AUSSIES AT DRAG WEEK
FIVE TEAMS OF AUSTRALIANS TAKE ON THE ULTIMATE STREET CAR TORTURE TEST: HOT ROD DRAG WEEK
Scotty follows the trials and tribulations of the five Aussie teams at the Hot Rod Drag Week torture test
FOR THE past dozen years, the toughest street cars in the USA have assembled in the American Midwest to take on the ultimate street car challenge: Hot Rod Drag Week.
But it’s not just an American event anymore; this year Drag Week had more international flavour than ever, with spectators from all over the globe and teams from Sweden, Denmark, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands. Australia had the biggest international contingent, with five teams hailing from Down Under; Drag Week has become the ultimate bucket list adventure for many Aussie street machiners.
Don’t be fooled though, Drag Week isn’t a holiday. Long hours combined with searing temps and oppressive humidity take as much of a toll on the entrants and spectators as the long miles and intense drag-strip action takes on the cars themselves. With around 350 entrants this year, Drag Week has become almost too big; track time is severely limited and many racers elected to make just one pass and then hit the road.
We were there to follow the Aussies through their trials and tribulations, and there were plenty of both.
John Faraone is a Drag Week veteran; this was the fifth time he’s taken his twin-turbo Valiant Charger to the US. Each year John ships the car back and forth from Perth, and last year it copped a fair bit of panel, paint and engine damage during the transit home – to the tune of $40,000. Luckily there was insurance, so the Charger copped a fresh coating of Mercury Silver, and John added a new air dam to help keep the front end on the ground during those 190mph+ top end charges. John was looking to push the Charger to low sevens at over 200mph, and with a best of 7.43@192mph during Drag Week last year, the car was certainly capable.
Queenslander Ross Gault splits his time between the US and Australia, living in Los Angeles for six months of the year and his hometown of Brisbane for the other six. Ross competed in Drag Week in 2014 with his bright orange ’69 Camaro, and then did a couple of the smaller Drag Weekend events in 2015 and 2016, so he knew what he was in for. Under the hood – as they say in America – is a Reher-morrison 583ci that produces just over 900hp and runs high nines. This year Ross’s son Brenton was handling the driving duties, and got his first opportunity to face the tree with the Camaro during pre-event testing on registration day – 9.99@138mph.
Brian and Dianne Jensen have been coming to Drag Week for the past few years, as both spectators and competitors. They had their first chance at competition in 2015 and loved it so much they decided to leave the car in the States for another go this year. The plan was to improve on their third-in-class result last year, so they decided to add Holley HP fuel injection to the 582ci big-block. Brian was also planning to freshen up the engine before competition started, but it took a while to get his head around the EFI, so he ran out of time to see to the engine. The guys also shipped over a new bonnet to replace the one they lost on the highway last year.
The Trapnell brothers also left their car in the US after last year’s event, despite claiming they wouldn’t do Drag Week again. The old bigblock was sounding pretty sorry, so the boys went shopping for a new 598ci beast to drop in the Monaro and converted their mechanical fuel injection over to Holley EFI. They managed to get some dyno time in before the event, which saw the EFI squared away, but they didn’t have much time to sort the new dry nitrous set-up. The idea was to feed the extra fuel for the nitrous into the system via the main fuel injectors, all controlled by the computer, but without time to tune it properly they elected to just start rich and lean it out run by run.
The Aussie Chevelle team of Harry Haig, Terry Seng, ‘Pyro’ Jennings and Ryan Jones had a full week of work rebuilding the Chevelle at King Hotrod & Restoration in Kansas before the event, and it still wasn’t finished when they got to Columbus. The boys made sure they got scrutineered early then headed to the pits to finish the car with a little help from some friendly Canadians. Their plan was to try and make a pass that afternoon, but time was against them, which meant their first pass was going to be on Drag Week – Day One.