{"id":5942,"date":"2019-09-15T08:28:56","date_gmt":"2019-09-14T22:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/news\/drag-week-aussies-at-drag-week-2019-day-five-video"},"modified":"2023-08-14T23:58:20","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T13:58:20","slug":"aussies-at-drag-week-2019-day-five-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.streetmachine.com.au\/events\/drag-week\/aussies-at-drag-week-2019-day-five-video","title":{"rendered":"Aussies at Drag Week 2019 day five video"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
<\/p>\n
THE final day of Hot Rod<\/em> Drag Week 2019 could not have been more epic if it was directed by Jerry Bruckheimer. After four days of racing in three different states and close to 800 miles of street driving, all five Australian teams made it back to Virginia Motorsports Park and finished the event.<\/p>\n
Light rainfall in the morning delayed the start of racing by two hours, but when things finally got underway ’round midday, it was on for young and old. Cool, overcast conditions helped many cars achieve new PBs, including some of the Aussie entries.<\/span><\/p>\n
Once again, the two turbo Barra-powered cars were the first of the class cars to run, and again, both ran eights. Ben Paganoni’s Fox-body Mustang went 8.70@157mph and Ben Neal’s Cresta went 8.80@152mph. It took another couple of hours for them to get another run in, and they went one after the other, both going 8.6s. Ben Paganoni went 8.68@158mph and Ben Neal went 8.61@155mph. <\/span><\/p>\n
The Cresta came into Day Five running third in the Modified Power Adder class, closely followed by Dale Gebhart’s grumpy AMC Gremlin. Late in the day, the two drivers arranged it so they could race heads-up for third place. Ben got it done, going 8.64@155mph in the Cresta, while the Dale in the Gremlin could only manage an 8.79@151mph. <\/span><\/p>\n
The Fox-body Mustang was up next and made its fastest pass of the day, an 8.67@158mph. To cap off an incredible week for the car and owner Ben Paganoni, they won the award for Quickest Six-Cylinder. It’s a credit to the entire Barra crew the way they managed both cars throughout the week and gradually crept up on the times. <\/span><\/p>\n
“I don’t even know how I feel right now,” said Ben Neal after collecting his award for third in class. “We dug deep and got there.”<\/p>\n