Beautiful one day and perfect the next. A saying that has gone hand in hand with Queensland for decades now. Unfortunately the 21st of March saw overcast skies and afternoon thunderstorms forecast over Willowbank raceway as some of the toughest and baddest street cars filled the lanes for battle.
The progression in APSA is unlike most drag racing events with the majority of cars being current or ex full body street cars with full interiors, metal guards and bonnets and in a lot of cases standard suspension pickup points with strict rules on how much the wheelbase and track can change. One particular standout was Steve Bezzina’s Dandy race engine supported XW Falcon (pictured below) running a [email protected] mph on radials at nearly 3500 pounds. With numbers like that it wont be long till we see Steve breaking the 200mph barrier.
The highlight for me personally is Modified 10.5, This bracket just goes from strength to strength with racers building and debuting new cars nearly every season. This year all the talk is of Dom Luppino’s insane Mustang. This car is the ex Jason Enos from the states and had it been set in competition its testing pass at 6.66 @213mph would have been a new record.
Another hugely impressive 10.5 car is that of Nikki Hepburn. With consistent 6 second passes at over 200mph.
Unfortunately rain interrupted the meeting and eventually saw it cut short. If you haven’t seen an APSA event in the flesh I highly recommend you attend one of the rounds. The success and passion for this event is simple. This is the last frontier for tough street cars that is encompassing all aspects of what’s at the cutting edge of the sport. The racers here turn up and want to race. The passion and professionalism of the organisers, teams and drivers are what will make this event continue to be successful in the future.
All images are available at www.dragphotos.com.au
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