In a departure from the past the Wanganui Road Rodders chose to run their Drags Anniversary meeting at Taupo Quay on the Saturday (February 27) and not the usual Sunday.
"And it's worked really well for us, good crowd and atmosphere," says Tristan Teki, club president for the past five years. "It's our one big event of the year and the whole club gets in behind it. A crew started on Friday at 1pm shifting gear into the site and laying the plastic barriers temporarily along the Taupo Quay one eight mile strip. We were back at 5.30am and closed the road at 6am. At 9am the first cars hit the track. We had 60 street cars, 10 Modified and four bikes to get through the qualifications so we are very happy with the entries."
On the day there was a keen enthusiasm to push through the qualifying rounds as rain was threatening in the afternoon. But the weather held off and the club was able to enjoy a great prizegiving that evening.
But not before the cleanup which took up to three hours. Forty-two years on one thing strikes you about this club, members all muck in to get the job done.
As one of the originals, Grant Rivers said, "In 1984 Ian McDonald came up with the idea for the local street drags and the club was started in 1985 with Tony Johnson as the first president. That first event was on Heads Rd and started at the old Bacon Factory. The next year it went from Emmetts up to the Bacon factory and in 2001 the event moved up to the current site on Taupo Quay. Ian Hooper and I have worked on every meeting but this is a very strong 'club event' with everyone mucking in and making sure it runs like clockwork."
And the timing clocks were working overtime as many drivers put up personal best (PBs) times on the strip, and entertained the crowd with plenty of great burnouts at the pre-stage to get their tyres sticky for the launch. The sound of screaming and roaring V8s certainly gave the crowd everything they came for.
Commentator was Gavin Doherty from the capital, the current NZDRA National Championship commentator who has an encyclopedic knowledge of all things drag racing and kept the crowd constantly informed on what the drivers and cars were doing as they launched down the strip. He filled out his time on the microphone with an interview with Grant Rivers about the current performances of the top cars in New Zealand, that are now doing 5.5sec standing quarters, with much chatter about the forthcoming 48th New Zealand Drag Nationals at Taupo on March 19-20. The Hot Rod Show producer and cameraman were on hand covering the event for their third series starting on March 17 on Face TV, Sky Channel 83. Fans can't wait till next year but considering we have such a strong motorcycle race culture in this town, we really do need more bikes at the next event.
RESULTS
Fastest Ford
1st Tony Baird , 8.011s, FJ Holden P/Van
2nd, Raj Patel, 8.07s, XW Falcon
3rd , Todd Hall, 8.374s, '70 Mustang FastBack
Fastest Chev
1st, Phill Goodin, 7.961s, '32 Roadster
2nd, Blair Ruby, 7.991s, HT Holden Ute
3rd , Tony Witinatara, 8.049s, HZ Holden Premier
Fastest Other
1st, Simon Carson, 7.929s, Commer Cob
2nd, Natalie Curley, 9.388s, VL Commodore
3rd , Karen Wood, 9.512s, Audi TT Coupe
