FIRST DANCE
> AARON JAMES CAME ALL THE WAY FROM THE WEST TO TAKE ON DRAG CHALLENGE 2019, WITH SUPERB RESULTS IN HIS VG VALIANT ON DEBUT
TOUGH street cars are what Drag Challenge is all about, and Aaron James’s beautifully presented VG Valiant Regal is a proper streeter. “My work schedule means I get a week off, so I’ll get out and cruise it every chance I get,” Aaron says. “If the sun’s out, it gets driven, especially for the pub runs!”
Aaron and his father Alan built the car, getting a hold of it a bit over 10 years ago. Mopars have always been in the blood for the James family, according to Aaron: “Dad said when I was younger that if I wanted to get into this car thing, it’d better be a Mopar or I’m on my own!”
Unfortunately, the circumstances in which
Aaron acquired the VG were not the greatest, having been sold the rolling shell as a result of family friend Jeffro Clarke becoming terminally ill and passing away – hence the ‘RIP JEFFRO’ ribbon hanging from the rearview mirror.
The boys originally fitted the Val with a 440ci Mopar donk, cruising and racing it for close to nine years before deciding to ramp it up in preparation for Aaron’s first crack at Drag Challenge last year. They dragged another 440 out of the boot of a Dodge Phoenix that was in a paddock, though it sounds like the mill belonged on the Titanic rather than in a car. “I had it soaking in a tank of diesel for weeks just to get it apart!” Aaron says. “It was rusted to the shithouse. I had to hammer everything out of it – even the lifters.”
The 440 copped a massage out to 528ci thanks to a stroker crank and some bottom-end tricks, while the top end consists of ported alloy heads and a big isolated runner intake making home for two Texas Race Engines modified Holley 950s. Behind the 630rwhp engine is a 5000rpm TCE converter and a 727 Torqueflite trans to get the wheelstanding power down to the 235 drag radials.
Aaron and the crew finished the driveline overhaul just a month out from Drag Challenge 2019, making the trek over from Western Australia to Melbourne in an untested car. As
AARON AND THE CREW HAD A RIOT ALL WEEK, KICKING OFF WITH A PB OF 9.87@138MPH ON DAY ONE AT CALDER PARK
it turned out, Aaron and the crew had a riot all week, kicking off with a PB of 9.87@138mph on Day One at Calder Park, putting him right at the top of the pecking order in the Tuff Mounts 235 Aspirated class. “We had no dramas all week; the car never got hot and we barely turned a spanner,” he says.
Aaron duked it out for second place in class all week with Donnie Zurcas in his Mk1 Capri, with less than a tenth of a second between the two by the final day’s racing back at Calder. “We battled it out all week with Donnie, but it was a goodnatured and friendly battle with no egos,” says Aaron. In the end Aaron just edged out Donnie after the latter hurt his engine, finishing second in class – and catching the Drag Challenge bug in the process.
“It was such a good time; by far my favourite event in the country,” says Aaron. “We did it because we’d always watched Hot Rod Drag Week in the US, and the atmosphere and the way people are friendly at Drag Challenge is awesome. We’ll definitely be back again, that’s for sure!”
BELOW: For his first crack at DC, Aaron enlisted the help of his father Al and good family friend Geoff, while his pop Doug followed the event from afar for moral support
DAD SAID WHEN I WAS YOUNGER THAT IF I WANTED TO GET INTO THIS CAR THING, IT’D BETTER BE A MOPAR OR I’M ON MY OWN!