What do New Zealand drag racers do during the cold wet winter months when racing is not possible? Well the majority work on their machinery, save their dollars to attack the strip when the new season arrives.There are a few exceptions to this rule, one being the lure of speed and a record on the Bonneville Salt Flats in the northern hemispheres summer. NZDRA Modified Bike champion Alan Thoresen has made this trip a few times with his versatile Castrol sponsored  Kawasaki ZX-14 Black Thunder and this trip will also see NZDRA Competition bike champion Dean Veale on his Hayabusa Special take to the salt. I’m sure Alan has alerted Dean to the pitfalls of running on the salt as traction is one of the major variables when racing on that type of surface. Let’s hope these racers do well on the salt flats and return to defend their NZ championship titles. 

One surface that will not be lacking traction is Willowbank and two kiwis will be representing NZ at the opening round of the Australian drag racing championships. Nearly a resident of Australia is the Rod Harvey, Terry Bowden tuned Rayglass Boats Toyota Celica running in the Super Compact division. The boys did very well in the ANDRA championship last season when rain cancelled a couple of meetings they could not attend, this year however the plan is to try and bring a gold ANDRA christmas tree back to NZ without it being for the Top Bike division! 

The other vehicle racing at Willowbanks Alcohol Champs is Chris Tynan’s Century Batteries supported 55 Chevrolet. Tynan raced in the inaugural T/D division when it started back in 1996, qualified in the field and ran the first 6 for a NZ built sedan. This April Chris was approached by Victor Bray with a possible position within his race team. Victor on seeing the car and its performance thought it had a shoot at being competitive and so a co-op of the first two meetings in the ANDRA series will test the waters for performance and additional funding to contest the ANDRA championship.The 55 although based on the Australian Top Doorslammer regulations must still go through an acceptance procedure with the ANDRA tech department before getting the final OK to race in T/D.    Although this may be seen to be a loss to NZ drag racings T/D class it does however allow Chris the opportunity to race his car and return to NZ to aid in the operations of the major race events within the NZDRA championship. The absence of three of the top NZ Doorslammers this season may allow others in the doorslammer division development time to perfect their combinations. NZDRA