The first round of the 2014 ANDRA Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship was scheduled to start at Fuch’s South Coast Raceway in Portland Victoria this past weekend with some 140 odd competitors making their way to the South West corner of Victoria to try and get an early advantage in 2014.

Portland is well known for its excellent racing surface, sea level air and as a place where many racers have set PB’s over the eighth mile. The only thing not in our favor was the weather forecast. To say it was bad would have been an understatement but the crew at South Coast Raceway was determined to give it a go no matter what.

Unfortunately the weather was to play a more significant role in the event than everyone had hoped. Qualifying was delayed by 2 hours after showers hit the track early followed by another just as the track crew were getting ready to call the cars into the lanes following the first attempt at drying the surface.

Once racing got under way, the track certainly lived up to its reputation as being one of the best tracks in the country. Several racers commented on how good the racing surface was considering the relative temperatures (somewhere in the mid teens) coupled with a strong tail wind.

On top of the environmental factors, we had three recently crowned ANDRA national champions spread amongst the classes ensuring that everyone brought their A game to Portland.

The strong tailwind caught some of the drivers off guard with numerous racers going deep into the breaking area none more so than Shane Baxter who found himself getting a close up look at the safety net after his chute failed to blossom, resulting in him hitting the net head on at an estimated 100 MPH.

The incident gave everyone an anxious moment or two before both he and his record setting CC/AA emerged virtually unscathed. Amazingly not only did the net do its job in stopping the 190+mph rocket, but it also looked after the car with minimal cosmetic damage allowing the CC/AA altered  to continue in the event.

Unfortunately Baxter’s incident was quite mild when compared with what happened later in the day. The first pair out in Q2 of Super Charged Outlaws saw Mick Mahoney up against Ryan Van Dyk. Unfortunately it all went wrong for Mahoney with the car taking a sharp left hand turn at approximately the 330 foot mark impacting the wall in the opposite lane.

While upside down the Capri then bounced off the wall almost into the path of Van Dyk before righting itself and coming to rest in the breaking area. Fortunately Mahoney was able to quickly exit the car himself and was taken to the hospital for observation and later released with some bruising to his legs.

This incident caused severe damage to the safety barrier, which would take considerable time to rectify so the days activities were done for the day to allow the necessary repairs to be carried out.

With the weather forecast looking a little worse for Sunday it was a pleasant surprise to see clear skies but the strong winds were still present playing a major factor in what happened next. Racing got under way on time and the Junior Dragsters were the first bracket out, unfortunately everyone could all see what was coming and knew that the rain was going to hit hard.

After completing the first round of Junior Dragster and a few pairs of Super Street, our worst fear was realised as the heavens opened up without relief resulting in organisers having no alternative, but to abandon the event.

While everyone was very disappointed that the weather got the better of racing  there was nothing but praise for all the staff at Fuchs South Coast Raceway for doing everything possible to get as much racing in as possible despite the trying conditions.

The ANDRA Aeroflow Sportsman Drag Racing Championship now heads west to the Perth Motorplex hosting the next round of the series this coming weekend.

Image and words courtesy Darren Bingham