GEORGE Hatzi has decades of drag-racing cred under his
belt, so when he rolled into DC piloting John Stoumbos’s
proven low eight-sec TT Cortina, everyone was keen to see
it run.
“My best pass to date is 8.03@173mph at Calder, but we
hoped to run sevens on DC,” George says. “Day One was
the first pass we’d done with the new tune. I ran 8.69 at
around160mph, pulled the ’chute and as it blossomed out,
the car shook then suddenly over-revved. All I could think was
what’s happened here?”
The current thought is that the ‘box shifted back to first, but
it’s speculation at this point. And with bent exhaust valves
striking the pistons, things weren’t good.
“John and I spoke about our options and I think the heat
made us park it,” George says, adding, “Since DC I’ve pulled
the car apart. Competition Engines built the motor so they’re
checking the engine over to make sure it’s all good.”
Under the hood of the ’74 Corty is a 378ci Windsor, running
a Dart block, steel crank, AFR heads and a pair of Garret
turbos, producing a whopping 1184rwhp on the dyno.
“I was looking forward to DC and had worked so hard on the
car to get it there. Then we fell short and only did one pass.
We’re definitely entering again; it’s unfinished business!”
GEORGE HATZI AND
JOHN STOUMBOS
s.his
’sTOP FIVE BLOW-UPS
IN DRAG RACING there are few things
worse that the sudden, empty silence that
surrounds a car on the start line in the
seconds after a major driveline blow-up.
You see the car approach the line and
its driver stage for the run; the start-line
lights drop through the yellows toward the
green light and BOOM... bits of metal fly
everywhere and then... Ssshhh.
Spectators know it’s real bad when fluids
start flooding the ground under the car.
That’s when you know it’s time to put the
car on a trailer, go home and cry.
We saw a bit of that at Drag Challenge
this year. Thankfully we also witnessed
some not-quite-as-disastrous blow-ups
that – thanks to equal measures of luck
and good preparation – were able to be
repaired so participants could continue.
Here are five of Drag Challenge 2017’s
most significant blow-ups!1: COREY READ’S XF FALCON
(Haltech Radial Blown)
YOU gotta feel for Corey Read. His
Holden LS1 V8-swapped, turbocharged
XF Ford Falcon was DC17’s first casualty,
on the first day, on Corey’s first run,
before lunch! It looked a forlorn sight, up
on chassis stands in the paddock with
its sump removed, testament to Corey’s
investigations of a death rattle in his
520rwkW engine. Silver glitter in the oilindicated a probable bearing failure due to
oil surge. Thankfully Corey didn’t have far
to go home – and returned in a drive car to
spectate for the week. He’ll be back next
year... with a baffled sump!2: MARK BARBER’S LJ TORANA
(K&N Dial Your Own)
IF YOU can hear power tools in the
paddock, you know someone’s probably
not having a good day. And so it was for
Mark Barber when two of the three bolts on
his turbo, injected 186-powered Torana’s
torque convertor let go on his first-ever
run at Drag Challenge. He dropped the
’box and replaced the flex-plate allowing
him to limp the car the car to each track,
despite his 4L60E auto’s damaged input
shaft. After the 1500km trek, he installed a
wrecking-yard ’box on Friday... but it blew,
too. Not one good run – but he finished his
first-ever DC. That’s the spirit, mate.3: KIM SMITH’S VE MALOO
(K&N Dial Your Own)
KIM Smith’s supercharged VE Maloo spat
a driveshaft at Mildura. In an incredible
stroke of luck, Mildura is the home of
high-performance Holden tuners Corsa
Specialized [sic] Vehicles and CSV
just happened to have a ute driveshaft
complete with the dampener on the shelf.
By fitting the new dampener to the old
shaft in the pits at Mildura, Kim was able
to limp her Maloo to CSV’s hoist whereshe fitted the new shaft with relative ease,
allowing her to complete Drag Challenge
and drive home to NSW.4: DUSTY BENSON’S COMMODORE
(Haltech Radial Blown)
DUSTY Benson launched for his first
Friday run at Adelaide in his sleeper-spec
LS turbo VC Commodore and – BOOM!- the nine-inch diff let go. Before being
flung onto the track, the broken tailshaft
belted the driver’s side rear foot-well to
almost level with the trans tunnel and later
inspection showed the gearbox had torn
the back off the LS V8’s alloy block, too.
So, the diff and engine are rooted but
Dusty reckons his big-buck C10 trans
survived the holocaust.
5: JOSH GRANT’S VB COMMODORE
(Turbosmart Outlaw Blown)
LAST year, Tasmanian Josh Grant arrived
at Drag Challenge in his Holset-blown V6
Commodore that he’d driven from Perth
on a holiday with his dad. True! This year
he was back with a quicker, faster car...
that let go of its tailshaft on the final day.
Josh managed to patch up the tailshaft
by rebuilding the rear uni but the next run
revealed the tailshaft was bent and out of
balance... it was trailer time. Back home in
Tassie, Josh discovered the two-piece tail-
shaft’s centre CV joint was on its last legs
too, and wouldn’t have survived another hit
from the transbraked Powerglide.