By Steve Green
The 2008/2009 Drag Racing season at Masterton got underway on Saturday November the 22nd, with howling engines, screaming Turbo’s and smoking tyres. Saturday was the Jap Import Only Day with plenty of modified street cars with slick tyres and open exhausts. Top of the heap were a couple of very serious Drag cars like Stu Lawton of Kapiti’s, four rotor rotary, turbo charged Mazda which has done a best run of 7.8686 seconds at Fram Raceway at Meremere. Early in the day Lawton did a huge burnout which greatly impressed the large crowd. Another top car that was also a real crowd pleaser was the Mazda RX7 Castrol Edge of Brent Carran from Matamata. Powered by a Mazda rotary, with a huge turbo charger. The car did a couple of huge launches with the front wheels half a metre off the track. To date the cars best run was a 8.59 second run at 167mph. Turbo charged Rotarys were the prevalent with Nathan MacPherson travelling all the way from Christchurch to race his Mazda RX7 which is powered by a Turbo’d 13B Mazda engine. Otaki racer David Duncan in his turbo charged 1992, 2.6 litre, DOHC, Nissan Skyline, was very happy with his runs on Saturday posting a best run of 11.01 seconds at 127 mph and winning the Turbo Four Wheel Drive Class. On Sunday, to add to his joy, he did a 10.9 second run.
Missy Cook, also from Otaki was equally happy with her day racing her 1995, Nissan Skyline which is powered by a S14 engine. During the day there was also a Demonstration by the HB Monster Truck and a Bikini Competition which drew a very big crowd of interested males. Naturally I took some photos, purely for their artistic merit, which can be seen on www.sportsimages.co.nz along with all the other Drag racing photos.
On Sunday it was a Test & Tune day which saw the big V8 grunters in action as well as a good field of bikes including a large number of yellow bikes. Levin Farmer Alex Hogg took time off from milking the 130 cows down on the farm to race his freshly rebuilt Rail Dragster. The Dragster is powered by a very very rare SOHC, 427ci, Ford V8 that was built in 1966, and has been fitted with fuel injection. The gearbox is a Powerglide filled with aftermarket gears and driving the rear wheels via a nine inch Ford Diff. The original chassis used by Alex back in Thunderpark days has been replaced by a new chassis and this was the first outing of the fresh machine.
Another early Ford product was the 1953, Ford Popular of Darren Riches from Wainuiomata and under the bonnet was a large Chevy V8.
Another Classic car on the track was a 1969, Vauxhall, PC Cresta, of Graham Bates from Lower Hutt which is fitted with a huge aluminium, Donovan V8, complete with twin Turbo’s running from 12 to 30 pound boost depending on revs, and fuel injection.
In the ever popular Junior Dragster Field there were a dozen or more younger racers competing, including some young ladies like miss Charlotte Keilty of Wainuiomata.
In the bikes, the Banana brigade brought along four bikes including a Hayabusa and a TL1000. Former Masterton farmer Jeff Godden had his trusty Kawasaki ZZR1100 smoking the rear Drag Slick at every opportunity as did Kirk Jones on his 750cc Suzuki.
My own Yamaha TT500 Drag Bike went OK once I got the sodding thing started, the points were a little grubby and the plug needed a clean, so maybe before the next Drag meeting I will do some maintenance. Apart from the neglected maintenance the only thing that went wrong with my Yamaha was the Kawasaki gear lever I was using broke off, must be a donor rejection thing I think. Still it was a good day even if a hot one.
The next Drag Race meeting at the Masterton Motoplex, Hood Aerodrome is a full Competition Meeting on December 27th & 28th, 2008. Racing starts at 10am, entry booth open 7.30, gate entry $20 per day, kids under 14 free, NO Dogs, NO Alcohol. For more information contact: Masterton Motoplex, PO Box 2099, Masterton, Contact Bob Wilton, phone 06-377-3803, or visit the Website: www.mastertonmotorplex.co.nz
