DRAGSTALGIA

MASTERTON MOTORPLEX’S DRAGSTALGIA EVENT INCORPORATED THE RETURN OF WILD BUNCH, A CLASS THAT SURE LIVED UP TO ITS NAME!

Some events you remember for all the wrong reasons, some you remember for specific moments or things that happened, and then there are those like Dragstalgia — held at Masterton Motorplex over the weekend of 4–5 January. This was an event that not only heralded the return of the once — and now again — hugely popular Wild Bunch, but also an event that returned a feel-good notion to drag racing in this country, and one that offered as much to those who packed the stands as it did to its racers and workers. Dragstalgia has always been a successful race meet in and of itself, but this year’s addition of a field of 22 Wild Bunch cars, some not seen in years, and a bunch of familiar and iconic names like Tynan and Owens put it over the top. The spectacle they put on, along with 160 other racers in a myriad of support classes, made it an event that every man, woman, and child walked away from with a smile on their face. Thanks to a stack of pre-event promotion and the enticement of a load of giveaways, the pits and stands were packed, with some fans waiting nearly an hour to get into the venue in a scene harking back to the sport’s heyday 30 years ago.

Wild Bunch certainly didn’t disappoint, with that aforementioned 22-car field the biggest ever assembled in the country for this calibre of vehicle. With everything from Tri-Five Chevs to a Honda Accord, first-gen Camaros to a Plymouth Fury,

Topping the reaction time–based qualifying for the country’s first-ever 16-car Wild Bunch field at the end of Saturday was Josh Trybula with a super impressive 0.013 light followed by Ryan Sheldon’s 0.022 and Chris Tynan at 0.099 — all boding well for an awesome Sunday.

With a huge buzz heading into that next day, it took only one pairing to remind everyone why these cars are so volatile and indeed ‘wild’. Mike Wilson, in the supercharged small block Capri, proceeded to tip the wee beast on its roof after a fierce ride that ended up with him in his opponent’s lane, an opponent who was having troubles himself. Mike walked away and racing continued a short while later, with some superclose and exciting races. The dial-your-own (DYO) format would see a bunch of first-round upsets, and only two supercharged and two naturally aspirated (NA) cars remained when rain and cold weather ended the day early mid-afternoon. By that point, nobody cared. The spectacle that the boys had put on had well and truly signalled the successful return of the Wild Bunch, and, with Michael Franklin claiming the hotly contested Best Burnout award, the show had returned with a vengeance.

As with any event, the main show required an undercard, and what an undercard it was with the

Vintage Gassers making an appearance, highlighted by the cars’ characteristic smoky burnouts and huge wheels-up launches. With nearly a dozen on site, they, too, proved that sometimes you need to take a step back to move forward. The FED challenge for front-engine dragsters (FEDs) was another cool addition, with Ross Brown eventually taking a well-earned victory over Shane Windley after the latter went a little too quick in the final and broke out. With the rain coming in on Sunday, a number of classes didn’t reach their conclusion, but Kyla Hart Scott in Junior Dragster, Laurel Dunstan in Super Street, Warren Van de Ende in Hot Rod, Brett Giles in Muscle Car, and Jock van Niekerk — who managed to double up by winning both bike classes — outlasted and beat up on their competition to take away the super cool trophies put up by the team at Masterton Motorplex.

All in all, Dragstalgia was a refreshingly-different, well-promoted and well-supported event that proved what could be done with a little effort from all involved, roll on the next one!

Ian DeBoo has recently installed a 509ci blown big block Chev into his altered. No testing of this combo before the meeting and a long trip up from Blenheim for the event were always going to make for an interesting weekend. The car left the line like it was on steroids, jumping all over the track — even lifting all four wheels off the ground at one point. Ian mentioned: “I’ll fix it, if it’s the last thing I do.” Impressively, he still managed to run low nines in it — not bad for a new combo

Mike Wilson sure put the wild back into Wild Bunch. It may not have been the way he intended to end his weekend, but thankfully he was able to walk away unscathed, although his Capri suffered substantial body damage

Blair Cole is the pilot of this 2011 Dodge Drag Pak Challenger. The car is number 24 of 50 cars produced by Mopar and is powered by a 512ci V10 Viper engine. The cars were built strictly for racing right off the production line, so it runs a four-link rear suspension set-up with Strange disc brakes on all four corners. Blair’s best over the weekend was a 10.1 at 132mph, but he assures us there’s more to come

if there wasn’t something you could identify with and support, well, then you were a hard person to please. The racing format itself was innovative, with qualifying on Saturday doubling as a teams race to add that extra spice, and allowing for the inevitable pre- and duringrace banter to occur — and did it what! At the end of Saturday, it was Chris Tynan’s Team Rat Attack that had prevailed, defeating Ryan Sheldon’s Team Joker by the length of one of Michael Franklin’s burnouts (that’s a lot, in case you’re not aware).

This image and left: Grant Briffault was the first and only racer to check out the new sand trap at the far end, thankfully, Masterton Motorplex had a tractor on hand to help extract cars in this event

Aaron Jackson’s weekend ended early when his driveshaft universal disintegrated all over the start line, dropping countless roller bearings in the process

Gerald Smith didn’t have the ideal end to his day, locking up his rear end after a burnout. Removing the non-rolling car from the track took a serious amount of time and effort