STREET MACHINE DRAG CHALLENGE 2017 TESTING – THE HEAT IS ON

We have no less than six proven seven-second cars entered in this year's Drag Challenge. This thing is going to be big!

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Photographers: Shaun Tanner, Dave Reid


THERE is just over two weeks to go until Street Machine Drag Challenge kicks off. And while many competitors (including us) are still frantically swinging spanners, those who are better-prepared have been out testing.

The big news from the weekend was that Harry Haig’s POP666 has scored a twin-turbo makeover, courtesy of Terry Seng and the team at Paramount Performance in Toowoomba.

 Despite temperatures of up to 35-degrees at Willowbank Raceway, the 3897lb HQ ran four seven-second passes over the weekend, with a best of 7.78-seconds at 183mph. The Drag Week-hardened team will be a real threat in Turbosmart Outlaw Blown. That makes a total of six cars entered with proven seven-second credentials, the others being Adam Rogash’s ALLSHOW, Jarrod Wood’s tonner, Mark Drew’s Crusty Torana and Quentin Feast’s two-time champion Torana.

 There was a bevvy of Drag Challenge cars at Calder Park on Friday night. Adam Rogash was back in ALLSHOW and after struggling to hook up, ran a 7.9-second pass at 182mph – the car’s highest mph yet, though slightly off its 7.75 ET best. Adam is a good chance of defending his Haltech Radial Blown title, though there will be some stiff competition, including from last year’s runner-up Mark Drew.

 Drewy had the Crusty Torana out on Friday night as well, running a best of 8.11 at 174mph. The car – which has a 7.95-second at 175mph PB to its name – was looking good until the car hit the wall in the deep end after the throttle stuck open.

Mark Drew ToranaLuckily, Mark was unharmed and reckons that the car is easily repairable and is still on track for Drag Challenge. The culprit looks to be a bent throttle blade.

 Jarrod Wood brought his tough 408ci XT Falcon down from Wagga Wagga to give it a run ahead of DC and was rewarded with a new PB of 10.06 at 134mph. Jarrod will be competing in Pacemaker Headers Radial Aspirated.

Jarrod wood xT falconJason Waye from Tuff Mounts brought his Barra-powered VS Commodore ute all the way from Adelaide to get some more time behind the wheel. He ended up running a new best ET of 11.7-seconds and a new best speed of 125mph. The car has a lot more potential though and Jason is going to keep tweaking so he can it it down into the 10s. Jason will be running in K&N DYO. 

The nine-second Independent Motorsports Ford Territory was great to watch – it just hooks up and goes! It is a real sleeper and while the Territory isn’t entered in DC, it would make a great contender. The guys were testing some new transmission parts on Friday night and are hoping to improve on their times, with a PB of 9.87 @ 144mph.

More details on Drag Challenge here and here.

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