DRAGS LIGHT UP HIDDEN VALLEY
IT’S not just the roar of a dragster’s engine or the smell of a racetrack that young adrenaline junkie Holly Almeroth, 11, loves.
“I like how it feels when they go past,” she said.
“I like the speed, the movement – I like the really big ones.”
Yesterday was the second year Holly attended Darwin’s Nitro Up North and she said it wouldn’t be her last.
For six-month-old Maddison Podhaczky, it was technically her first year at the Hidden Valley Drag Strip.
However, mum Kristy Podhaczky said little Maddison had been with the family last year.
“She was here last year, but
“I was born and bred on the racetrack … I’ve been every year since it started” ENGINE FAN JOSH KING
she was doing time on the inside,” she said.
Just like Maddison, Darwinite Josh King’s love of engines began as a baby.
“I was born and bred on the racetrack,” he said. “I’ve been every year since it started.”
Mr King loves anything with a motor and says the atmosphere at Nitro Up North is hard to beat.
Top Fuel dragsters are the world’s fastest-accelerating vehicles, and engine fans from across the nation flock to Hidden Valley Raceway to see the ground shake under the vehicles’ power.
Wayne Stanley has been bringing his boys Dylan, 7, and Brody, 4, to the Valley since they were old enough to watch the dragsters race around the track.
“An event like this, Darwin never misses out,” he said.
“We do what we can to support it – the noise is the best bit.”