Pegasus Bay Drag Racing Club’s season finishes on a high

Pegasus Bay Drag Racing Club held their final points meet for the 2015–’16 series on Sunday, April 10, at Ruapuna, Christchurch. A beautiful autumn day greeted racers and spectators, and racers were hoping for good ETs as a lot of work had gone into prepping the track, led by Trevor Tolhurst.

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It was great to see some of the racers we haven’t seen much of this season roll up for a great day’s racing. One of the largest fields of bikes that this season has seen was in attendance, with the presence of 32 bikes added to 53 street cars and 17 comp cars, which made for some great racing.

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Adam Thompson was back in FATBOX, and the wee Anglia van ran a best of 9.80 at 135mph for the day.

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Neroli Haughie put her T-bucket on the track for the first time. Starting with a 15-second-plus first run, her times improved with each pass, with her final run of the day being a 14.6.

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Simon Fowke had a scary moment during one of his runs. When he hit the gas, his ’57 Chev Funny Car decided to go hard left, taking out the timing equipment, but luckily avoiding the wall. The problem was put down to some spots of paint picked up on the left tyre. Simon came back and made two more great runs, the best being 7.20 at 197mph — enough for him to take out Top Comp for the day.

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Chris Duncan is always one to watch when laying down the rubber. His best run of the day in his Chev-powered pickup was a PB of 8.52 at 158mph.

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Lindsey Smith owns this very tidy LX Torana hatch, which is motivated by a 454ci big block Chev. The engine is set up to run nitrous, but at this stage it hasn’t been used. Running a best of 11.44 at 116mph for the day, he wasn’t afraid to fry the bags on it.

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Scott Tolhurst has been working on this fibreglass-bodied Toyota Soarer for awhile now, and while it’s not quite ready to race, he took the opportunity to do a few launches. The car is powered by a twin-turbo 1UZFE four-litre Toyota V8. Unfortunately, a tolerance issue in the diff saw an axle get friction-welded to the housing! The car will be one to watch amongst the import ranks when he gets it sorted.

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Greg Mulholland was out for the first time in his 383-powered Capri. After a couple of half-track passes, Greg pushed the Capri to a best of 10.93 at 119mph.

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Best burnout of the day had to go to Wayne Lawton in his Commodore wagon. Every time he came out, huge clouds of smoke soon followed.

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Sunday saw the staging lanes full for Street Car racing. With 53 entries, it was great to see so many at the last meeting of the season.

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And with that, the day and the season were over. Our thanks go out to all the volunteers that made it possible, and we look forward to being back later in the year to do it all over again.