4th Annual Club Drag Day – Heathcote Raceway

Well another Heathcote drag day has been and gone. Just to keep with tradition, another very warm day with the temp getting into the 30’s. That now makes 4 years in a row! As long as the rain stays away though, you won’t hear me complaining about it. We had just over 30 cars racing this year. Plenty of club cars of course, but for something new this year, we also had cars attending from two other clubs – the Southern Street Machiner’s with around ten cars, and the EH car club of Vic also bringing along a car. (As it turns out, Pete and Fleur had a great day and have since joined the club – welcome aboard to both of you!).

The day’s activities kicked off a bit after 11am, with grudge racing first up. A massive variety of cars this year. From drag cars to streeters to cruisers to daily drivers. V8’s, sixes, 4’s, rotaries, and even a turbo’d 3 cylinder! The quickest car on the day I believe ran a ten second pass (one of the Southern Streeters cars), and we then had everything down to 20+ second runs. You can’t mix it up much more than that!

After the lunch break, it was straight into the Dial-Your-Own bracket racing. The ladies were up first to compete for the Female DYO honours, with around 8 entrants. Some very good racing and the final came down to Kelly (XR8) vs Fleur (VW Kombi), with Kelly eventually taking the winners honours. The boys came out to play next in the Male class, and once again there was some great racing. To my surprise, I suddenly found myself in the final with my Torana up against Steve in his black XW. How’s this for a close call – I dialled in 11.88 and ran 11.91. Steve dialled in a 12.41, and ran a 12.41!!! I gained slightly with my reaction time but overall he beat me fair and square by about 3 one-hundreth’s of a second! Awesome stuff!!!

A big congrats to both Kel and Steve for taking out the D.Y.O. for 2006! Well done guys! (Fleur and I are still proud as punch with our runner-up trophies though!!!!).

Dial-Your-Own (Female):

Winner: Kelly (Ford XR8)
Runner-Up: Fleur (Kombi Bus)

Dial-Your-Own (Male):

Winner: Stephen (Ford XW)
Runner-Up: Brett (LX Torana)

Some more grudge racing then followed to finish off the day’s drag racing. But once the quarter mile track was closed, the fun didn’t stop there. We all headed over to the burnout pad which is located in the middle of the Speedway arena. It was time to fry some tyres!! The burnout pad was open to anyone wishing to have a go, and 4 people accepted the challenge. First up, Dave in his LX hatchback. Unfortunately I missed his burnout, but I heard it was sweet. I arrived to the site of blown tyres, and some second-hand looking quarter panels! DC was grinning from ear-to-ear! I can see why he won the “Intentional Carnage Award”!! Following on from DC, Big Kev came storming out in his XR8 and put on a great show. He was followed by Garry in his Statesman who decided to put on a massive smoke-show, and was then backed up by Chris in his VR SS. Not only did Chris make a heap of beautiful smoke, but he made the most noise out of everybody doing it!

And that was it for the day. Exhaust systems were re-fitted, tyres changed, cars and trailers loaded up, and everyone hit the road once again. A couple of casualties – James busted up his timing cover I believe, and Paul D. snapped not one, but both axles in the Mazda! (Making him a very worthy winner of the Hard-Luck award).

I would like to thank Sime for his efforts in organising a very smooth day. By far the most well-run drag day we’ve had to date. Also thanks to Kath for spending a fair amount of time in the booth meeting people arrive to sort out deposits etc. And of course, Joanne and all the Heathcote staff – cheers for a great day once again and for also supplying the DYO trophies! Lastly, thanks to all the crew from the Southern Street Machiners who bought along all those super tough cars, as well as Peter and Fleur from the EH club. Glad to hear everyone had a fantastic day. I noticed there were also a heap of cool pics in the Gallery on Heathcote’s official website. Check out: www.heathcoteraceway.com.au

2006 Trophies

Hard Luck Trophy – Paul D. (for breaking both axles in his Mazda)

Light Of The Day Trophy – Kelly G. (0.43 & 0.42 reaction times, narrowly edging out Helen’s 0.44)

Quiet Achiever Trophy - Chris B. (For giving it absolutely everything all day. The lad didn’t stop!)

Intentional Carnage Award – Dave R. Burnout comp. Blown tyres. Damaged quarters. Enoughsaid.

The Results

Here are most of the results from 2006. I have tried my best to compile a thorough list, apologies to anyone I’ve missed who didn’t get their time into me at the last meeting, or who I didn’t manage to catch up with since. Thanks to all those who emailed in their times! Unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any times from the Southern Street Machiner’s ten or so cars….

For anybody interested in comparing these times to the last 3 years, drag out your old newsletters or check out previous years past events writeups.

Brett (Shubes)