Premiership-winning AFL great Barry Hall has revealed he’s chasing glory at one of Australia’s top drag-racing meets in an outrageous VH Commodore that can smash through the quarter mile in a touch over seven seconds.

The veteran of 289 matches for St Kilda, Sydney and the Western Bulldogs gave his life to footy from 1996 to his retirement in 2011, but has now revealed that motoring was always his biggest passion as he prepares to press the loud pedal through the floor at this month’s Street Machine Drag Challenge.

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Hall’s father was a mechanic and the 49-year-old got into cars at a young age. He has long been a fan of drag racing, especially the pro street scene, which features road-registered cars capable of incredible speeds.

“I was always a car guy playing footy. Things come and go in your life, but the number-one passion, the number-one thing that’s always stayed is cars,” Hall told Dragnews magazine, adding that he believes his VH (pictured above) is competitive enough to finish in the top five at the Challenge.  

Hall – who is a hardcore Holden man with plenty of experience with tough V8s – bought the Commodore about a year and a half ago after first intending to race a custom VL he was project-managing at Victoria’s famous Castlemaine Rod Shop.

The VH runs a Torque Power Little Paw engine block, designed as a heavy-duty, high-performance replacement for classic Holden V8 mills. The blocks run to 443 cubic inches, or about 7.25 litres, and can cope with the immense power required to excel at the drag strip. Hall elected not to run with the more commonly used GM LS motor, saying, “I also like the car because of that reason. It’s just a little bit different. It’s not just another LS.”

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“Big Bad Barry” has already clocked a quarter-mile time of 7.1 seconds, and believes the VH can get into the sixes, but he has to be ready for the way Drag Challenge taxes cars off the strip, too. The rules state that competitors have to race five times in five days and must drive their road-legal, road-registered cars from track to track over more than 1400km of public bitumen.

A quick look at Hall’s Instagram and Facebook accounts show just how deeply he’s involved in the customised V8 scene. There are many photos and videos of him with cars ranging from Monaros to Camaros (see gallery, above) – and even the odd Ford, although he says he’ll only drive one of Henry’s cars “if you ask nicely”.