Motor Sport
Drag Racing Has Its Own Rewards
Sydney Dragway plays host to a variety of high speed events but September 10th and 11th were a little different. The Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association took to the quarter mile track to both showcase some truly classic drag racing cars and their drivers.
The event was backed by “Cruzin” Magazine, a publication dedicated to the hot rod and modified street car scene, and was also a celebration of the drivers and pioneers of the sport. The event itself is part of a series being co-hosted between Sydney and Queensland’s fabled Willowbank Raceway.
Based around ten different categories, including Vintage Gas and Nostalgia Superstock, the series is a first time set-up and was held as two one day events in Queensland. The Sydney Dragway event was a two day wrap-up and was held over a weekend where the weather wasn’t the best.
The event also saw, on the Saturday night, the hosting and presentation of awards to drivers as part of a get together for the Australian Nostalgia Fuel Association, (ANFA). Industry legends such as Bob Shepherd and Graham Withers were given Lifetime Achievement Awards to honour their decades of service to the sport. The presentation, known as Pioneers Night, was attended by close to eight hundred people and the camaraderie was on full display for all members that attended.
Drag racing seems to attract a distinct audience, one that is either fully attuned to the nuances of the sport or those that are there simply to enjoy the spectacle. There’s also a curious flow to a drag racing event, compared to how a circuit racing event would run. There’s distinct differences yet, as motorsport tends to do, there’s crossover as well.
A circuit event runs to a certain amount of time or laps, before a race result is declared. It’s generally a situation of who was fastest finishes first. There’s a saying in motorsport: to finish first, first you must finish. Drag racing is not unlike that but it’s in the racing results side that the disparity becomes clear.
Here’s how it works for the layman. In essence, it appears drag racing is about the fastest car to leave the start line (or staging area) and cross the finish line a quarter of a mile (400 metres) down. During the qualifying sessions, that’s effectively how it works. To make sure all races are equal, the staging area has to lights that become visible, one after the other, as an entrant moves their vehicle forward slightly. Ahead of them will be what’s been known for decades as the Christmas Tree, a set of lights mounted vertically that tell the driver when they can start the race. Reaction time, the time it takes the car to move from seeing the green light, can play a huge part as well.
This is where terms such as dial in and elapsed time become important. Elapsed time is the gap between the car starting and then crossing the finish line, hopefully without the driver leaving before the green light. If they do it’s an instant red light and hands the win to the competitor.
Dial in is a time a driver nominates, as in how fast in seconds they believe they will go from A to B. This also becomes a form of handicap, in that a car can nominate a time of 12.3 seconds and a competitor 9.3. This gives the first car a head start of three seconds, however if the 9.3 second competitor goes quicker than the nominated time, he then loses.
Confused? That’s understandable, but that’s drag racing. Head to www.sydneydragway.com.au for details.
Soldier On Joins V8 Superlap Production Touring Cars
https://www.soldieron.org.au/ is an organisation that’s dedicated to helping and working with our returned armed services men and women. There’s a good reason why: there’s been more returned soldiers take their own life in a year than in the thirteen years Australia has had service personnel in the Middle East. It’s a tragic number and a tragic situation.
Depression. Physical wounds. Just two of the issues the soldiers must deal with and Soldier On is there to help.
But why mention them here? The V8 Superlaps Production Touring Cars Championship has formed an alliance with the organisation, with PTC President Gerry Murphy saying: “We are honoured to be able to craft this initiative with Tony Fraser and the Soldier On team, to afford us the opportunity to give back, to say thank you, to these brave men and women who have served Australia”.
Drivers from the PTC have already contributed to community support by taking special guests from the Make A Wish Foundation for laps at Sydney Motorsport Park. With members of the PTC already having strong links to the services, it’s a natural progression to form this alliance. Tony Fraser, Soldier On’s Sporting and Programs Manager, said: “Opportunities such as the chance to volunteer with the V8 Superlaps Production Touring Car Championship are important because they provide our veterans with purpose and social connectedness. We believe these two things are fundamental in helping veterans re-integrate back into civilian life once they leave the Defence Force, and volunteering opportunities play an important role in our transition program. Soldier On thanks V8 Superlaps Production Touring Car Championship for their support and for helping our veterans.”
The official start date for the alliance will be the MoComm Endurance Race, to be held at Sydney Motorsport Park, in September. The event will also see members of the Soldier On family taking part in the event including managing the running of a car in the race, category management and media production with More Driven Media.
Red Centre Nats Continues The Street Machine Tradition
It’s said that the very first car race happened just a few minutes after the second car came off the production line. It’s also said that the first modifications to make a car go faster came just after that first race….by the driver that came second.
It wasn’t long after that when drivers began to modify their cars for looks, not just pace. And thus was street machining born. Aussie based magazine, “Street Machine” begat the now iconic Summernats, Australia’s largest street machine festival, in Canberra…that’s now given birth to an event that’s based in the centre of the country and has already been run once. September 2016 sees the return of the Red Centre Nats.
Street Machine came out of a magazine called Van Wheels in the very early 1980s. Dedicated to the then popular movement of painting and modifying the bodies of panel vans, as that movement faded and spread to non van based vehicles, the magazine morphed into Van Wheels and Street Machine before finally dropping the Van Wheels monicker.
In 1987 the first Summernats was held in Canberra, and has grown to be the biggets event of its type in the country. There’s been some truly remarkable vehicles to have been anointed the Street Machine of the Year or the Street Machine Grand Champion, including Gary Myers and his 1966 Ford Mustang.
September 2015 saw the first running of the Red Centre Nats; with the solid backing of the Northern Territory government, all avenues were explored in order to provide a thoroughly enjoyable experience for the four hundred plus entrants, including special permits for the cars that would otherwise be excluded due to the non-suitability of road usage and for everyone that came along.
“There was some great racing between Serge and David Bonetti, both racing ’32 coupes. Serge’s big-block powered 3-window always edged out the 5-window of nephew David, but the difference was David was running a small-block and a full exhaust. Of course, it didn’t really matter because Serge built the engine in both cars: “The big-block has been in the car for 29 years and it’s all old technology, but David’s small-block has is all new stuff.” Both were running in the low-10s all weekend, but both have run a best of 9.93 in the past. Putting the H-O-T back in hot rods, for sure!”
Events included drag racing, the ever popular burnout competition, a dyno competition and more. The inaugural winner of the Red Centre Nats Grand Champion Award went to a car that had won way back in 1993! John Curwen Walker showed up with his very tidy 48-215 (aka FX) Holden, featured in the October/November issue of Street Machine magazine in 1993. 
“The Red Centre Nats Grand Champion award went to John Curwen Walker’s FX Holden. It was built by Ken Neilsen many moons ago and featured in the 1993 October/November issue of Street Machine back in the day! This is a car that has stood the test of time, but John doesn’t wrap the thing in cotton wool, he ran the car in the grass events and the drags while scoring a spot in the Elite Top 10.”
The Red Centre Nats is scheduled to be held over three days, for the 2nd to the 4th of September. Details on the event and how to enter can be found here: Red Centre Nats 2016
Pictures and quotes courtesy of Street Machine magazine, at www.streetmachine.com.au.
“Local Gary Nightingdale was at Red CentreNATS in his Weiland-blown SBC-powered FX Holden along with a bunch of other hot Holdens belonging to his tribe.”
Race Ready
Ever since the motor vehicle has been chugging on the road they have been raced. One of the first races ever was the Paris-Rouen in 1894. The cars had to travel 126 km between two French cities. Simply put; as motorcars developed, so did racing. However, particularly in modern times, you could also say that as motor racing developed, so did the motor car. I enjoy a bit of motor racing, and have occasionally enjoyed watching it trackside. One of the joys of watching the cars race around the circuit is that you can recognise the makes and models of the race cars and associate them with their everyday, road-legal versions. So what’s the difference between the road-going version and its racing cousin? Let’s take a closer look.
A mass-produced road car needs to have its set-up catered toward keeping its occupants comfortable, safe and relaxed on a journey. So, you’ll see the majority of features like a comfortable ride, air-conditioning, premium audio sound, a standard engine geared for economy and leather upholstery inside a mass-produced road car. The race car is usually stripped right back to the bare shell, and therefore lacks all these comfort features to ensure that the race-car remains as light as possible.
Rally cars have to cope with a wide range of road surfaces, and some of the surfaces can be extremely rough. The rally car must be specially prepared with this challenge in mind. All non-essential items are removed from the interior of a rally car. Two seats, a gear lever and a roll cage are the necessary bits you’ll find inside the rally car interior. When it comes to the chassis, the car’s ride height has actually been increased to travel over uneven surfaces more easily. Larger tyres with button studs absorb impact and provide greater grip on loose surfaces. The suspension has been stiffened, and the engine usually has been increased in size to gain greater power at the expense of low fuel economy. Exterior panels are usually steel and alloys in a road-going version, however in the race car these are replaced with fibreglass to reduce weight. All windows are plastic, except for the front windscreen which remains glass – reduction in weight being the reason for this. The Volkswagen Polo R has been the most successful WRC rally car in 2015, so too has the Hyundai and Citroen variants.
If you are into drifting, then the changes made to a car prepared for drifting include: lowering the suspension height to reduce body roll, stiffened anti roll bars, massive power – especially to the rear wheels, very quick steering and tyres that can last big slides for lengthy periods.
Obviously, with endurance racing like Le Mans, the cars are extremely aerodynamic, they have quick release wheels, quick to remove bumpers – in case they get damaged, slick tyres, bigger brakes and huge power for high speeds – often well over 320 km/h. A Le Mans car has to travel at high speed for 24 hours with minimal stops for refuelling and tyre changes.
Motor racing is a hugely lucrative business for car manufacturers because the models of road-going cars that are transformed to a race car are shown off on the race track to a huge proportion of car enthusiasts. If a car manufacturer’s model wins in the weekend, then this success translates to more car sales during the week. It’s pretty simple really.
Race-ready Porsche 911
Level 2, 9 Help Street