With Drag Challenge successfully contested and completed in our 1100rwhp, eight-second ‘Grimace’ VS ute, Scotty is now turning his attention to taking it racing at other events.

One of those is the Kenda Nightmare At The Bend meeting in South Australia, 13-14 December. While Grimace won’t have enough to hang with the big players, Scotty is plenty confident to take the ute index racing in the Radial Renegade class, with its 5.50-second dial-in over the eighth-mile.

Getting the car ready for cut-throat, heads-up racing is very different to making it withstand the torture of Drag Challenge. You aren’t just racing the clock at Kenda; cutting the tree and true race craft come into play. There’s no 10-second spooling time here!

To address that, Scotty wanted to install a bump button and relocate the transbrake switch to the steering wheel. The standard one isn’t really made for that, so he replaced it with an aftermarket item.

Carnage cameraman Matty Hull designed and 3D-printed some switch holders to suit the new wheel and button, making them super accessible to Scotty in the heat of battle.

Another job was installing a DJ Safety fire system from South Pine Speed Shop. While it won’t improve any ETs, safety is number one in motorsport. It’s an investment we’ve made in all our fast cars, like our old MX-5, so Scotty did the same for Grimace.

This isn’t just a single extinguisher mounted to the floor like in a budget track car. It’s a full fire suppression system, with a trigger to distribute foam all through the cabin and engine bay in the event of the worst happening.

Scotty is pumped to give Grimace a run at Kenda at Dragway at The Bend, 13-14 December, and you’ll get to see how he fared in a future episode!