Tunnel Vision Turbocharging’s King of the Street is one of the big hitters on the drag racing calendar, and the seventh instalment took place at Heathcote Park Raceway last weekend. Friday’s test day served as a perfect entrée to Saturday’s action-packed racing, so here’s quick rundown on how some of the combatants fared – including those who’ll be taking on our own Drag Challenge Weekend, 25-27 March.

Jake Cartledge’s turbo Barra-swapped VK wagon got some solid testing in before Drag Challenge Weekend, clocking a fresh PB of 9.25@147mph on just its second outing at the track. We’ve got the full story on Jake’s wagon here, and we can’t wait to see him tear it up in the Speed Pro Six-Cylinder class at DCW.

The Cartledge train continued with Jake’s brother Luke backing up his class win at Holden Nationals by taking out the number one spot in the Dial Your Own class at KOTS 7 in his super-consistent LC Torana during Saturday competition.

James Kanaris from Kanaris Engines had his GMHELL HQ Monaro sedan out for a burl on the weekend, and it has a pretty unusual set-up. The GTX4788-turbocharged, 540ci big-block Chev uses a blow-through carby rather than EFI, and makes 1100rwkW on 19psi. James managed a few high eight-second passes at KOTS 7, but the car has gone a previous best of 8.4@170mph.

Andrew Bartlett’s Gasrite Mercedes Vito van was by far the most out-of-the-box build to show up for Friday’s test day. Shoved under the bonnet is a 632ci big-block Chev with a healthy dose of giggle gas. The van has previously dipped into the sevens, and over the weekend it got agonisingly close with a best of 8.01.

Our own Scotty Taylor was back at Heathcote once again for another Carnage episode shoot, this time with the 1JZ-swapped Volvo 240 we’ve affectionately dubbed Trolvo. At KOTS 6 last year, the Trolvo set its old PB of 10.95@124mph, and this year it returned with a beefed-up rear end and a fresh set of Kelford sticks in the head. The SBE 1JZ delivered once again, Scotty lowering the car’s PB to 10.45@131mph, and you can watch the full episode about that right here.

George Lyras is the defending champion in the Speed Pro Six-Cylinder class at our five-day Drag Challenge event (which unfortunately hasn’t run since 2019 due to COVID), and is known for getting the wheels up on his eight-second, Barra-swapped Cortina, which was in fine form again at KOTS. He didn’t manage a new PB (currently an 8.50@160mph), but with an extra 250rwkW to play with – now up around 800rwkW – that will surely drop pretty soon!

Father-and-son team Keith and Jake Hards brought Keith’s Camaro out of hibernation for Drag Challenge 2018 with a 570ci big-block made from spare parts, and successfully completed the 2019 marathon as well.

The car has undergone an extensive renovation since then, with Frank Marchese from Dandy Engines playing a big part in the overhaul. The old big-block has been replaced by a whopping 634ci BBC, which uses FuelTech EFI and cranks out 1200rwhp in all-aspo form. So far, the Camaro has run a best of 8.81@157mph and could be the only car capable of challenging Alon Vella’s Mk1 Capri in the Pacemaker Radial Aspirated class at DCW.

Both Joshua Tuskin and Sean Anthony will be taking on Drag Challenge Weekend in their classic Falcons, both running similarly specced, de-stroked turbo Barra mills.

They both achieved low eight-second passes during the weekend’s racing at KOTS, and we’re hoping they can find some extra traction at DCW so both of these boys can dip into the sevens.

John Colaidis’s test day ended on a low note when the pump gear in the transmission broke on his ’65 Mustang. While that would’ve put most people out of the weekend entirely, the boys from Preston Automatics pulled an all-nighter to get the Muzzy fixed and back on track for Saturday.

We’ve got to give a massive congratulations to Alex Moshopoulos and his twin-turbo, 411ci Windsor-powered XY Falcon. He took home the top gong at KOTS 7, winning the 275 class and the overall 2022 Grand Champion award.