There's no place like home for Kolaroff
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."
Kolaroff competed in just two events last season and is now looking to step up his involvement with the series.
"I'm going to try and compete for the whole series, I run my own business as well so it all depends on how I'm situated with that," he said.
The time off from racing has not been wasted with Kolaroff's motor in the hands of former Pro Stock champion Joe Polito who has been searching for extra horsepower from the 400 cubic inch (6.5 litre) V8, hoping to better his personal best time of 7.241sec.
"While I've been overseas Joe has been working on the motor and doing some R&D for a few months to find that power," he said. "We want to do a lot more testing this season to improve the car and give myself some seat time to improve my driving."
While he will have the home crowd advantage, Kolaroff is conscious of the unique challenge Adelaide International Raceway provides for teams as the only all-bitumen race track on the series (most tracks have a concrete launch section followed by bitumen).
"The clutch will be the main key with tuning; you can't give it too much at the hit so you need to slip the clutch," he said. "We want to be consistent out there and make it into the first round. The engine we had last season was for a learning curve but now we are stepping it up a bit."
The ANDRA Drag Racing Series kicks off at Adelaide International Raceway on October 20 featuring the first championship rounds for Top Fuel and Pro Stock. Racing begins from 9am with general admission available for $30.
