Drag Challenge Weekend winner runs a seven

Mark Van Der Togt's twin-turbo XW Falcon cracks the seven-second zone

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THE story of our first-ever Drag Challenge Weekend winner was one hell of a tale.

Mark Van Der Togt’s ride is a full-weight XW Falcon, powered by a twin-turbo small block Ford. Leaf sprung and putting the power down through a set of 275 radials, Mark and his Falcon took on some of the fastest street cars in the land over three days and came out of top.

He pulled it off despite a couple of scary moments in the deep end, including one on the last day that saw him give the wall a couple of taps. Undeterred, Mark and his crew gave the car makeover in the pits and were able to drive home at the end of the event.

 In addition to winning the Drag Challenge Weekend, team Van Der Togt also clocked a new PB on day one, to the tune eight-seconds flat at 169mph. Time, track conditions and those deep-end handling issues prevented Mark from gunning for the seven-second zone during the event, but now he’s done it! Still wearing it’s DCW battle scars, the XW was back at Willowbank Raceway on Saturday night, recording a 7.961-second pass at 168mph.

“The car was running exactly the same tune as we had in it at Drag Challenge,” says Mark’s son Josh. “We dropped the front end down 40mm and swapped the rear springs side to side and that settled it right down. After that pass we put another couple of pounds of boost in it, but by that time the track had gone off [laughs]. That could be it for us in terms of chasing times, we’ll see what happens.”

We did a cool profile video on Mark and his XW, check it out here.

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