Bluey back on home turf.
Racing in front of a home crowd will be a unique advantage for Adelaide drag racer Phil Howard when he competes in the Pro Series 1000 at Adelaide International Raceway on April 13, 14 and 15.
Howard rides in the Pro Stock Motorcycle division, where his Kawasaki accelerates to 270kmh in just six seconds, and is looking forward to showing off his skills to a parochial audience who have not seen championship drag racing in over a decade.
“It’s great for Adelaide to have championship drag racing back, they’ve been starved and the fans are like hungry lions at the moment waiting,” he said. “We’ve done thousands of kilometres in travel over the last few years and to be able to just drive 50 kilometres down the road will be great.
“We (the team) were laughing saying we’ll have to drive to the border and back just to make it feel like we are going to a drag racing event.”
Howard currently sits third in the ANDRA Pro Series, reaching one final so far this season. A faulty gearbox cost him dearly in the last round of the championship in Sydney, failing to shift into fourth gear and resulting in a first round loss.
“Sometimes things just don’t work out, we had a bit of a delay in parts and I didn’t get a chance to make a qualifying run to help sort the gearbox,” he said “We were that close, all we needed was to get into fourth gear and going by the way everyone else was running we might have won the meeting.
“Now we are ironing out all the bugs and at home on Adelaide International Raceway we would like to do well.”
Running over the new 1000 feet format, unique to Adelaide, will be suited to the Pro Stock Motorcycles which do most of their acceleration in the first half of the track.
“Anything in the low six second zone would be a good start and speed will be a guess, I would say somewhere around 270kph on a decent run,” Howard predicted.
Howard will be competing against a star studded field including reigning champion Maurice Allen, Sydney finalist Michael Gilbertson and young gun Lachlan Ireland.
The Pro Series 1000 (April 13, 14 and 15) at Adelaide International Raceway will feature ANDRA Pro Series rounds of Top Fuel, Top Alcohol, Top Bike and Pro Stock Motorcycle plus over 200 sportsman racers.
Racing starts from 10am Friday and Saturday and 9am Sunday and tickets are available at the gate for just $35.
Click here for more information on the Pro Series 1000.
Image courtesy Grant Stephens/cacklingpipes.com.