challenges. Personal best include Pete Radish running a 10.78 at 126mph in his green HG Prem, Aiden Liest doing a 10.53 in his Camaro, Mic House’s HD Holden and Nathan from Hackshop Garage doing a 10.3.
Jamie Heritage’s all-wheel-drive, twin-turbo 1UZ-powered TA22 Celica also ran a PB, to the tune of 9.591-seconds! Very impressive for a stick-shift car that is designed primarily to go around corners.
With less than one second separating Adam Rogash and Keith Hards, tomorrow’s finale back at Heathcote Park Raceway promises to be a cracker. You can grab tickets online here or at the gate.
The full list of class results from day four is below, and check out the daily recap video while you’re there!
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