This is where the action happens! Drag racing in the upper North Island rests at one sole venue — Meremere Dragway — and the circus that was the Nationals weekend (January 28–29), headed down to the dragway after the show portion of the event to put a few myths to bed. Although most of the cars entered for Sunday didn’t end up being from the show, for obvious reasons that you’ll understand whenyou reach the gallery below, there was still a scattering of cars that had made their way down to give it a whirl.
If you’ve never been to the Nats drags, or any of the other local drag events, we suggest you tick it off the list — it always reminds you of just how quick some of the times being run really are. Internet squabbles over times have built up a false sense of rocket-ship builds that turn out to be something more suited to the seas way back when. The day saw a succession of low 11s — which by all means is absolutely nothing to be spat at — and a scattering of 10s, nines, eights, and even a seven-second pass.
There were a few stoppages throughout, the most noteable being an incident involving Robbie Ward of RIPS Racing after MEGAWOT III varied a hard right across the opposing lane, slamming into the wall hard and fast — evident in the fact that the shoot wasn’t pulled until after the initial impact, resulting in some distance being travelled.
Robbie posted on his Facebook page regarding the incident, “Hard right turn square into the wall in MW3. Not sure exactly what happened. In hospital with burst ear drums and skull fractures from the impact. Car is pretty bad I hear but that can be repaired. Really got to thank the safety safari, ambulance team, Angie, Spook, Jason, Fenton, and everyone else who has helped out.”
As for the car itself, the front absorbed the majority of the hit and it may be the right opportunity for him to do that tube-frame front cut he’s been talking about.
On a happier note, here are the winners of their respective classes:
C1 4WD Turbo
Winner: Dave Duncan – Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32) – 11.404 @ 105.40mph
Runner-up: Rynal Kumar – Subaru WRX – 12.920 @ 104.83mph
C2 2WD Turbo
Winner: Daniel Paterson – Nissan Skyline (R32) – 11.783 @ 123.61
Runner-up: Ajay Kumar – Honda – 11.559 @ 127.45
C3 All Motor N/A
Winner: Ronald Prasad – Honda Civic – 12.492 @ 110.81
Runner-up: Mohammed Rahiman – Honda Civic – 12.927 @ 103.52
C4 Quick V8s
- Winner: Phil Hunter – Ford Falcon – 11.469 @ 91.93mph
- Runner-up: Daniel Manson – Nissan Skyline – 13.862 @ 89.88mph
C6 Dial your own
- Winner: Craig Hedley – 9.518 @ 143.08
- Runner-up: Mike Hidalgo – 13.698 @ 103.92
C8 King of the street
Winner: Oshana Solaka – Mazda 323 – 10.658 @ 134.12
Runner-up: Azhar Bhamji / Craig Dyson – Mazda R100 – 9.829 @ 122.80
Competition
Winner: Michael Franklin – ’66 Pontiac GTO – 7.953 @ 173.32
Runner-up: Jeremy Hewson – Toyota Starlet (13B) – 9.151 @ 148.71
Sport Compact
Winner: Jason Horn – Mitsubishi Lancer – 8.820 @ 156.73
Runner-up: Suheib Kareem – Mitsubishi Mirage – 10.180 @ 136.47
We could keep going on and on about how awesome the day was, but we’ll let this huge gallery do the rest of the talking for us. Enjoy!
