CALDER PARK

DRAG Challenge 2018 roared to life at Calder Park on Monday, 12 November, with cars in the two blown classes restricted to making 1000ft hits for safety reasons.

Mark Drew laid down a killer pass straight off the bat, with a 6.85@158mph. He then hit the road on a one-and-done strategy, leaving him third in the Haltech Radial Blown class by the time the lanes closed.

After a few pedal-fest passes, Adam Rogash belted a 6.59@169mph to put him in both Outright and Radial Blown class contention. However, drama found Adam at the end of the day with a dud crank angle sensor on the long drive to Swan Hill.

Frank Marchese pipped Adam’s time by three-hundredths of a second late on Day One, scoring top spot in Radial Blown and second Outright.

Bubba Medlyn turned on a show in Turbosmart Outlaw Blown with a huge sideways moment at half-track that saw his VH up on three wheels. John Ricca’s immaculate Rb30powered VL Commodore BT1 had everyone on their feet with a 6.76@151mph over the 1000ft to land second in Outlaw Blown class.

Harry Haig had a horror run to get to Drag Challenge 2018, only arriving at Calder Park at 4:30am on Monday morning. He quickly put that behind him with a 6.49@170mph to finish the day top of the table in both Outlaw Blown and Outright.

Unlike the blown classes, all aspirated and DYO entrants ran

the full quarter-mile at Calder. Pacemaker Radial Aspirated was once again dominated by Alon Vella and his Windsorpowered Ford Capri, who ran an 8.96@152mph on Day One, leading Dylan Mcgavigan’s all-motor LS Cortina, which went 10.02@135mph, with Jarrod Wood in his Falcon rounding out the top three with a best of 10.06@134mph.

The Tuff Mounts Outlaw Aspirated class was anyone’s game as two-time class winner Stephen Micallef pulled out of this year’s DC.

Mark Clifford led the class for Day One with an 8.98@153mph but his ’69 ’Stang hurt its engine and he was forced to retire before Day Two.

Behind Mark was Daniel Cassar with a 9.93@133mph from his ’32 Ford coupe, while third in class was Mark ‘Bushy’ Busscher in his 461ci-powered HQ One Tonner with a 10.22@131mph.

The K&N Dial Your Own class was a monster at DC18, with over 80 cars lined up to prove who was the most consistent. At the end of Day One, Greg Richards’s Ford Fairlane was quickest of the class with a 10.09@135mph, with Steve Grima’s VK and Danny Moore’s Clubsport just behind. But the real challenge for the K&N DYO guys and girls began on Day Two, when they attempted to match their Day One timeslips. It would quickly become a dogfight of epic proportions.

01: Steve Hutchins had hopes of fronting Drag Challenge with an intercooled V2 Vortech blower swinging off the side of a 355 Holden in his HX sedan. But the combo fought him all the way in the lead-up, so he put the blown engine on ice and took on DC with a mild 304 in it. Steve finished mid-pack in K&N DYO and had a ball!02: Ben Walker was back for another crack at DC in his 408ci VF hardtop (left) and ran a best of 11.31sec. This year, he brought a mate with him – Grant Dwyer in his VH two-door. This one runs a Weiand 177 blower on a 410ci-cuber and ran a best of 12.0603: Vince Stigliano hasn’t had a good run at DC with his ’70 Mustang. Two years ago he blew an engine after running 8.86@154mph on Day One at Calder. The fastback now runs a Chi-headed 393ci Clevo with a single GT42R turbo, but this year it ran afoul of ANDRA tech inspectors when his previously teched rollcage was deemed no longer legal. So Vince jumped on the anchors for the first couple days to stay in the good books, running 10.7 and 11.36 at Calder and Swan Hill respectively. Unfortunately he got caught out with his drag radials in the heavy rain on the way to Mildura and aquaplaned into a tree at low speed. Ouch!