DRAG CHALLENGE 2022-23 WAS A CRACKER, WITH BLISTERINGLY QUICK TIMES AND PLENTY OF TALES OF HARD YAKKA AND TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY

WHAT a relief it was to finally get our first five-day Street Machine Drag Challenge event since 2019 off the ground! Spicy cough and weather-related delays have plagued the event for the past three years, so it felt like an age since we’d had the opportunity to stage Australia’s toughest street-car torture test.

Plenty of Drag Challenge entrants refer to the DC tribe as a family, and at the risk of sounding like a cringeworthy line from a Fast & Furious movie, it really did feel like a family reunion as plenty of regulars, plus a good number of newbies, poured into Heathcote Park Raceway for sign-on day.

It was a cracker of an event with arguably the best driving route we’ve had to date, blisteringly quick times, and all the tales of hard yakka and triumph over adversity we’ve come to associate with the five-day slugfest.

I’d like to personally thank all our valued entrants and their crew; the friendly and hardworking track staff at HPR, South Coast Raceway in Portland and Sunset Strip in Mildura for all they do for us; all our SM staff for busting their clackers to both run the event and bring you such awesome DC coverage; and our legendary sponsors – Turbosmart, GJ Drivelines, Haltech, Pacemaker Headers, Tuff Mounts, Kool Wrap, Speed Pro and Vibrant Performance – for their support; not to mention the punters who turned up to see Australia’s quickest street cars do battle. Congratulations to everyone who managed to survive the event. Drag Challenge is so incredibly tough on cars and crews alike, and any machine that can make it through the full five days is a street car in the truest possible sense. I’ll have that argument with anyone.

Congrats especially to Harry Haig and the Haulass Garage lads, who won DC outright for the second time on the trot in their twin-turbo fatty-powered ‘Big Dawg’ HQ, and had a damn fine time doing it.

Also figuring in the outright results early on was DC debutant and this issue’s cover car, Trent Blainey’s impeccable VL Walky tribute. A complete newbie to drag racing, Trent PB’D the car with a scorching 8.0-second lick on Day One. Odds are we would have seen sevens out of the car by the pointy end of the week, but Trent had to bail early to attend to a family matter.

Check out the feature on the VL from page 26 and marvel at the standard of car we’re now seeing built to take on Drag Challenge.

The event wrapped up too close to our deadline to bring you comprehensive coverage in this issue, but you can find out who the winners and grinners were on page 10. We’ll bring you a bumper DC feature in the March issue of Street Machine, and I look forward to catching you then.

Cheers,

Broads