HOLDEN-POWERED NATIONALS 2017 PREVIEW

The Holden Powered Nationals are set to roar once again at Heathcote Park Raceway

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THE DTM Transmissions Holden-Powered Nationals, put on by Street Machine Drag Challenge alumnus Todd Foley, is coming to Heathcote Park Raceway on 6 May, with a stellar line-up of 60 cars already pre-entered. Todd says that’s already more than showed up for last year’s inaugural event, and reckons by race day there will be around 80 pre-entered cars plus whoever shows up on the day, so it looks set to be a cracker.

 Among the guys already signed up is Tony Webb, who is in the process of freshening up his CULPRIT Torana, which will soon be running a Torque Power Little Paw block that he hopes will get the car into the seven-second zone. At the same time he’s building an LX Torana hatch with a twin-turbo big-block Chev – either way, we’re excited to see him racing again.

“Big-block Chev? But that’s not Holden-powered,” I hear you cry. Well there are a few different classes for this year’s Holden-Powered Nationals, and LS and Chev-powered cars are welcome to participate. The more the merrier, right? First up is the Melway Competition Engines Holden NA class, which is for all aspirated cars with a Holden block – four, six or eight cylinders. Next we have the MPW Performance Holden boosted class for all cars with a Holden block that are supercharged or turbocharged. Then there’s the Tuff Mounts Outlaw class for everything else.

 How does the competition work? Every class is Dial Your Own, so there’ll be a few practice rounds, you pick your dial-in time and then race heads-up. Whoever strays the furthest from their dial-in time is out and last person standing wins their class and $500.

The final class is the cash class, and here’s where you could win some pretty serious coin. A hundred bucks gets you entry for this eighth-mile round; everyone who enters gets their name put into a hat and it’s a lucky dip as to who you’re racing. There will be as many rounds as necessary to whittle down the field (Todd reckons there’s around 20 guys interested at the moment) to two people who’ll race for the total prize pool – if there are 20 guys, that’s $2000 cash. This should be interesting!

 “We decided to go eighth-mile for the cash class just because it evens it up a little bit with the turbo guys,” Todd says. “We all know they can add in more power in the deep end and drive around the aspirated cars in a full quarter.”

Let’s have a look at a few of the pre-entered competitors.

 The MPW boys Adam Rogash and Luke Foley will both have their twin-turbo LS cars out to play. Adam’s NOSHOW ClubSport has gone 7.80@178mph and Luke’s alloy 6.0-litre VH Commodore has an 8.51@162mph pass to its name.

 Evan Pantelios is building this insane RB-powered VL Turbo to run sevens. Hopefully he’ll have the monster turbo combo finished come 6 May.

 One of the toughest Holden-powered cars will be Jamil Moukachar’s 363ci Vortech-supercharged VR HSV. It’s already made 800hp on the dyno with a soft tune; this thing should be a weapon.

 Jason Cowen from Queensland is bringing down his very tasty-looking LC Torana packing a carbied 440ci LSX motor. It’s seen 685rwhp on the dyno, so it should absolutely fly.

 Another tough Torana will be Dom Zito’s small-block Chev-powered 1TUFLJ. We saw this car running nines last weekend at the Calder Park APSA round and launching with the front wheels three feet in the air.

 Dom D’Agostino is bringing up his LX Torana hatch, which is powered by one of the toughest aspirated Holden motors we’ve ever seen. A few months ago we watched it pump out 700hp on the engine dyno!

 Dave Rogers has entered his eight-second big block-powered HK Monaro. Matthew Kernke is also bringing his stunning Monaro that runs a Holden 355 stroker combo.

 Brenden ‘Bubba’ Medlyn has also expressed interest in bringing his Torque Power-block twin-turbo VH Commodore out for a play. Bubba won Street Machine Drag Challenge last year by running low eights at every track, but he has since run his first seven-second pass!

 A bunch of other Drag Challenge veterans and really high-quality nine and 10-second street cars are also entered. Get around it; this is going to be a great day out.

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