Luke Cartledge has had quite the racing rollercoaster over the last few months.

In June, he took to Willowbank Raceway in his late father Wayne Cartledge’s dragster not long after his passing for the Winternationals, going on to win the event in the NDRC Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship SuperComp bracket before immediately rolling twice and narrowly missing the wall after crossing the finish line.

While Luke was unhurt, the dragster suffered some significant damage and so when it came time to hit Mildura’s Atlantic Oils Sunset Strip in September for the Sunset Nationals, he borrowed the dragster of his heavily pregnant wife – and last year’s event winner in Modified – Adriana Cartledge, going on to top qualify at that event.

Now, he is preparing for a huge three days of action at Dragway at The Bend. First, Friday 18 October will kick off the festivities with the Street Machine Sportsman Spring Nationals which will see racers fighting it out for their share of $25,000 in prize money plus a special Street Machine Sportsman Nationals trophy and 2024/2025 NDRC season points.

The intensity will then continue across Saturday and Sunday with the Grand Final of the 2023/2024 Aeroflow National Sportsman Championship to be held as part of the Aeroflow Spring Nationals alongside Top Fuel, XPRO Nitro Funny Car and Top Doorslammer NDRC action.

Across those two days, not only will the eligible racers duke it out for the chance to be celebrated as the National Aeroflow Sportsman Champion in their bracket for the 2023/2024 season, but also for valuable 2024/2025 season points and the chance for a share in a further $25k prize purse.

“The Winters was a great event for my whole family just having got the car back on the track for dad, as that is what he wanted,” Luke said. “The win was an added bonus and made the meeting a very special meeting for us all, regardless of the incident in the braking area. 

“In Mildura we took Adriana’s Modified Dragster just so I could get some seat time in a dragster again whilst dad’s comp dragster was being repaired. We top qualified but unfortunately broke out in the first round. We originally weren’t rushing the repairs on dad’s dragster and didn’t plan on running the October 18-20 weekend at Dragway at The Bend, but then we were invited to the Grand Final and how could I say not to that!”

That invitation sparked a flurry of activity to make sure Wayne’s dragster would be ready for this huge three-day racing event.

“I rang everybody that was involved with the repairs and said this is the deadline, can we do it? We all decided to give it our best crack to get it done, as that is exactly what dad would do – whatever it takes,” Luke said.

While they are now ready to take to the track, the preparations weren’t without their twists and turns: “Things were looking good and like we would have plenty of time, until three weeks ago when we were checking over the motor and had found it had actually hurt a lifter and damaged the camshaft during the last pass prior to the roll over, which is why the car had run slower than we had expected on that final pass,” Luke explains.

“Under further examination we found the cam had put metal right through the engine. This made our deadline of the Grand Finals not look to easily achievable, but I made some calls to a few great people and business, organised all the new parts required straight away, and we got to it. 

“By this time the chassis had been repaired thanks to our good family friends – Shayne Reid and his dad, Robert Reid. These guys have always been a big part of our little family team and great friends of my dad’s. 

“Last Friday night we got the engine finished off and back together and we got it straight on the engine dyno thanks to Con and Andrea at Pro Race engines who have helped us out a lot through the process. The engine went on the dyno at 2.00am on Saturday morning, and we finished up at about 7.30am – I can’t thank Con and Andrea enough for what they did for us, staying at work all through the night on a Friday to get it done and not put us another day behind. 

“That brought us to the start of this week, which has been full of major stress trying to get everything sorted and the car together – we still had a few small jobs to finish when we got here Thursday afternoon, that is how tight we were running to schedule!”

With such an intense few weeks now behind them, it is all eyes forward to race day for the Cartledges.

“A lot of people would’ve thrown in the towel weeks ago, but something in my head was telling me don’t give up. We had everything that could go wrong, go wrong. But we managed to overcome and get her done!” Luke reflects. “Being my father’s son, I just wasn’t taking no for an answer and I was going to make sure the car was at Dragway at The Bend for the Street Machine Sportsman Nationals and Aeroflow Spring Nationals Sportsman Grand Final one way or another!”

The dragster has also received a new look in time for this weekend: “With the car completely stripped back to nothing and all freshened up we decided to re-wrap it with a fresh new look,” Cartledge said.

“Dad always wanted everything red. He always said red is 10 percent faster, so there was no other choice when we were picking what look to go for. With the help of Matt and his team at Vinyl Wraps And Graphics, we got the car wrapped earlier this week and have giving it a different look which was inspired by one of dad’s old dragsters which he was well known for, and a car that I had grown up around and have a lot of memories with!”

When it comes to making any predictions on how he will go at either of this weekend’s events, Cartledge is reserved: “We have no expectations going into this weekend as the chassis set up is a little different to previous, so we may take a few passes to get on top of it and I also need to get myself comfortable in the car again!” he said. Getting the car back on the track and out there is enough for me, but any wins would be an absolute bonus and a dream come true!

“I have always strived to make my dad proud so I will definitely be doing the best I can in his honour this weekend!”

Luke would like to thank Mick Mildren for all the work over the past two weeks, Con and Andrea at Pro Race Engines, Robert and Shayne Reid for their chassis repairs and lending a set of extractors, Matt Despirt at MDT Autos, Marty from Crow Cams, George at RaceMax Direct, Matt Czerny at Vinyl Wraps and Graphics and “a whole lot more people, I could go on forever,” for all of their support over the last few months. “Thank you to everybody that has helped out in any way in getting this car back on the track!”

 
For more on the Street Machine Sportsman Nationals, Aeroflow Spring Nationals, and the National Drag Racing Championship (NDRC), please visit www.ndrc.tv.