TOP FIVE BLOW-UPS

IN DRAG RACING there are few things worse that the sudden, empty silence that surrounds a car on the start line in the seconds after a major driveline blow-up. You see the car approach the line and its driver stage for the run; the start-line lights drop through the yellows toward the green light and BOOM… bits of metal fly everywhere and then… Ssshhh.

Spectators know it’s real bad when fluids start flooding the ground under the car. That’s when you know it’s time to put the car on a trailer, go home and cry.

We saw a bit of that at Drag Challenge this year. Thankfully we also witnessed some not-quite-as-disastrous blow-ups that – thanks to equal measures of luck and good preparation – were able to be repaired so participants could continue.

Here are five of Drag Challenge 2017’s most significant blow-ups!

1: COREY READ’S XF FALCON (Haltech Radial Blown)

YOU gotta feel for Corey Read. His Holden LS1 V8-swapped, turbocharged XF Ford Falcon was DC17’S first casualty, on the first day, on Corey’s first run, before lunch! It looked a forlorn sight, up on chassis stands in the paddock with its sump removed, testament to Corey’s investigations of a death rattle in his 520rwkw engine. Silver glitter in the oil indicated a probable bearing failure due to oil surge. Thankfully Corey didn’t have far to go home – and returned in a drive car to spectate for the week. He’ll be back next year… with a baffled sump!

2: MARK BARBER’S LJ TORANA (K&N Dial Your Own)

IF YOU can hear power tools in the paddock, you know someone’s probably not having a good day. And so it was for Mark Barber when two of the three bolts on his turbo, injected 186-powered Torana’s torque convertor let go on his first-ever run at Drag Challenge. He dropped the ’box and replaced the flex-plate allowing him to limp the car the car to each track, despite his 4L60E auto’s damaged input shaft. After the 1500km trek, he installed a wrecking-yard ’box on Friday… but it blew, too. Not one good run – but he finished his first-ever DC. That’s the spirit, mate.

3: KIM SMITH’S VE MALOO (K&N Dial Your Own)

KIM Smith’s supercharged VE Maloo spat a driveshaft at Mildura. In an incredible stroke of luck, Mildura is the home of high-performance Holden tuners Corsa Specialized [sic] Vehicles and CSV just happened to have a ute driveshaft complete with the dampener on the shelf. By fitting the new dampener to the old shaft in the pits at Mildura, Kim was able to limp her Maloo to CSV’S hoist where she fitted the new shaft with relative ease, allowing her to complete Drag Challenge and drive home to NSW.

4: DUSTY BENSON’S COMMODORE (Haltech Radial Blown)

DUSTY Benson launched for his first Friday run at Adelaide in his sleeper-spec LS turbo VC Commodore and – BOOM! – the nine-inch diff let go. Before being flung onto the track, the broken tailshaft belted the driver’s side rear foot-well to almost level with the trans tunnel and later inspection showed the gearbox had torn the back off the LS V8’s alloy block, too. So, the diff and engine are rooted but Dusty reckons his big-buck C10 trans survived the holocaust.

5: JOSH GRANT’S VB COMMODORE (Turbosmart Outlaw Blown)

LAST year, Tasmanian Josh Grant arrived at Drag Challenge in his Holset-blown V6 Commodore that he’d driven from Perth on a holiday with his dad. True! This year he was back with a quicker, faster car… that let go of its tailshaft on the final day. Josh managed to patch up the tailshaft by rebuilding the rear uni but the next run revealed the tailshaft was bent and out of balance… it was trailer time. Back home in Tassie, Josh discovered the two-piece tailshaft’s centre CV joint was on its last legs too, and wouldn’t have survived another hit from the transbraked Powerglide.