Sixty year old Ian Ham knows a thing or two about drag racing – the father of Top Alcohol competitor Steven Ham, he has been around drag racing for decades and finally stepped into the drivers' seat himself 10 years ago when he bought himself a Sean Mullins built Modified dragster for his fiftieth birthday.

This weekend, the Beaudesert resident will head to his home-track of Warwick Dragway with that same racing machine to compete in round three of the 2012 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series, expected to host more than 100 competitors.

Peter Kapiris - Hidden Valley Slamfest (Photo courtesy www.highrpm.com.au)The first night of Slamfest 2012 at Hidden Valley Drag Strip saw another 5 second pass added to the books with Peter Kapiris top qualifying in the Top Doorslammer field with a 5.945 second run at 245mph to set the highest MPH and quickest elapsed time of the event so far.

With the Slamfest Series traditionally run over the eighth mile the teams were also keeping a close eye on the times to the shorter distance. Kapiris ran 3.939 seconds at 195.31mph over the shorter distance, bettering the previous Slamfest records from Benaraby of 3.981 and 194.81mph respectively.  Kapiris is now only the third Doorslammer driver in Australia to run a sub 4 second pass to the eighth mile.

West Australian John Zappia also backed up his previous record setting attempts from 2011 with a 5.981 at 236mph (3.950 at 190mph to the eighth mile).

Ben Patterson (Photo courtesy Fred Dwyer)It’s early evening in Munford Tennessee when Ben Patterson pops into view on my computer. Like most days in the workshop, Ben and the crew have been hard at work preparing the Clay Millican driven MPE Motorsports Top Fuel Dragster.

The workshop is particularly frantic as they prepare for the upcoming NHRA Western Swing; three gruelling events in a row starting with the Mile High Nationals in Denver, followed by the Sonoma Nationals and finishing up in Seattle at Pacific Raceways.

This isn’t new territory for Ben however. For the last few years he’s been making the pilgrimage to the US of A to train under the highly credentialed tuner Lance Larsen, along with guidance from crew chiefs Justin Crosslin and Mike Domagala.

Have you ever wondered what a drag racing weather station does, how it works and how it helps bracket racers win more rounds?

Every drag racing weather station basically works like this:

1 - It samples and displays the current weather conditions

2 - It allows you to record your runs from your time slip along with the weather conditions at the time of the run

3 - It predicts your ET based upon the current weather conditions and your previously recorded runs

Darcy Muller Junior Dragster (Photo courtesy www.highrpm.com.au)While the interstate transporters of Australia's best Top Doorslammer teams prepare to roll towards Darwin several local families are also busy planning for Hidden Valley's biggest drag racing event this year.

The husband and wife team of Wayne and Karen Harris are set to hit the track on the 17-18th August in the Super Sedan and Super Street categories. Based on old school muscle Wayne is set to campaign a 1972 Holden powered by a 400 cubic inch V8 that is capable of low 10 second passes in the Super Street category.

After seeing the fun Wayne has had in both his current Holden and his plethora of sedans and dragsters, wife Karen has also decided to give the sport of drag racing a try and is set to debut a 502ci 1974 Holden in Super Street. Having not run the car before, she is playing coy on the cars potential.

Love’em or hate’em, delay boxes are a part of Drag Racing in Australia and are legal in Super Sedan, Modified and Super Gas. Racing without one is like turning up to a gun fight with a knife. Sure you could go a few rounds without one, but more often than not you are going to get shot down at the tree.

So what is a delay box?

In its purest form it's an electronic control device that delays the release of your trans-brake by a pre-determined amount of time. Your trans-brake button is wired to the delay box and a wire then runs from the delay box to your trans-brake solenoid.