The X-Champs is off to a flying start as several competitors set themselves up for a record setting weekend in the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship.
While Group 1 hits the track on Saturday, the teams of Groups 2, 3 and 4 put on a show during qualifying at Sydney Dragway with multiple records in danger of falling.
One of the most impressive runs of the day came from George Rehayem going under the BB/SC record by three tenths with a 6.353 at 217.21 mph on his first pass of the day.
“That’s a personal best for us and the car and we’re very happy, very excited,” said Rehayem.
“It was a pretty soft, easy run. The first run of the day normally is just to learn the track. The car was good, it behaved and it was a very smooth run.”
Image courtesy: Fred Dwyer
Competition also produced some fireworks as Kyle Putland smashed the A/A record of 6.872 and 187.99 mph with a wild 6.702 at 204.98 mph on his first foray outside of Western Australia.
“Of course there’s heaps more in it,” said Putland. “It’s gone 6.58 before at the Perth Motorplex.”
“We’re happy, top qualifier at the moment, the track is holding the car, the track is good. The crew is happy and we’ve got half the paper signed, we’ve just got to back it up in eliminations.”
Next to each other in the pits and in the qualifying standings, Alistair McClure did his best to keep up with Putland by going under the BB/AA record of 6.45 on three successive passes with a 6.428, 6.417 and finally a 6.383 at a record smashing 217.67 mph for good measure.
“We’re really happy with our qualifying position and to come to a track that we haven’t been to for a couple of years and go straight down the track, it’s great,” said McClure.
“We travelled 4000 kms, still got it down the track, the car is one piece and we just want to do really good on race day and fly the flag for the West Aussies.”
Image courtesy: dragphotos.com.au
In Modified Andrew Musgrave was another to better both ends of the AA/MA record of 6.550 at 209.82 mph with an excellent pass of 6.445 at 219.22 mph.
“We had Goodyear tyres on and that was the first pass with a new set of Hoosiers and it felt straight and smooth,” said Musgrave. “I even had time to glance around so it was a really good run, I knew it straight away.”
“We were very excited after the first run but the second one we broke the front wing and hit the center lines so we need to try and improve on that.”
In other action both Clint George and Darren Parker went under the B/APA record of 7.389 in Super Stock on a 7.35 for George and a 7.388 for current record holder Parker. In a manual B/AP Rob Nunn went under the 7.272 record with a 7.262.
Image courtesy: dragphotos.com.au
And finally Ross Smith went under his own C/AB record of 8.359 in Competition Bike on a 8.353 pass.
The action continues on Saturday when qualifying resumes in the Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship from 9:30 am. Qualifying for the ANDRA Drag Racing Series begins from 11:30 am.
For full provisional qualifying results please click here.
Images courtesy: Fred Dwyer (George Rehayem, Kyle Putland), dragphotos.com.au (Andrew Musgrave, Ross Smith)