Day Of The Drags 2010 22 May, 2010 Sydney Dragway As the clouds loomed dark over Western Sydney, fears of another rainout eclipsed the minds of racers. Lining up at the gates of Sydney Dragway in the cold early morning fears were allayed as the gates opened and the darkest clouds dissipated. Day Of The Drags 2010 was set to go for its fifth year of Do-It-Yourself grass roots drag racing for Hot Rods, HAMBsters, Classics and other early cars. A first for this year was the inclusion of the Sidevalve Shooutout. A challenge to find Australias fastest flathead powered hotrods. The rules are simple: full bodied pre 49, no centre steer, no dragster chassis and a sidevalve engine blown or naturally aspirated. Win it and take home a share of two grand prize money! Keeping to the proven and much liked format, the day would begin with continuous rounds from the morning to lunch. Following lunch would be eliminations and a Chicago Shootout format for the Sidevalve Shootout. In between rounds, eliminated racers could still compete in grudge racing. This format ensures that all entrants can run as many passes as they can fit in to the day. The first of over 220 rounds of racing began with Damien Watson (350 Chev powered 1939 Ford Pick Up) and Neville McClelland (1948 Ford Anglia with a Ford 307) warming up the track with a 106mph pass. Just twelve minutes into racing saw Louise McNiff in the Scrap Metal Cortina get out of the groove at about 60 feet sliding to the right then taking a hard left into the wall, with the throttle jammed open from the collision she rocketed across the track slamming hard into the right hand wall. We all wish Louise well and wait to see her back at the track. Racing resumed with Lenny Hoskins 1967 HR Ute against Debbie Rodriquezs HAMBster, with Lenny taking the win with an 11.141 @ 118mph. Eric Worner, making his first ever pass on a dragstrip in the 295ci Ford flathead powered 1947 SoCal Special pulled a perfect 0.000sec reaction time, taking out the Road Runner Models trophy for Best Reaction Time. The trophy is awarded to the best reaction time, or in the case of a draw, the driver who did it first. Coral Dyer made use of the day by starting her licensing in her new A/MD dragster. Coral Stepped up from her HAMBster into the alcohol dragster to perform a few launches, a stout burnout and her first full pass. It was somewhat of a treat for competitors and spectators to see the dragster at the Day Of The Drags. Eliminations, the Sidevalve Shootout and grudge racing kicked off after lunch. Flathead/Supercharged Andy Minas in the blown 286ci 1932 Ford Coupe battled Nathan Cowie in his force fed 300ci 1932 Roadster. Nathan took the first round 14.714 @ 86.14mph to Andys 16.858 @ 83.23mph. Cowie made it two from two with a 13.610 @ 92.95mph and Minas running 16.711 @ 77.24mph. Flathead/Aspirated Round 1: Wes Griffiths getting the red lights out of the way on a bye run with a 20.903 @ 61.99mph in his 4 banger Model A Roadster Pick Up with possible the skinniest rear tyres ever seen on a dragstrip. Paul Contos took his 1928 Ford Roadster for 17.309 @ 78.03mph for the win over George Livas in the 1927 Ford Coupe with an 18.273 @ 72.87mph. Eric Worner in the SoCal special took the win with a 14..006 @ 95.49mph over Ashley Swifts 1928 Ford Tourer who ran a 17.255 @ 78.74mph. Round 2: Eric Worner took the 2<sup>nd</sup> round win with a 14.143 @ 95.69mph over Livas 18.133 @ 73.05mph. Paul Contos running a 16.684 @ 80.42mph overcame Griffiths 20.861 @ 61.53mph for his 2<sup>nd</sup> win of the competition. Ashley Swift got the bye round and ran a 16.691 @ 78.49mph. Round 3: Eric Worner made his first mistake of the day pulling up the red light, luckily he had a bye and still saw the points with a 15.958 @ 72.35mph. George Livas took the win a 18.155 @ 73.06mph over Griffiths with a 20.251 @ 62.74mph. A 16.085 @ 82.00mph gave Paul Contos the win over Ashley Swift with a 17.052 @ 77.95mph. The final saw Eric Worner against Paul Contos with 3 wins each. Contos tripped the lights first with a 0.406 light against Worners 0.616, but the SoCal Special crossed the line with a 14.127 @ 94.84mph ahead of Contos with 16.574 @ 79.92mph. Eliminations Round 3 of eliminations saw the field down to 9 cars. John Kerr (1964 Mercury Comet, 302 Windsor) got the bye running 12.945 @ 104.11mph. Next up were Nick Koroneos (1970 Ford XY, Cleveland 351) with a 11.758 @ 115.53mph over Matthew Black (1970 Torana, 202ci) on a 13.759 @ 89.74mph. Michael Circi (1968 Holden HK, 383 Chev) took the win with a 11.629 @ 104.20mph over Tom Fittlers (1967 HR Ute, Holden 202ci) 13.470 @ 84.92mph. Finally Henry Spicak (1956 VW Beetle, 138ci) ran a 12.358 @ 106.82mph to take the win from Craig Dixon (1971 Holden Monaro, 383ci Chev) with a 11.581 @ 115.06mph. The Semi Finals saw Kerr take the win with a 13.040 @ 100.93mph while Circi broke out with a 11.467 @ 118.49 on a 11.51 dial in. Spicak defeated Koroneos with a 12.554 @ 106.29mph and 11.741 @ 115.69mph respectively. John Kerr took the win from the start line running the Comet to a 12.951 @ 99.61mph when Henry Spicak lifted the VWs wheels out of the traps 0.020sec before the green, finishing the pass with a 12.700 @ 99.38mph. The winners of the Sidevalve Shootout classes took home $750 each and the runners up $250 along with the winners holding the perpetual trophies until the Day Of The Drags 2011. The trophies are sidevalve heads, the aspirated class being a Kong head donated by Mike Davidson and the supercharged class being a head from Warren Goodalls blown 32 Tudor. John Kerr got himself $500 cash courtesy of Shannons Insurance along with the win for eliminations and Henry Spicak took home the bucket of gold coins for runner up. All winners received trophies donated and fabricated by Daniel & Michelle Ind from Plastix. The Redneck Scroungers (Qld) also awarded a trophy to the competitor of their choice. They awarded it to Damien Kemp who brought up the Funderbolt gasser, a 1964 Ford Compact Fairlane, all the way from Victoria. And who could miss it? Damien was on the track more than off, running consistent low 11s. Day Of The Drags website: http://www.dayofthedrags.net Full gallery can be found here: http://www.hotrodmattimages.com/eventgals/dotd2010/
Great pics Matt and what a great day of racing,The sidevalve shootout what a sight to behold and those two gassers matching it up was a hoot QQ
Great Pics, thanks for posting them. I had a great day, saw some great consistant racing. The acrobatic plane over the other track turned a few heads for a while and I for one thought it was going to crash. Thank goodness it didn't rain, though I did see a couple of Polar bears walk by shivering. Thanks for the hard work & effort to all involved, this year I was a guest spectator, hopefully next year I'll be racing in the shootout Thanks again Bob
Great pics and story Matt, thanks to all who came an participated in a great day, look forward to more of the same next March 26.....be there. What's not to love.... Cheers, Drewfus
Nice pics as usual Matt. Thanks Joe well done and i will be back next year. Rat get your arse up here next year it is a great day.
great pics matt. Thanks for snapp'n away and throwing up the pics. and to Joe and crew who put the event on so you can snap away!
Wow Matt, great photos ... but I think the negatives must have been backwards or something 'cause the drivers were all on the wrong side !!??!! You guys have some great cars Down Unda !!!
Thanks Matt, big coverage, cool pics. Nice to see that Black 5 window, is it the one the Hoodoo Gurus used in a promo years ago? Wow- factor Loaded flathead. Old Holdens - appreciate the V8 way. Diggin' the panel van- built for speed, not comfort ?!?..
Those are great photos, thanks for posting them. You had some wild and wonderful cars at that event, I wish that I'd been there.
Great photo's Matt. The Black & Whites looked fantastic. Had a few old Holden's, the tough FX looked cool, brought back memories..
Thanks for the comments guys, appreciated. The Day Of The Drags was covered on television last night. Great too see some of the competitors getting some air!
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