MARK VAN DER TOGT

RUNNER-UP Overall and in our Haltech Radial Blown class at Drag Challenge Weekend 2020 was Mark Van Der Togt in his 1970 XW Ford Futura, which he’s owned for 21 years. His twin-turbo Ford V8 incorporates Cleveland architecture built on a Dart block, but with Windsor heads.

“People go the other way [Cleveland heads on a Windsor block], as there’s no doubt the Clevo heads are better, but the Windsor heads free up space for the two turbos,” Mark explained. “Overall, this is a weird engine – but I leave that to the engine bloke!”

That bloke is Tony at Queensland’s Toca Performance. For DCW 2020, the two Garrett GTX35S fed 28psi into the E85-slurping, Link Thunder-managed motor. Behind it is the racer’s-favourite Powerglide and a nine-inch with 3.0:1 gearing.

Towing a trailer, Mark reckoned the Futura cruised beautifully at DCW, but the sizzling heat messed with traction at Willowbank on Sunday. “It wasn’t the track’s fault; the heat wrecked things,” Mark said. “But there was no way we were catching Benny [Vlekken]!”

He may not have had the wood on Haltech Radial Blown and Overall winner Ben Vlekken this year, but Mark’s DCW 2020 showing was impressive to say the least. A best of 8.16@169mph on Day One set the tone for his campaign, and in addition to coming second both Overall and in Haltech Radial Blown, Mark scored a trophy for Quickest Fordpowered as icing on the cake.

ROB Huston’s gorgeous 1975 Dodge D5N pick-up is known as Jigsaw, and he has plenty to put back together after the beautiful, turbocharged 355ci Holden-powered commercial spectacularly ejected its trans in the top end of Willowbank on Day One.

Rob and wife Kylie’s Drag Challenge Weekend experience had been a Barry Crocker from the start, with Rob cooking his tow car and losing his phone on the way down to the event from Townsville. Once at Willowbank, the trans left him at 110mph and he battled to keep the gorgeous machine off the Boral.

“When I got out to have a look, the body of the transmission was being dragged along by the shifter cable, and the torque converter was being sort of kicked along the track by the trans crossmember,” Rob sighed.

Truly a deserving winner of the DCW Hard Luck Award.