DAY 4 - PORTLAND

THE huge road leg south from Mildura to Portland thankfully escaped the rains that plagued DC 2017, but it wasn’t without its carnage. Harry Haig’s HQ broke a rocker as he was leaving Mildura. After calling around the troops, Harry located a spare rocker, but it was in the toolbox of his closest competitor, Daniel Szabolics.

Following a conversation with Daniel’s co-driver Frank Marchese (the man who narrowly beat Harry for the DC title last year), an agreement was reached. Frank would leave the rocker at the grain silos that acted as the mandatory stop on that road leg, but the Dandy Engines guru would make Harry work to get it: he zip-tied it to a ladder up the side of the silos!

This required some serious spider-monkey acrobatics from Jesse Adams, the American legend driving Jamie Farmer’s ‘Dirty Bird’ Falcon ute, and the first international driver taking part in Drag Challenge. This display of humour and goodwill exemplified not just the camaraderie between drivers on Drag Challenge, but the spirit of the teams, track officials, local townsfolk, and even the cafeteria staff feeding hungry racers on the week-long torture test.

It wasn’t the only problem Harry and the Pops team faced, but they were well and truly past it by the time they cruised through the gates of Portland’s South Coast Raceway on Thursday morning. Rolling showers frustrated racers all day, but the Portland track staff once again rose above it, dutifully prepping the track beautifully after each passing rain squall.

Dominic Pelle got one past Todd Foley in Tuff Mounts 235 Blown, running 5.742@125mph to Foley’s 5.749@119mph, though the latter retained the class lead. The Tuff Mounts 253 Aspirated battle saw third-placed Donnie Zurcas overtake Aaron James in second by

DOMINIC PELLE GOT ONE PAST TODD FOLEY IN TUFF MOUNTS 235 BLOWN, RUNNING 5.742@125MPH TO FOLEY’S 5.749@119MPH

DAN SZABOLICS WON THE HARD LUCK AWARD OF THE DAY, AS HE PULLED INTO STAGE TWICE ONLY TO BE PUSHED BACK BY RAIN

0.213sec, just 0.131sec off class leader Nathan Ghosn.

Alon Vella was in control of Pacemaker Radial Aspirated, with a 5.68@124mph giving him plenty of breathing room, while Bushy was also out in front of Carnage Outlaw Aspirated thanks to a 6.17@109mph pass, giving him a lead of nearly a second.

Despite the best efforts of the Portland staff, the big dogs of Haltech Radial Blown and Turbosmart Outlaw Blown found the weather and track conditions tricky, battling rain and cold temperatures. In Outlaw Blown, Harry Haig pulled a rabbit out of the hat with a 5.05@140mph, just edging Brendan Cherry’s 5.09@147mph, while in Radial Blown, Kai Mcphee’s 5.274@137mph was closely followed by Luke Foley’s 5.279@136mph and Riccardo Pontonio’s 5.28@137mph.

Dan Szabolics won the hard luck award of the day, as he pulled into stage twice only to be pushed back as rain started falling on the track, hurting his chances of challenging for the outright win. He was still leading Haltech Radial Blown, thanks in part to a 5.58@130mph, but it was going to require a six-second pass on Day Five for Dan to take the win. That said, if anyone was in the box seat to run such a time, the immaculately prepared twin-turbo 632ci HQ was definitely the car to do it.

Yet again, after four epic days of racing, Drag Challenge would finish with a knock’em-down, drag-’em-out fight.

Harry Haig and POP666 made it to Portland, thanks to the generosity of the Szabolics crew, who donated a rocker arm after the HQ spat one en route

5 5> Tim Rhone’s home-brewed, twinturbo Sbf-powered XP just keeps getting quicker, running a best of 6.12sec over the eighth-mile and almost dropping into the eights on Friday night at Calder with a 9.18sec pass

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Jason Davidson’s Tonner bottomed out on a peak in the road and pulled the sump plug clean out! A little teamwork saw the Ls-powered rat back on the road to complete the event

Kai Mcphee’s VC Commodore revelled in the eighth-mile action, putting down a blistering 5.274 to top the Haltech Radial Blown list for Day Four 1 2

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6> Jesse Davidson and his misso Kimberley had a crack at DC last year in their HT wagon, but unfortunately didn’t go the distance. They were back this year with this characterful HG ute, competing in Carnage Outlaw Aspirated. It runs a carby-fed, 403ci stroker LS that drinks E85 at the track and pump fuel on the street

consendent.

1> First-time DC entrant Tom Wright snared second place in DYO with his bronze turbo-fed LSX HG Premier. Tom finished the week 0.05865sec off his 11.193sec dial-in, but he headed home before presentations, as he reckoned he wasn’t close enough for a podium position! 2> The Whitla/hamilton Capri gave the Portland wall a real hard look, but driver Mark Whitla wasn’t worried. “The anti-roll bar came free on my pass, but I wasn’t too worried. It was like the old days when we used to race without one! I loved it!”