The return of championship drag racing to Victoria is imminent with the running of the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship at Fuchs South Coast Raceway, Portland on January 5-6.
It will be a highlight of the season for Victorian Competition driver Craig Geddes as he gets to showcase his drag racing skills again to many of his local family and friends. He will be one of many top level drivers heading to the southern Victoria venue.
Located 43kms west of the border with South Australia, the Victorian town of Casterton can lay claim to a number of historic events. For example, did you know Casterton is the birth place of the Kelpie breed or working dog? Neither did I.
More importantly to drag racing fans though is the fact that every year since 1991, the Casterton and District Drag Racing Club has run Australia's only legal drag race on a public road. This year the club will celebrate 21 years of the Casterton Street Drags with the running of the event this Saturday, the 17th of November 2012.
It all started when a couple of local lads, who were into drag racing, decided to hold a local event rather than having to drive to Melbourne, Adelaide or Heathcote to satisfy their need for speed. So back in 1991 they went looking for options and came up with the idea of closing off one of the local roads.
Greg Clayton - 2012 NationalsThe QLD tyre and retreading team of Greg and Kim Clayton, reaped the rewards for all the hard work put in over the past four seasons , claiming their first Gold Christmas Tree and taking maximum points for the first round in the Aero Flow Sportsman, Australian drag racing championship.
While the week started off somewhat in chaos, with Greg badly twisting an ankle while loading the car for the Sydney road trip. The team put that behind them during qualifying, where the car recorded another number one qualifying position with a stout 6.13 second run, in the Competition eliminator bracket." We knew we had the power with the new PSI supercharger and Ken Lowe fuel system on board, plus Fuchs Lubricants now protecting the internals of the engine, we only needed to stay consistent and drive well to be in with a chance of winning the event" , explained Clayton.
No less than four home-town racers are in the running for 2012 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series glory as the countdown continues to its final round, to be held at Warwick Dragway on Saturday November 10.
Boosting their competiveness is the fact that the penultimate round of the popular grassroots series was also held at their home track, with track upgrades at the original scheduled venue seeing that event moved to Warwick, creating a series double-header for the facility.
Super Streeter Nathan Jannusch, cousins Matthew and Andrew Loy and drag racing patriarch Ian Ham will all be flying the flag for Warwick amongst an expected field of 110 racers in the final stand for the 2012 championship.
Roy Romeo - Southern Super Gas Series leaderA sterling driving job at the 2012 Australian Nationals by Roy Romeo in the family's Super Gas Commodore resulted in him leading both the Southern Super Gas Series and the ANDRA Aeroflow Championship and taking home the coveted gold Christmas tree.
A first round double breakout win against top qualifier Warren Smith earned him the bye into the semi-finals where he took out Adelaide's Bruno Romeo before defeating current Australian Super Gas Champion Simon Isherwood in the final.
The Southern Super Gas Series allocates points for round wins but uses a unique method of allocating qualifying points based on the average of the qualifying time across all three sessions. Sydney racer Darryl Stephen in his Ford probe had the best average being 0.001 from the 9.90 index and Dave Gauldie and Roy were equal second with an average 0.002. Victorian Colin Griffin was a further thousandth away with a 0.003.
After a huge weekend we finally finished the last round and the finals of the JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series. A great big thanks goes to the Officials of Warwick Dragway who took up the challenge and got the final result on Sunday following the rain on Friday and Saturday.
This dedication gave us the final result we were chasing. A good few of the Series Finals came down to the last race which is great considering it is held over four rounds. From speaking to our sponsors they all want to come on board for the 2013 series and for this I thank then wholeheartedly. As soon as we have all of the sponsorships in place we will announce the dates for the 2013 Series.
As the final preparations are made for this weekend's final round of the 2012 JP Racing Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series at Warwick Dragway (November 10), series organisers have confirmed they will be back to do it all again in 2013.
Full details of the fourth running of the Eighth Mile Drag Racing Series will be announced later this year, with rounds expected to take in this weekend's host track Warwick Dragway as well as Willowbank Raceway, Benarby Dragway and Ironbark Raceway.
JP Racing Eighth Mile Series organiser John Winterburn said he was excited to be able to confirm the series will again take a place amongst the Australian drag racing calendar for a fourth time in 2013.
Maggs Racing gets set to do battleWith only a little over a week to go until the Sportsman series kicks off, the team at Maggs Racing are still working tirelessly to get the Corvette ready for battle at the upcoming Australian Nationals in Sydney.
"It's been a hectic couple of months" replied Jason. "It seems like only yesterday my wife and I welcomed our new baby daughter into the world, and it has been frantic ever since. Business has been exceedingly busy, and just to throw something else into the mix we have been building a new home for my growing family."
It was only a couple of weeks ago that the team finally had the chance to work on the corvette and assess the damage from back-firing the supercharger at the Winternationals back in June.