The October 20 season opener for the 2012/13 ANDRA Drag Racing Series will see the return of the Pro Stock championship to Adelaide for the first time in over a decade, with a group of local racers keen to show off their skills in front of the South Australian audience.

For Virginia resident Arthur Kolaroff, it will mean a tow of just minutes, compared to the days it normally takes him to reach Sydney or Brisbane to compete with his Carisma Potato-supported Pontiac.

"It will be great to have an official round here, most of my sponsors are from South Australia so we can show what we do in front of them," he said. "We did an exhibition in 2011 here but we are looking forward to racing for championship points now."

Aeroflow Performance Products and the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) are proud to announce that Aeroflow will be the new naming rights sponsor for the ANDRA Sportsman Drag Racing Series.

Formerly known as the Rocket Allstars Racing Series, the series will now be known as the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship.

The partnership with Rocket paid out some $300,000 to racers over six seasons and Aeroflow Performance Products managing director Graeme Cowin said he was thrilled about the announcement for the new branding of the series.

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.

Local pre event press had suggested that this would be the best ever event for the Benaraby Raceway and the 32 year old track lived up to expectations. With spectator cars lined up for almost half a kilometre to get into the venue, event organisers called for the Doorslammer to delay the start of qualifying.

When qualifying wrapped up at 2pm the National MPH record fell into the hands of Peter Kapiris @ 194.81. Attendance figures were the next to be rewritten with final figure expected to be in excess of five thousand.

In the semi-final Victor Bray became the 2nd driver in Australia to record a 3 sec 8th mile pass with a 3.988 @ 190.68 to defeat Ben Bray 4.200 @ 185.19.

Matt Forbes - living the dream Drag racing isn’t a hobby and it certainly isn’t a past time. For many hard core fans and racers it’s not even a sport. It’s so much more than that.

For many it’s a way of life. From the minute you’re exposed to the sights, smells and sounds of drag racing you’re hooked. It’s gets in your bones and has an influence over many aspects of your life.

Ballarat born and bred, local sportsman racer Matt Forbes was bitten by the drag racing bug 30 years ago and it still plays a big part in both his personal and business life today.

Matt explains. “I don’t think I ever stood a chance of not being passionate about cars in some form. I was born into a family that had heavy involvement in hot rodding and muscle cars. However, strangely enough participating in drag racing was never on the agenda.”

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.

Drayton's Nathan Jannusch is looking to achieve a trio of 'three from three' results when he heads to his home-track of Warwick Dragway next weekend for round three of the JP Racing Queensland Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series.

JP Eighth Mile Racing Series rounds feature a 'round-robin' format which sees each racer able to compete in three races per event (plus qualifying). When Jannusch competed at his home-track for the 2010 and 2011 series outings, he was able to net victory in all three rounds of racing each time.

Fiona Reed (Photo courtesy www.dragphotos.com.au)When you think about drag racing and drag racers you tend to picture blokes, blowers and big burnouts.

However, when the smoke clears, sitting behind the wheel you'll sometimes find a woman who's putting a lot of these blokes on the trailer.

One of the great things about drag racing is it doesn't discriminate. If you can cut a light and run the number then you're in with a chance to go rounds. It doesn't matter how old you are, if you've eaten a few too many pies, or in this instance if you're of the fairer sex – drag racing just doesn't care.