STRONG WEEKEND

OUR FIRST DRAG CHALLENGE EVENT SINCE 2020 WENT OFF LIKE A FROG IN THE PROVERBIAL!

- SIMON TELFORD

AS I arrived at the gates of Heathcote Park Raceway for registration day of Drag Challenge Weekend Victoria, I was greeted by the sight of track owner Lance Warren drifting his work buggy through the pits. The former IT guy pulled up at the fence, grabbed a whipper snipper and proceeded to blaze away at the few weeds that had the temerity to stick their heads up on his property. That done, he gave me a wave and screamed off again, only to return minutes later behind the wheel of a cherrypicker truck for a spot of maintenance on the track’s PA system.

Right then, I knew our first Drag Challenge event in almost 18 months was in safe hands, and I headed to scrutineering to help get the early bird entrants stickered up and ready to party.

Heathcote has come a long way under Lance’s stewardship, but my favourite upgrade so far is the brand-new concrete walls in the deep end. With some of our racers pulling trap speeds in excess of 180mph, the old Armco fences just weren’t up to snuff.

And we had a solid field of such monsters among the 150 entrants for DCW, including Rob Giangrave’s twin-turbo big block-powered XR Falcon ute, Mark Whitla’s nitrous-sucking Capri, the twin-turbo Toranas of Chris Kaarsberg and Brandon Zito, and a small fleet of seven-second early Commodores thanks to Adam Rogash, Kai McPhee and Luke Foley.

In fact, the event was shaping up with some fascinating battles in each class. Speed Pro SixCylinder was particularly strong, and is now our largest class outside of Vibrant Performance Dial Your Own.