Victorian drivers Jason Maggs and Darren Parker are among the many teams from around the nation making the tow to Sydney Dragway this weekend in the search for Rocket Allstars Racing Series points.
Maggs will be bringing his supercharged Corvette to race in Competition while Parker looks to build on a runner up spot at the Westernationals with his Super Stock Pontiac.Maggs has recently signed a new major sponsor in Speedflow, but the lead in to the event hasn’t been all positive for the 29 year old racer.
“We went testing a few weeks ago down here in Victoria where things didn’t go quite as planned,” he said. “We had a number of little things go wrong on our first pass, which in turn lead to our weekend being ended early. “The new cylinder heads performed so well, with what used to be a really safe tune, and the exhaust temperatures soared too high and we ended up putting a hole in one of them.
“There’s nothing wrong with the heads themselves, it’s just that they performed way better than we had even hoped for, which is great news for us.”
Even with the problems encountered on the engine side of things, testing wasn’t a complete loss.
“We made a bunch of changes to the chassis set up which seemed to work quite well. The car reacted exactly how we had hoped. I guess Sydney will be the real test,” Maggs said.
Maggs explained the new major backer will enable the team to do more R&D with the car.
“Speedflow Performance Fittings are the perfect fit for our operation, as we are both continuously searching for the next performance advantage over our competition – something that never ends,” he said.
Maggs’ fellow Victorian Parker counted himself lucky to reach the final of the Westernationals recently with his transbrake malfunctioning.
“My driving style had to be adjusted to launch off the foot brake, but I treated it as a clutch pedal and remembered the days racing Super Street in my old VP Commodore and it all came together,” he said. “The only problem was getting enough heat into the tyres as I couldn’t cross the start line with no reverse gear. With short, sharp burnouts I didn’t get enough heat into the tyres in the final round and suffered a lot of wheelspin when I left the line.”
With the transbrake solenoid replaced and engine serviced Parker is heading to Sydney confident of a strong result.
“The Super Stock field this weekend is looking very tough with a large number of cars capable of running well under their records,” he said. “With cooler conditions and a well prepared track I’m hoping to lower my personal best and go a few rounds of racing to score some points in the Australian Super Stock championship.”
The ANDRA Pro Series featuring Top Doorslammer, Pro Stock, Pro Stock Motorcycle and the Rocket Allstars Racing Series is held on March 24 and 25 at Sydney Dragway.
Qualifying (Saturday) and racing (Sunday) both begin from 10am and tickets cost $35, with two day passes available for just $60.