DAY ONE-CALDER PARK

OUR biggest worry in the lead-up to Drag Challenge 2016 was the weather. Some parts of Victoria had really copped some rain, so much so that our plan to return to Portland’s South Coast Raceway for the second time was nixed – the pits were just too wet. Luckily, the brand-new Swan Hill quarter-mile was ready and available, so we slotted it in, giving us a Calder/heathcote/mildura/swan Hill/calder schedule.

And while the registration day was overcast, Day One at Calder Park dawned bright and blue. We had a total of 120 paid entrants prior to race day; however only 107 fronted the starter.

And man, we were stoked with the variety of cars that turned up. Big-blocks of the Ford, Chev and Mopar varieties; a heap of different six-cylinders; Ford, Holden, Chev and LS small-blocks; a four-pot Toyota; and even a rotary! The bodystyles were also breathtaking, ranging from muscle-car royalty, to hot rods, Centuras, Coronas and a late-model Merc. And the racers themselves came from almost every state and territory in Oz, with only the NT being left without a representative. We had only two female racers this year, but we had half-a-dozen or so father/son combos competing, which was cool.

It was also great to have some famous names on the entry list, with Pro Street gurus George Haddad and Jake Edwards joining us, as

well as hot rodding legends Norm Hardinge and Rod Hadfield. It‘s a great vote of confidence when blokes like that want to join in. Two-time Drag Challenge champ Quentin Feast was unable to get his twin-turbo Torana ready for the event, but he couldn’t stay away and joined in as a crew member.

With Quentin out of the picture for outright honours, that left the Commodores of Terry Seng and Adam Rogash as proven seven-second performers, with the likes of Harry Haig’s HQ, Bubba Medlyn’s VH, Mark Drew’s Torana, Jarrod Wood’s tonner and Luke Foley’s VH all capable of low eights.

At the end of the day’s racing, it was Bubba’s twin-turbo Holden V8-powered VH Commodore that had everyone talking, reeling off 8.2, 8.1 and finally an 8.016-second pass. With over 1000rwkw at its disposal, everyone knew the VH had the grunt, but now we also knew that it could get that power to the ground.

racers need to get their best timeslip into us before the cutoff or they’re out of luck 01: Scotty lays down the law on Day One, the basic thrust of which is: Have fun on the track, but be a Boy Scout out on the road. Obeying the road rules and...

MAIN: Chris Veleski came out guns blazing in his Toyota 2JZ six-powered Lexcen, running a best of 8.427sec to record the third-quickest time overall for the day. The combo has made 1150rwhp on over 50psi boost, with a PB of 8.1@170mph! The car...