Is F1 popularity slip-sliding away? Kiwi Thunder national drag racing series
Dragster pilot Anthony Marsh (Auckland) and Doorslammer racer Rod Benjes (Upper Hutt) powered to the inaugural honours when the new Kiwi Thunder national drag racing series debuted at Meremere last weekend.
Marsh was the dominant performer in Top Alcohol in his A/Fuel dragster taking a clear finalround victory over the small-block Altered of Christchurch’s Johnny Alsop, while Benjes raced his Chev Beretta raced through three rounds of Doorslammer eliminations on a hot track to defeat Aucklander Mark Bardsley (Camaro).
Crew chiefs sampled track surface temperatures as high as 61C during the day which made traction a challenge. But skilful setups still delivered impressive performance numbers.
The Doorslammer track record was matched and later improved but there weren’t any low numbers in the final. Benjes’ 8.029s /155.0mph run as the Beretta drifted left towards the wall was still good enough for a win light as Bardsley’s car refused to shift into high gear.
“I needed a couple of pedals to get down the track but obviously Mark was having some problems too,” said Benjes. “If I had seen him come past I would have backed out of it, but I wasn’t going to do that while he was behind.”
Benjes’ best run of the day was a second-round 6.631s/216.4mph and he said the hot conditions were a challenge.
“We’re still working out how to get down the track but we did get a bit better with each run.”
Bardsley was hoping the final might provide a chance to back up an earlier career-best and potentially reset the national record. It was his first appearance since updating his 1968 Camaro with a data acquisition system.
“I’d expected to take a step backwards before we started making any steps forward,” he said, after a first-round 6.161s pass blew away his previous 6.441s best and was just 0.001s shy of equalling the Meremere track record held by Wayne Yearbury since 2014.
But, late in the day, track record honours were claimed by Barry Plumpton (Massey) with a 6.158s pass in his 15.7-litre nitrous Camaro.
Marsh’s Top Alcohol campaign began with a 5.451s/273.05mph qualifying run that stood as the quickest and fastest pass of the event. His early increments in the final were strong but he deployed the parachutes early on a
5.498s/238.9mph winning run over Alsop.
The new series began with an eventful day of racing that saw class records and personal bests for several racers and some dramatic moments. The dragster of Grant Briffault (Hamilton) blew its engine car completing its first round burnout while Alsop had a sticky parachute handle on a
233mph run that took him beyond the shutdown area, safely through a gateway and into a neighbouring paddock.
Waiuku’s Russell Christoffersen blasted into the 5.70s with the latest performance step from his twin turbocharged rear-engine dragster clocking a new benchmark of 5.783s and Tauranga’s Karen Hay won Competition eliminator, clocking back-to-back 6.406s runs and nudging the top end of the national record for the BB/Ai class to 219.94mph.
Saturday’s race meeting doubled as the Wellington Invasion — the first leg of an annual inter-provincial showdown.
In addition to Benjes’ victory, the lower North Island visitors achieved wins with Mark Gapp (Palmerston North) taking out Supercharged Outlaws in his 1941 Willys Coupe and Paraparaumu’s Cory Silk the Junior Dragster category. Round two of Kiwi Thunder is at the Masterton Motorplex over February 16-17.