Warwick Dragfest was one of the first events I covered when I got my gig with Street Machine, 20-odd years ago. I had a fang too, in a brand-spanking CV8 Monaro.
I loved it and returned to Warwick many times for the Six Banger Nats and later our own Drag Challenge Weekend events. I raced by EJ there a couple of times, but this weekend I’ll behind the wheel of Rob Brown’s ‘Barbara Ann’ FX gasser for Dragfest presented by 1320 Motorsports. We’ve never had the chance to run the humpy at Warwick – Rob came close earlier this year, but various gremlins in the pits meant an early trip home. This time for sure!

There are a whopping 254 entries for Dragfest this year, making it one of the biggest eighth- mile meetings in the land. Our gasser class alone has a very healthy 17 car field, including these weapons:





We’re looking forward to seeing our mate Ash Lowe send it in his FE Holden gasser. He’s just screwed a fresh motor together for it, 206ci with factory crank and rods and with a nine-port head. With 100hp shot of nitrous on E85, the little six made 290rwhp on the dyno and should be a barrel of fun.



The Fast Street Class is freaking huge. There is a stack of cool cars running, but you can bet we’ll be barracking for Trevor Owen and his now-iconic LC Torry six pot.

The Radial Shootout class is also a banger, with the likes of Ash Mason’s RX7, Jaidyn Seng in the family VH Commodore, Scott Cortina’s HG and James Horan’s Hilux.



And I’m also going to take the chance to worship at the alter of the coolest funny car still running strong after 40-odd years, the Wild Bill Smith FX of Randall Mohr.

So as they say in the classics, do yourself a favour and get down there. If you’ve never been to Warwick or haven’t been to check out the new facilities, you won’t find many better opportunities.

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